Tag: sacks

WATCH: Carl Granderson putting in the work to help replace Trey Hendrickson

New Orleans Saints defensive end Carl Granderson is training to help replace Trey Hendrickson, one of the team’s big departing free agents.

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There’s a big opportunity ahead of Carl Granderson, who joined the Saints as an undrafted rookie in 2019. He broke out in 2020, his second season, bagging 5 sacks and 19 total quarterback pressures on just 194 pass rush snaps (per Pro Football Focus). With Trey Hendrickson leaving the Saints’ rotation in 2021, there will be chances for backups like Hendrickson and the recently-added Tanoh Kpassagnon to take the next step.

Granderson took a long road to get here. He spent 43 days in a Wyoming jail on misdemeanor charges until his case was handed to a different judge, who changed his sentencing to a year of probation. He’s since kept his hands to himself and stayed out of trouble, and now he’s working to be the best pro he can be.

He’s been working out with coach Aaron Day, a personal trainer based in California who specializes in developing pass rushers. Day shared some highlights of Granderson’s progress so far, along with a stated goal: ten or more sacks in 2021. That might seem lofty for a player with just 6 career sacks, but Hendrickson went into the 2020 season with only 6.5 takedowns to his name. The factors are there for Granderson to experience similar success.

Like Hendrickson, Granderson is very explosive out of his stance, often beating opponents to their spot before they’re able to lurch into motion. He’s also very flexible in his lower body, which allows him to get under blockers’ arms and bend the edge on the way to the quarterback. He hasn’t had as many opportunities to show it from the bottom of their depth chart (with just 283 career pass rush opportunities, per PFF), but Granderson is a fitting comparison in the right circumstances to the athletically-superior Hendrickson.

Whether Granderson can put all of his tools together to help make up for what the Saints have lost with Hendrickson joining the Bengals remains to be seen, but he’ll have every opportunity. Hendrickson had 101 more pass rush snaps in 2020 than Granderson has had in his career. Those snaps have to go somewhere, so it’s good to see that he’ll be prepared. He’s going to be a restricted free agent in 2022 that the Saints can retain at low cost, so he has plenty of time to build momentum towards a potentially lucrative contract in 2023 — at the same time as the salary cap skyrocketing once new NFL broadcasting rights deals are activated.

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Saints free agent DE Trey Hendrickson expected to sign with Bengals

The New Orleans Saints expect to lose 2020 sacks leader Trey Hendrickson in free agency after he agreed to sign with the Cincinnati Bengals.

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One of the New Orleans Saints’ top pending free agents is on his way out the door. Trey Hendrickson is expected to sign a contract offer from the Cincinnati Bengals, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport; his colleague Tom Pelissero reports that the deal on the table is valued at $60 million over four years, with $32 million guaranteed. It remains unclear which moves the Saints will make in free agency or which other contracts around the NFL will qualify, but that loss could fetch a third-round compensatory draft pick for New Orleans in 2022.

Hendrickson would replace Carl Lawson in Cincinnati, who left on a free agent deal with the New York Jets, while reuniting with his former teammate and Bengals captain Vonn Bell.

Remember, no pens can be put to paper until the new league year begins at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 17. This is a verbal agreement during the NFL’s early negotiating window (also called the legal tampering period). The deal could fall apart, but it’s tough to see Hendrickson walking away after earning that kind of money.

He broke out at the right time in the final year of his contract with 13.5 sacks, leading the team and tying with Los Angeles Rams supervillain Aaron Donald for the second-most takedowns in the entire league. Despite his injury history and several quiet seasons to start his career, Hendrickson played his way into the top of the free agent market. Good for him.

Hendrickson will leave New Orleans having appeared in 50 games through four years, notching 21 sacks and 3 forced fumbles along the way (including the playoffs). It’ll be tough to replace him, and adding more playmakers at defensive end should be an offseason priority for the Saints. For now, they’re leaning hard on a declining veteran in Cameron Jordan, a potential draft bust in Marcus Davenport, and an opportunistic backup in Carl Granderson (who had 5 sacks last year). Hendrickson had nearly as many sacks last season as all three of them combined (14).

Michael Robinson criticizes Russell Wilson for tension with Seahawks

Former Seattle Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson blames quarterback Russell Wilson for the tension between him and the organization.

The acrimony between the Seattle Seahawks and quarterback Russell Wilson and the possibility that the former might trade the latter has provoked reactions from around the NFL, including from division rivals and former teammates.

