Jahlani Tavai: LB · Hawai'i · #31.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Jahlani Tavai
Is steady in every phase without a signature trait. The four seasons at Hawai'i span two head coaches: Chris Naeole and Nick Rolovich. The first career honor came in 2016: All-Mountain West. On tape: 15 tackles against Army, Week 3, 2018.
Play style
Solid in every phase without a signature dimension.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
82 tackles. 2 passes defended. 0 interceptions. 5.5 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.
New York Post Oct 29Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
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
2018 season · 8 games
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| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 59-41vs Navy | 9 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 43-29vs Rice | 11 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 2 | |
| Wk 3 | L 21-28@ Army | 15 | 8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 15 tackles |
| Wk 4 | W 42-21vs Duquesne | 11 | 4 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | W 44-41@ San José State | 14 | 7 | 3.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | 3.0 TFL |
| Wk 6 | W 17-13vs Wyoming | 8 | 3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | L 23-49@ BYU | 11 | 8 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | L 22-40vs Nevada | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 82 | 42 | 5.5 | 2.0 | — | 2 |
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
Tackle volume
82tackles this seasonTFL rate
7%6 TFLSack rate
2%2 sacksPD rate
2%2 pass breakups82 tackles · 5.5 for loss · 2 sacks.
Splits · Per-game
2018 season · 8 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home5g | 8.4 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| Road3g | 13.3 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 11.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Weeks 8+1g | 3.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Nick Rolovich
Pass share
56.9%
543 pass / 411 run
Plays / game
68.1
14 games
Team sack rate
7.8%
602 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Pass-leaning.
Player standing · 2018
More tackles a game than nearly every FBS linebacker who plays every week.
How it ended
Four seasons at Hawai'i, 334 tackles, a first-team All-Conference season (2016) — drafted at #43 overall by the Detroit Lions.
Recruited as a two-star, and honored since.
Trophy case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
ALL-MOUNTAIN WEST · 1ST TEAM
All-Mountain West 1st team (2016)
Coaching lineage · 2014–2018
3 coachesPlayed under 3 different head coaches: Norm Chow, Chris Naeole, and Nick Rolovich. Multi-era developmental context.
Next stop · NFL
Detroit LionsEntering 8th NFL season
Detroit LionsEntering 8th NFL season
