Player

Robert Spillane

LB · Patriots

Robert Spillane: facts drawn from the play-by-play.

FanIQ Research · May 10, 2026 · 5 facts, every one from the play-by-play

He was a 28-tackle backup in 2020. By 2023 he'd become a 130-tackle starter — and he hasn't let up.

Trend

Spillane regular-season defensive production by year

Year	Team	G	Solo	Asst	Comb	Sacks	PDs	INTs
2019	PIT	5	8	3	11	0	0	0
2020	PIT	8	34	6	40	2	4	1
2021	PIT	11	25	27	52	0	0	0
2022	PIT	16	40	27	67	1	4	0
2023	LV	17	65	66	131	3	4	3
2024	LV	17	76	67	143	2	7	2
2025	NE	13	47	49	96	1	5	2

Combined tackles per season

Season	Combined tackles
2019	11
2020	40
2021	52
2022	67
2023	131
2024	143
2025	96

The Pittsburgh years were rotational — three seasons under 70 combined tackles. Vegas turned him into a starter overnight: 131 in 2023, 143 in 2024. New England signed him in 2025 and through 13 games he's already at 96 combined — a near-identical per-game pace (7.4) to his Raiders peak.

Among 91 LBs with 50+ tackles in 2024, he finished third — and he was the only undrafted player in the top 10.

Rare

Top LB tackle totals, 2024 regular season

LB	Comb	Solo	Draft Rd
Zaire Franklin	155	76	Rd 7
Roquan Smith	145	72	Rd 1
Robert Spillane	143	76	UDFA
Jamien Sherwood	143	83	Rd 5
Kaden Elliss	139	73	Rd 6
Zack Baun	139	81	Rd 3
Daiyan Henley	135	72	Rd 3
Demario Davis	133	66	Rd 3
E.J. Speed	131	82	UDFA
Jordyn Brooks	131	75	Rd 1

143 combined tackles in 2024 puts Spillane third among all NFL linebackers — tied with Jamien Sherwood and ahead of nine of the league's highest-paid defenders. Every other player in the top 10 was a drafted player; Spillane and E.J. Speed are the only undrafted free agents in the group. Spillane signed with Pittsburgh off the street in 2018.

His Raiders run produced 104 more tackles than his entire Steelers career — in six fewer games.

Comparison

Career production by franchise

Team	Seasons	G	Solo	Asst	Comb	Sacks
Pittsburgh	4	40	107	63	170	3
Las Vegas	2	34	141	133	274	5
New England	1	13	47	49	96	1

In Pittsburgh he was a rotational box defender behind Devin Bush and Myles Jack — 4.2 combined tackles per game. In Las Vegas as a featured signal-caller he averaged 8.1 per game, almost double the rate. The Patriots have him on a 7.4-per-game pace in his age-29 season, so the late-career production is sticky, not a one-team mirage.

Career single-game high came in his last Raiders start — 16 combined tackles in Week 18.

Milestone

Top single-game tackle totals

Date	Opp	Solo	Comb
2024 W18	vs LAC	6	16
2023 W2	vs BUF	8	14
2025 W3	vs PIT	8	14
2025 W8	vs CLE	5	14
2021 W16	vs KC	5	13

Three of his top-five single-game tackle totals have come in 2024–25 — including a 14-tackle performance against the Steelers in Week 3 of 2025, the first time he'd faced the franchise where he began his NFL career as an undrafted free agent. The same trend all his career stats show: he is at his statistical peak right now.

When it matters most, he shows up: 80% of his 2024 tackles came in one-score games — second in the NFL.

Split

LB close-game tackle leaders, 2024 (one-score games, ≤7 pts)

LB	Close-game	Total	Rate
Zaire Franklin	115	155	74%
Robert Spillane	114	143	80%
Kaden Elliss	108	139	78%
Zack Baun	105	139	76%
Christian Rozeboom	100	125	80%
League avg (100+ T)	—	—	65%

In 2024, 114 of Spillane's 143 combined tackles (79.7%) came when the game was decided by a touchdown or less — second-most in the entire NFL among linebackers with 100+ tackles. The league average for that group was 64.6%. Spillane's 15-point gap above average isn't luck: he was the Raiders' every-down linebacker in a team that played seven one-score games, and he was on the field for almost all of them.

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