By Rich Tandler
By most accounts, free agent signee Oshiomogho Atogwe had a disappointing debut season. The free safety came over from the Rams as one of the league’s top defensive backs in terms of forcing turnovers. But he fought injuries all year and finished the year with just three interceptions and no forced fumbles.
Atogwe, however, did have a very good year in one respect. The Redskins secondary has been notorious for poor tackling in the past but Atogwe brought that up a notch this year, according to Pro Football Focus.
The website tallied missed tackles by safeties and found that Atogwe missed no tackles while playing in pass coverage. There were nine safeties that also had no misses in coverage and Atogwe had the second-most tackle attempt in that group. Only the Cowboys’ Abram Elam with 37 had more coverage tackles without a miss than Atogwe’s 23.
Atogwe also fared well when looking at how sure the league’s safeties were in all tackle attempts. He was 17th in the league in tackle efficiency. He missed just four of 46 attempts, meaning that he missed one tackle in every 11.5 attempts.
The Redskins hope that Atogwe can return to full health this year and start creating turnovers like he did in St. Louis. But at its basics, football is about blocking and tackling and Atogwe appears to be in good shape on the latter end of that.
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