Dolphins Cameron Wake great but not the best

When Jason Taylor was voted into the Pro-football Hall of Fame many began talking about his legacy. When Cameron Wake signed his extension many began talking about his legacy as well. Jason Taylor weighed in on Wake saying he was the best pass rusher he had seen.

That might be true. Wake is a beast of a defensive end and credit has to go to Jeff Ireland for bringing him to Miami from the CFL. When Wake is at his best he is almost unstoppable but teams have found ways to keep Wake off their quarterbacks.

Wake however is not a well-rounded defender. He is a fantastic pass rusher but he struggles setting the edge with regular consistency and struggles at times in pass coverage as well. Seriously though when you think of Cam Wake it’s not his run stopping ability or pass coverage that comes to mind.

In 2016 Wake returned from an Achilles injury in 2015 and looked younger than in previous seasons. The Dolphins had slated him to be a 3rd down specialist but injuries and poor play by the other DE’s moved Wake once again into the three down player he had been and he didn’t disappoint.

If Jason Taylor believes that Wake is the best in Dolphins history then it has to be true correct? Well maybe not.

First of all there is the modest Jason Taylor making that claim and Taylor would never put himself above another. Period. That’s just how he is. So we are all left to make that determination and frankly there is no comparison between the two. It’s probably a little closer than “no comparison” but Taylor’s HOF career is still statistically better than Wake by quite a wide margin.

Instead, let’s compare Wake to some of the other Dolphins defensive ends in history.

Wake ranks 2nd on the Dolphins career sack leaders list. He has 81.5 and will add to that in the next two or three seasons. He will not catch Taylor’s 131 as a Dolphin. Nor will he be surpassed by the next three who have long since retired from the NFL.

Bill Stanfill is third with 67 1/2 followed by “Killer B’s” Doug Betters at 65 1/2 and finally Vern Den Herder with 64. The similarities between all three and Wake are interesting.

Stanfill and Vern Den Herder each had 5 sacks in one game. Stanfill did it twice. Vern Den Herder also had three games of registering four sacks. Doug Betters also had a four game sack count. Wake? Wake has had one game with 4.5 and one with four. Impressive but it doesn’t make Wake necessarily the best.