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Cameron Wake has as many (official) wins in college as you or I had. In 2012 he has as many sacks as you or I have…BUT…There are legit reasons for these anomalies. Wake attended Penn State so any victory he was a part of is now wiped from official history. He has no sacks in 2012 because (in my opinion) he has been illegally interfered with a few times this season, but no (replacement) refs calls to support that. If this was one-hand touch Wake would be a sack-machine as he has gotten to the QB numerous times, but so far unable to drop the QB for a sack. His career tells us that he will not be at 0 sacks for long.
This guy has had an unreal path to the NFL. For one thing his name is Derek Wake, but a paperwork era while he was an intern for a professional trainer led to him going by his middle name of Cameron. Even his agent just went with the snafu and started shopping his client around as Cameron Wake. Who he was shopping Derek/Cameron or whoever to was the CFL. Wake was undrafted out of college and the NFL interest was not immediate so he turned his attention to the CFL (a brief stint in 2005 with the New York Giants, but that was it)
At this point Wake was out of pro-football for a while, and working at a mortgage company. 2007 and 2008 saw Wake land a job with the BC Lions. He was in the CFL for 2 years, and they were both dominant years. How about rookie of the year in 2007, and Defensive Player of the Year in each of his CFL seasons (’07 and ’08).
After his 2 massive seasons in Canada the young man had now landed on the radar of numerous NFL teams. He says there was interest from as many as 16-17 teams, and the Dolphins did not necessarily have the best offer, but Wake felt that the ‘Phins offered the best situation for him. He was right on the money.
Speaking of money he just inked a 5-year $34 million contract with $17 million guaranteed. Wow, massive pay-day. He has shown that he can be a leader and produce at the NFL level.
Things have fallen off as far as sack stats since his massive 2010 where he had 14.5 sacks. That was down to 8.5 in 2011. This is not an indication of a decline in play as much as it is the other teams understanding that they need to game-plan and account for #91. With just 2 more sacks Wake will become the 7th Dolphins player in team history to record 30 sacks as a ‘Phin (Jason Taylor and Joey Porter the most recent guys to accomplish that, plus one of my faves – Trace Armstrong)
The move to a 4-3 base-D for the 2012 Dolphins has so far been a smooth transition. We know Wake has zero sacks so far, but he is back to his CFL form as far as playing the snaps with his hand dug in to the ground at the line of scrimmage and here he comes violently after the QB. His aggressiveness off the ball, combined with his long arms, strong hands, and relentless motor make him a legit threat to disrupt any passing play. Any offensive-lineman that is not very sound in their technique will be beat on a regular basis by Wake (for example Dolphins rookie Jonathan Martin was eaten alive in training camp by Wake on a regular basis).
Wake is good, not great, vs the run. On this team the rest of the d-line, plus the linebackers, are so good vs the run that Wake does not hurt the team in this area.
Wake is a rare guy that requires that much attention from opposing teams that the result is often that Wake makes those around him better (especially when it comes to harassing QBs)
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