New Orleans Saints: Ranking the five best linebackers in team history
By Drake Lohse
Sam Mills
At 5-foot-9, Mills was considered too small to be an effective linebacker in the NFL. He had become an absolute star in the USFL, but that was backyard football compared to the hard-hitting reality Mills stepped into when he joined Jim Mora in New Orleans.
The brains behind the Dome Patrol’s brawn, Mills’ greatest talent, perhaps, was his mind.
More from Who Dat Dish
- Are the Saints playoff contenders or pretenders in 2022?
- 3 takeaways from Saints unofficial depth chart ahead of preseason opener
- Saints 2022 Training Camp: Top 5 takeaways from Day 13
- 3 things to know about new Saints QB K.J. Costello
- Kirk Merritt could be a difficult player for the Saints to cut
In Mills, the Saints had, for the very first time, a defensive signal-caller with an eye and a gut for a play. Mills was particularly gifted with the sixth sense to know where the ball was going before it went there.
He made a habit of leading the team in tackles and recorded over 100 tackles in five separate seasons.
Mills finished out his playing career in Carolina. He was diagnosed with intestinal cancer while serving as the Panther’s linebacker coach, though he still was considered an integral voice in the Panther’s Super Bowl XXXVIII run.
He was initially given only months to live but was able to keep pounding for almost two years, finally succumbing to his disease in April of 2005.
Mills never let any weakness or flaw throw him off the path towards achievement, and his ability to stand up in the face of adversity has only added to New Orleans’ longstanding underdog reputation; for that, he deserves immortality.