However, many have censured the Seahawks organization for making the veteran quarterback unhappy and few takes have criticized Wilson himself. Former Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson did just that on the NFL Network, stating that Seattle has given him enough over the years and made him the centerpiece of the team.

“I don’t know what Russell wants,” Robinson said. “He’s paid. They paid him twice in Seattle. The front office made sure that every other alpha male — with the exception of Bobby Wagner, KJ Wright and some of the old school guys that are there — they made sure that all of us were out the door so that this team could be Russell Wilson’s. And now this?”

It is true that Wilson has been the unquestioned leader of the Seahawks since the Legion of Boom departed, but his offensive line has consistently failed to protect him over the years, as evidenced by this statistic.

Even if Wilson is responsible for some of those, he has also avoided countless sacks with his mobility. Yes, he has several deadly weapons on offense and has been paid handsomely by the organization twice, but the lack of pass protection has needed to change for some time now.

“I just don’t know how you walk back in the locker room where you’re saying my O-Line is getting me hit too much, I don’t have that much say,” Robinson said.

Wilson and the Seahawks could be heading for a divorce, but nothing is certain in the NFL, and certainly not this.

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Expect bigger and better things from Seahawks L.J. Collier in 2021

Seattle Seahawks defensive end L.J. Collier had a vastly improved sophomore season and predicts even better things in 2021 in his third year.

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The Seattle Seahawks selected L.J. Collier in the first round of the 2019 NFL draft out of TCU but the defensive end spent much of his first year in the big leagues on the bench, sidelined by an ankle injury he suffered in training camp.

Collier felt he had much to prove during his sophomore campaign.

“I was playing catch up on my rookie year,” Collier told the crew at Good Morning Football on Wednesday. “It was really frustrating, but I’m a competitor man. A lot of people tried to count me out . . . but I wasn’t really worried about it.”

2020 was a totally different season for Collier, who racked up 21 combined tackles, three sacks, and two passes defended on the year. He sees even bigger and better things ahead in 2021.

“I knew what I could do with a healthy body and given a good chance,” he continued. “So I went out there and proved that this year. I didn’t even scratch the surface on what I know I can do.

“Year three I’m really going crazy.”

You can listen to the full interview below.

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Seahawks QB Russell Wilson speaks out, expressing his frustrations

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has been vocal lately, speaking out against the number of hits and sacks he took last season.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has certainly been outspoken over the last few days, first speaking out on “The Dan Patrick Show” and then to reporters Tuesday morning via Zoom regarding the current state of his affairs.

“The reality is that I think it’s frustrating being there and watching the game and sitting there,” Wilson said during an interview that was supposed to be focused on his winning the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.

“Part of it, like any player, you never want to get hit, that’s the reality of playing this position, ask any quarterback who wants to play this game,” Wilson acknowledged. “At the same time, it’s part of the job.”

Wilson took his fair share of hits throughout the 2020 season, sacked 47 times for a loss of 301 yards. Only two quarterbacks in the NFL suffered more sacks than Wilson last year.

“I’ve definitely been hit – I’ve been sacked almost 400 times (over his career),” Wilson continued. “We got to get better. I got to find ways to get better, too. Just continue to try and find that. As we continue to go along the process and I think about my career and what I want to be able to do, it always starts up front, offensively and defensively. It always does. I’m grateful for the time I’ve been able to put in every day to the process.

“I love this game. I came to play this game to win championships.”

Perhaps Wilson is just airing his grievances after watching a Super Bowl he wasn’t a part of. Perhaps he’s reacting to the QB carousel going on around the league. But perhaps . . . Seattle should listen to its franchise quarterback and do more to keep him upright next season.

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Seahawks QB Russell Wilson speaks out, expressing his frustrations

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has been vocal lately, speaking out against the number of hits and sacks he took last season.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has certainly been outspoken over the last few days, first speaking out on “The Dan Patrick Show” and then to reporters Tuesday morning via Zoom regarding the current state of his affairs.

“The reality is that I think it’s frustrating being there and watching the game and sitting there,” Wilson said during an interview that was supposed to be focused on his winning the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.

“Part of it, like any player, you never want to get hit, that’s the reality of playing this position, ask any quarterback who wants to play this game,” Wilson acknowledged. “At the same time, it’s part of the job.”

Wilson took his fair share of hits throughout the 2020 season, sacked 47 times for a loss of 301 yards. Only two quarterbacks in the NFL suffered more sacks than Wilson last year.

“I’ve definitely been hit – I’ve been sacked almost 400 times (over his career),” Wilson continued. “We got to get better. I got to find ways to get better, too. Just continue to try and find that. As we continue to go along the process and I think about my career and what I want to be able to do, it always starts up front, offensively and defensively. It always does. I’m grateful for the time I’ve been able to put in every day to the process.

