Christian Sam: LB · Arizona State · #2.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Christian Sam
Ranges from hash to hash and finishes the tackle. Fourth year in the Arizona State linebacker corps. One game to point at: 15 tackles and 2 sacks against USC — Week 9, 2017.
Play style
Ranges from hash to hash and makes his own tackles.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
127 tackles. 1 pass defended. 1 interception. 9.5 TFL.
Counts only, never a rate — splash-event sample sizes this small (interceptions, pass breakups, TFL) are noise as a rate and signal only as a tally.
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
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| Season | Team | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Arizona State | 127 | 87 | 9.5 | 3.0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2016 | Arizona State | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -- | -- |
| 2015 | Arizona State | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 |
| 2014 | Arizona State | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 |
| Career | 128 | 88 | 9.5 | 3.0 | 1 | 3 |
There is no official box score for these seasons, so this sack count comes from the play-by-play.
Each sack is credited to the player named on the play, and a sack shared by two players counts as half for each. We checked the same method against the official box scores for 2016 to 2019: it lands within half a sack for about 9 in 10 players. Tackles and passes defended are not shown for these seasons because the same check does not hold for them. Source: SportsDataverse play data.
Game log · Week-by-week
2017 season · 12 games
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| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 37-31vs New Mexico State | 8 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | L 20-30vs San Diego State | 7 | 5 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | L 45-52@ Texas Tech | 11 | 9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | W 37-35vs No. 24 Oregon | 11 | 9 | 1.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | L 24-34@ Stanford | 10 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 13-7vs No. 5 Washington | 11 | 8 | 0.5 | 0.5 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 8 | W 30-10@ Utah | 10 | 4 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | L 17-48vs No. 21 USC | 15 | 10 | 2.0 | 2.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 15 tackles |
| Wk 10 | W 41-30vs Colorado | 12 | 9 | 0.5 | 0.5 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | L 37-44@ UCLA | 9 | 7 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | W 40-24@ Oregon State | 10 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | W 42-30vs Arizona | 13 | 10 | 2.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 127 | 87 | 9.5 | 3.0 | 1 | 1 |
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
Tackle volume
127tackles this seasonTFL rate
7%10 TFLSack rate
2%3 sacksPD rate
1%1 pass breakups127 tackles · 9.5 for loss · 3 sacks · 1 interception.
4 seasons under Todd Graham — 28-23 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2017 season · 12 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 11.0 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
| Road5g | 10.0 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 9.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 11.5 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Todd Graham
Pass share
43.0%
416 pass / 551 run
Plays / game
74.4
13 games
Team sack rate
9.1%
464 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-leaning.
Player standing · 2017
127 tackles in 12 games, more tackles a game than nearly every FBS linebacker who plays every week.
How it ended
Four seasons at Arizona State, 128 tackles — drafted at #178 overall by the New England Patriots.
Four or fewer games in the first season, then ten or more.
Coaching lineage · 2014–2017
1 coachPlayed every college season under Todd Graham.
Next stop · NFL
New England PatriotsEntering 9th NFL season
New England PatriotsEntering 9th NFL season
