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Has Derrick Brooks Lost A Step?

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By ROY CUMMINGS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 16, 2007

TAMPA - It started a couple of years ago, with a handful of critics speaking mostly in hushed tones, none of them willing to say out loud what they were obviously thinking.

After a year, the voices grew louder. So did the collection of critics. Then came last Sunday's season opener. By the time it was over, the question was on almost everyone's mind.

Has Derrick Brooks lost a step? And if not, how do you explain the 34-year-old linebacker's performance in the second half of the Bucs' 20-6 loss to the Seahawks at Qwest Field?

It wasn't the best 30 minutes of football Brooks has put on tape the last few years. Any objective observer will tell you that. There were mistakes, the kind Brooks seemed incapable of making three or four years ago:

•First-and-10, ball at the Seattle 32, 2:40 left, third quarter - Matt Hasselbeck hits Shaun Alexander with a short pass in the right flat; Brooks misses Alexander in the open field; Alexander gains 12 yards to the 44.

•Third-and-5, ball at the Tampa Bay 34; 8:01 left in the game - Maurice Morris streaks down the left sideline on a go route, Brooks in pursuit; Brooks loses sight of the ball; Morris drifts by and catches a 34-yard touchdown pass.

•Third-and-7, ball at the Seattle 24; 2:52 left in the game - Alexander runs up the middle and veers left; Brooks chases but can't catch him; finally, Will Allen takes Alexander down after a 22-yard gain.

Ask Brooks about these plays and the critics' claims and he says what you expect him to say. He says he hasn't lost a step. He says he hasn't lost anything.

Not everyone agrees.

A scouting report in Sports Illustrated's NFL season preview issue quotes an 'opposing team's scout' as saying Brooks 'is getting long in the tooth' and has been 'way overrated for a while.'

Another scouting report, this one filed by the Sporting News' War Room, says Brooks is starting to 'falter' in running situations and is not as agile as he once was.

Finally, ESPN's Scouts Inc. says Brooks is a player with 'declining skills and ability.'

To that, ESPN analyst and former All-Pro linebacker Tom Jackson says, no kidding.

'No one gets to the ball as quickly in their 13th year as they once did,' said Jackson, who spent 14 years playing for the Denver Broncos before jumping into the analyst's chair. 'That's just a fact of life. But in Derrick's case, he's still so fundamentally sound and he's so smart that he can still get to where he needs to be just as quickly as he used to. He just doesn't do it with pure speed anymore.'

Brooks, who has made the Pro Bowl a club-record 10 consecutive years, is rallying now. His supporters are fighting back. Most of them are too close to Brooks to be totally objective, but there's a balance to their argument that lends validity to it.

'No, he's not the guy he was when he came out of college,' Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber said of Brooks. 'But he's still great. And you never doubt the great ones.'

The great ones. Brooks still can be listed among them. Those scouting reports that say he's declining physically say so. They say he's smarter and more fundamentally sound than ever and still as capable as ever of making a big play.

But why lean on them? Go back to the tape of the opener at Seattle and lean on that. There's no more objective source, and it supports Brooks' side of the argument as much as it does the critics':

•First-and-10, ball at the 50, 13:23 remaining, first quarter - Alexander runs off tackle to his right and runs directly into Brooks. Brooks stands firm and stops Alexander for a 1-yard gain.

•Third-and-1, ball at the Seattle 36, 6:33 left, first quarter - Alexander runs up the middle behind the left guard; Brooks reads the play, stuffs the gap and stops Alexander for no gain.

•Third-and-7, ball at the Tampa Bay 7, 2:57 left, first half - Alexander runs a sweep to his right; Brooks reads the play again and drops Alexander for a 3-yard loss, forcing the Seahawks to settle for a field goal.

That last one left Fox game analyst Brian Baldinger, another former NFL player, wowed. He has heard the critics too, and what he had seen of Brooks over two quarters of play had him convinced they were wrong.

'For anyone who thinks Derrick Brooks has slowed down in his 13th year, well, he just hunted down Shaun Alexander,' Baldinger told his audience. 'What a half Brooks has had.'

Four days later, Brooks has been backed into a corner - literally. A media swarm four rows deep has him backed into his corner stall in the Bucs locker room and the questions are coming at him as hard as Alexander did.

He understands the line of questioning. That collection of critics has grown. Fans and radio talk-show hosts aren't whispering anymore. They're wondering out loud now if that second half was a portent of things to come.

'All you can do is put your plays down and show it on film,' Brooks said. 'You can't talk a play; you have to make a play. And like I said, for every bad thing people say, I can give them two or three good things I did.'

He's not exaggerating. Brooks missed a tackle or failed to make a play in three or four situations against the Seahawks last week. He finished the game, though, with eight tackles, third most on the team.

That said, it's still not good enough. The scoreboard says so. So does Brooks. But Brooks also will tell you that he's seldom at his best this early in the season.

The lack of playing time allotted to the starters in the preseason and the fact the Bucs don't tackle in practice leaves him a little rusty in that area. That's not an excuse, Brooks says; it's just the facts. The tape backs him up:

•First-and-10 for the Seahawks at their own 41, 10:47 left in the game - Hasselbeck hits Alexander with a short pass; Brooks bounces off Alexander, but he recovers and pushes him out of bounds. No gain.

'He's still a heck of a football player,' Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin said. 'There comes a time when some people can't play anymore, but that's not true of Derrick Brooks. He can still play, and he's still good.

'I don't believe he's lost a step. I don't believe he's slowed down. Yeah, there were a couple plays where he missed the tackle, but it's not the first time he's done that. He'll bounce back. He always does.'

The great ones always do.

Reporter Roy Cummings can be reached at (813) 259-7979 or rcummings@tampatrib.com.

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