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'One of the toughest warriors the NFL has ever seen': Patrick Willis is a Hall of Famer at last
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- 'One of the toughest warriors the NFL has ever seen': Patrick Willis is a Hall of Famer at last
Steve Doerschuk studied the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2024 from an Ohio perspective. Inside linebacker Patrick Willis played eight NFL seasons (2007-14), all with the 49ers.
Relative to the vast majority of the Browns' expansion era , a good time was had by all in 2007.
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In the ninth season since the return — the original Browns were hijacked to Baltimore — head coach Romeo Crennel's team won a few thrillers and put up a 10-6 record.
That may not sound like much, but it was a lot for an outfit that went 40-88 from 1999-2006.
The '07 Browns closed with a win over San Francisco , Patrick Willis's team. In the final game of his rookie season, the new force out of Ole Miss made 12 tackles and sacked quarterback Derek Anderson .
Not that Browns fans cared, as they waited to see if the win put Cleveland in the playoffs (it didn't, unfortunately), but in San Francisco, Willis was the bright spot of a 5-11 year. He led the NFL with 174 tackles.
Patrick Willis, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2024, greets fans during a visit to the Hall of Fame. Friday, May 24, 2024.
Browns General Manager Phil Savage was in a playful mood before the '07 campaign began.
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Days before the draft, Savage popped into the media room with a Hall of Fame grin on his face and the No. 3 overall pick in his pocket.
He met the eyes of several writers and asked, "Who would you take?"
The only two answers that came back were Wisconsin left tackle Joe Thomas and Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson . Nobody mentioned Willis.
Savage landed Thomas, after the Raiders took LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell and the Lions plucked Georgia Tech receiver Calvin Johnson .
Thomas was a member of the Hall of Fame Class of 2023.
Peterson got picked at No. 7 by the Vikings en route to cracking the all-time top five in rushing yards ∓ he will Hall of Fame-eligible in 2027.
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In retrospect, Willis would have been a great No. 3 pick in almost any draft, even though inside linebackers almost never get picked that high.
He wasn't taken until No. 11, two spots after Ohio State speedster Ted Ginn Jr. went to the Dolphins and one pick after the Texans took defensive tackle Amobi Okoye .
Patrick Willis, linebacker, 2007-14
His first seven seasons explain why he is a member of the Class of 2024. He made first-team All-Pro four times and second-team twice in that span.
The other inside linebackers on the All-Pro first team in those years were 49ers teammate Navorro Bowman (three times), Ray Lewis (twice), John Beason (once), Lofa Tatupu (once), Jerod Mayo (once), Derrick Johnson (once) and Luke Kuechly .
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Willis was the man among men, and, yes, he and Bowman formed a beastly interior.
It might be hard to find a Browns fan who thinks Willis should have been Cleveland's pick instead of Thomas. In turn, 49ers fans wouldn't trade Willis for Thomas.
Browns fans would trade records.
Cleveland went 37-75 in Thomas' first seven seasons. The 49ers were just 26-38 in Willis' first four years, but they produced the best run since their 1980s dynasty in the next three, going 36-11-1.
Willis's biggest opportunity came in Super Bowl XLVII, on Feb. 3, 2013 in New Orleans . Joe Flacco led Baltimore to a late 34-31 lead. The 49ers drove to a fourth-and-goal at the 5 inside the two-minute warning, but couldn't convert.
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Willis played all 71 defensive snaps, producing a game-high 10 tackles. Lewis, a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2018, gave Baltimore seven tackles in his final NFL game.
Lewis' career lasted twice as long as Willis' and attracted 10 times the attention, but who was better in his prime?
One view is that Willis was the better player, but Lewis was the better leader.
Lewis certainly was louder, but was he a better captain? It didn't show in the team records.
Lewis broke into the NFL the year the Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens . In his first four years, the team's regular-season record was 24-39-1. As noted above, the 49ers were 26-38 in Willis' first four years.
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Across the next three years of each man's career, the Ravens were 29-19 with Lewis; the 49ers were 36-11-1 with Willis.
For what it's worth, both times Willis and Lewis collided in the regular season, the games were defensive struggles, won by Lewis's Ravens, 9-7 and 16-6.
Willis was seen by his own team as a leader, and he viewed himself that way. He recalls writing up remarks the night before games.
"Then when the time came for talking, it never was what I wrote down," he said. "It would come from within."
Willis grew up in the small town of Bruceton in western Tennessee, 150 miles north of the University of Mississippi.
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"I remember being 8 years old, watching Monday Night Football at my grandma's house," he said. "I sat there watching and saying, I'm going to do that.''
San Fancisco Chronicle accounts of his youth are harrowing.
His mother left home when he was 4. His father was abusive. He lived in a trailer with no running water. He went to work in cotton fields at age 10.
He was in high school when an beloved uncle died in a fire. He was 17 when his brother Detris drowned.
"I'm thrilled just to have been able to play this game, given the odds that were stacked against me," Willis told the Chronicle. "I just wanted to play ball, make some good money, be special. … things you think when you're young. And here I am now going into one of the coolest things that an athlete could possibly be a part of."
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He was a Mississippi freshman in 2003 on a team that went 10-3 behind quarterback Eli Manning . The record was 11-23 the next three seasons, but Willis was named SEC defensive player of the year twice.
His size (6-2, 240), 4.4 40 speed and 39-inch vertical jump helped attract the 49ers.
Mike Singletary, a star of the Bears' famed 1985 defense, was San Francisco's linebackers coach.
"When I first saw him in college," Singletary said in 2007, "it was like ... you've got to be kidding me. A guy with his ability doesn't have technique? How much better could he have been in college?"
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Willis welcomed being pushed.
Singletary replaced Mike Nolan as head coach in 2008 but didn't last two seasons before giving way to interim head coach Jim Tomsula.
Jim Harbaugh took over in 2011. The 49ers played in three straight NFC Championship Games, a 20-17 overtime loss to the Giants , a 28-24 win over Atlanta , and a 23-17 loss to Seattle .
"Patrick was one of the toughest warriors the NFL has ever seen," Harbaugh told NBC Sports Bay Area. "I saw the X-rays of his hands, of his feet after the 2014 season. 'How are you doing this?
"He played with a club on one or both hands, I bet over 50% of the time, from college to the NFL. Screws in the feet, scar tissue, healed fractures … in every part of his hands and feet."
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Willis was 30 when retired in March of 2015.
He faced the Browns wice,tin 2007 and in 2010, when a 20-10 win was part of his team's 9-1 start.
His career ended along the lines of Joe Thomas.
Thomas got hurt seven games into his 11th season and decided to retire.
Willis played six games in his eighth season and never came back.
Explaining early retirement, Willis said:
"It's hard, but it's easy. I knew there would be a day I'd leave, and I always told myself that I wanted it to be on my terms."
That same day, Tomsula saluted Willis as a player and a leader.
"That's a different man," Tomsula said. "He redefined the position. He changed a lot of lives."
This article originally appeared on The Repository: 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis in Canton Hall of Fame Class of 2024
