Defensive line, Illinois, 2008–11
Whitney Mercilus
- Number
- No. 85
- Height
- 6′4″
- Weight
- 265 lb
- Hometown
- Akron, OH
- Born
- Jul 21, 1990, in Akron, Ohio
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Whitney Mercilus played defensive line at Illinois (2008–11). He won the 2011 Ted Hendricks Award. He was a consensus All‑American in 2011. The Houston Texans took Mercilus in the first round, No. 26 overall in the 2012 NFL Draft.
At a glance
Honors
Players of the year, conference and regional honors: Wikipedia’s lists (CC BY-SA), each linked from its honor.
The teams
No defensive lines in our box scores: before 2016 they record only interceptions for defenders. His defense from other sources is below.
Defense before 2016
| Season | G | Solo | Ast | Tkl | TFL | Sacks | PBU | FF | Hur |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 3.5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2010 | 11 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 2011 | 13 | 28 | 29 | 57 | 22.5 | 16 | 1 | 9 | 6 |
| On file | 40 | 41 | 81 | 29 | 18 | 2 | 11 | 8 | |
Our box scores carry tackles, tackles for loss and sacks from 2016 only, so these come from other sources: cfbstats.com (Open Data Commons Attribution License), its game lines summed (G: the games he has a line in). A dash: the source has no number for it.
On the roster
As each season’s roster listed the player (CollegeFootballData). Classes before the latest listing are counted back from it; “Yr 1” is the year on file where that count can’t place a season he played (a redshirt, transfer or 2020 year); height and weight as last listed.
Before the draft
| Drill | Combine 2012 | Combine or pro day 2012 |
|---|---|---|
| Height | 6′3⅝″ | |
| Weight | 261 lb | |
| Arm length | 33⅞″ | |
| Hand size | 9¼″ | |
| 40-yard dash | 4.68 s | |
| 10-yard split | 1.58 s | |
| Vertical jump | 32″ | |
| Broad jump | 9′10″ | |
| Bench press | 27 reps | |
| 3-cone drill | 7.17 s | |
| 20-yard shuttle | 4.53 s |
Combine or pro day: the source doesn’t say which. Combine and pro day results compiled by array-carpenter (nfl-draft-data).
In the NFL
10 seasons, 127 games with a stat; latest team: Green Bay Packers.
Second-team All-Pro (AP): 2016
All-Pro teams: AP second team 2016.
| Season | Team | G | Tkl | Sacks | Int |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Houston Texans | 14 | 23 | 6 | 0 |
| 2013 | Houston Texans | 16 | 42 | 7 | 0 |
| 2014 | Houston Texans | 14 | 47 | 5 | 0 |
| 2015 | Houston Texans | 16 | 50 | 12 | 0 |
| 2016 | Houston Texans | 15 | 50 | 7.5 | 0 |
| 2017 | Houston Texans | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| 2018 | Houston Texans | 15 | 36 | 4 | 0 |
| 2019 | Houston Texans | 14 | 48 | 7.5 | 2 |
| 2020 | Houston Texans | 11 | 20 | 4 | 0 |
| 2021 | Green Bay Packers | 9 | 16 | 4 | 0 |
| NFL career | 127 | 339 | 58 | 2 | |
Regular seasons, from nflverse (CC BY 4.0), matched to him by his draft pick and college (Player ids: DynastyProcess (GPL-3.0)). G counts games in which the player recorded a stat. Pro Bowls and All-Pro teams by NFL season: rosters and honors, Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
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