“I love this game. I came to play this game to win championships.”

Perhaps Wilson is just airing his grievances after watching a Super Bowl he wasn’t a part of. Perhaps he’s reacting to the QB carousel going on around the league. But perhaps . . . Seattle should listen to its franchise quarterback and do more to keep him upright next season.

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4 possible landing spots for Saints free agent DE Trey Hendrickson

New Orleans Saints defensive end Trey Hendrickson broke out at the right time, setting him up to be one of the higher-paid 2021 free agents.

Trey Hendrickson is on track to be one of the most-coveted free agents in the 2021 offseason — New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis certainly expects him to draw plenty of attention. The 6-foot-4, 270-pound defensive end broke out in a huge way for the Saints in 2020 with 13.5 sacks, tying Aaron Donald for the second-highest total in the league. And now he gets to cash in.

But will the Saints be able to match his price? The bidding for star pass rushers typically starts at a rate of roughly $1 million per sack created, and while that stat isn’t the end-all, be-all of evaluating players, it is one of the most significant plays in the game. Sacks are drive killers, between the loss of a down and the yards that set back the offense — Sportsradar found that, in 2018, offensive drives including a sack allowed ended with a score just 23.8% of the time.

So let’s assume that Hendrickson is on his way out, even if that isn’t a sure thing just yet. Maybe the Saints can work some magic and re-sign him, or his market isn’t as open as expected. Anyway: here are four teams that need pass-rush upgrades and have the funds to pull off a big signing in 2021.

Trey Hendrickson tied Aaron Donald’s regular season sacks total on 200 fewer snaps

New Orleans Saints DE Trey Hendrickson tied Los Angeles Rams DT Aaron Donald’s sacks mark on 200 fewer snaps, ranking second-most in the NFL

Trey Hendrickson has been the breakout player of the year for the New Orleans Saints, finishing the 2020 regular season with 13.5 sacks — enough to tie Los Angeles Rams superstar Aaron Donald for the second-most in the NFL, trailing only Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt (15.0), a favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year.

While they all play different positions, this achievement is no less impressive because of it. If anything it’s more remarkable when you consider that Hendrickson had exactly 200 fewer pass-rush snaps (369 in 15 games) than Donald (569 in 16 games) over the course of the season, per Pro Football Focus.

That works out to an average of 24.6 pass-rush snaps per game for Hendrickson, which translates into 8.1 more games’ worth of opportunities for Donald to go chase quarterbacks around on a Sunday afternoon. In other words, Donald effectively played a season and a half more of football than Hendrickson, at least in terms of their pass-rush opportunities. And the Saints defensive end was right there with him in the final sacks tally.

Now, sacks aren’t the end-all be-all for pass rushers these days. The sample size is often just too small to really take away any valuable information. Disruption on a per-snap basis is a better sign of production, and Donald has that in spades with 98 pressures on the season, resulting in a PFF pass-rush productivity rating of 10.4. For comparison, Hendrickson had 49 total pressures and a rating of 9.2. PFF’s pass-rush productivity rating is formulated by finding how often players created pressures against their opportunities, weighted towards sacks.

So even with the difference in volume, Hendrickson was still nearly as impactful relative to how often they each played, which is impressive enough on its own.

So it’ll be fascinating to see where things go from here. Hendrickson is headed for free agency in the spring, and he’ll be a hot commodity on the open market if the Saints aren’t able to retain him. That’s just one of the many subplots we’ll be watching during a complicated offseason for New Orleans.

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Steelers DE Stephon Tuitt hits career milestone vs. Colts

Tuitt is quietly making his mark as part of the Steelers dominant defense.

You never know what you have until it’s gone. The Steelers knew exactly how this felt when defensive end Stephon Tuitt went down for the 2019 season in Week 6 with a torn pectoral.

It didn’t take long for Tuitt to make his presence felt this season. From the moment he registered his first sack of the season in Week 1 versus the Giants, he was back.

In Week 8, Tuitt was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week for his harassment of Lamar Jackson. He finished the game with two sacks, nine total tackles (three for loss) and three quarterback hits.

Tuitt has recorded at least a half-sack in each game but six this season and added another on Sunday versus the Colts. And with that, Tuitt hit the first double-digit sack season of his career.

The Steelers and the Los Angeles Rams (DT Aaron Donald, OLB Leonard Floyd) are the only two teams that have two players who rank Top 10 in sacks.

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