Tag: Shaquil Barrett

The NFL’s top 11 edge defenders

Every team needs at least one dominant edge defender. Who are the best at the position coming into the 2021 NFL season?

Last season, including the playoffs and Super Bowl LV, NFL quarterbacks attempted 18,983 dropbacks, per Sports Info Solutions. Of those 18,983 attempts, either from under center or pistol or shotgun, quarterbacks threw from zero- through three-step drops 11,540 times. So, when opposing quarterbacks are running quick game 60.8% of the time, your options as an edge defender are relatively limited as opposed to previous eras when quarterbacks were more inclined to grip it and rip it. Rumbling all the way around the edge is still one way to go, but you’d best get there in a big hurry.

The increasing popularity of the quick game has made interior pressure more important than ever, something we discussed when our list of the top 11 interior defensive linemen went up. So, when you’re an edge defender, you might find yourself aligned inside more often these days, so that your coaches can scheme up your speed and power inside the tackles. Ends like Za’Darius Smith and Cameron Jordan, both high on this list, have long been able to take quarterbacks out of the play from multiple gaps.

If you’re a total edge guy like Tampa Bay’s Shaquil Barrett — this year’s top edge defender on our list — you’d better be able to stunt to the open gap, work your inside counter, and convert speed to power to force the offensive tackle to give up ground in a straight line. The importance of the “shortest distance” theory has never been more clear for edge defenders, and here are the NFL’s 11 best coming into the 2021 season.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions. PFF counts half-sacks as full sacks, and that is often reflected in our pressure totals).

9 free-agent EDGE rushers the Ravens should be interested in

The Baltimore Ravens have several EDGE defenders hitting free agency, creating a big need this offseason. Here’s who could catch their eye.

With the legal tampering period of free agency starting March 15, the Baltimore Ravens have a couple of voids they’ll likely be looking to fill. Though many fans have been focusing on the top wide receivers and centers expected to be available in free agency, finding some EDGE help is very much among the top priorities Baltimore will have this offseason as well.

The Ravens solidified that need after not using their franchise tag on either Yannick Ngakoue or Matthew Judon, pointing to both hitting free agency. When combined with Baltimore’s other pending free agents Tyus Bowser and Derek Wolfe, it’s clear the Ravens will need to make this their top priority of the offseason.

While it’s possible Baltimore could look to re-sign most or even all of their pending free-agent EDGE defenders, free agency is expected to see a wealth of talent at the position become available and potentially for cheap. Let’s take a look at the 9 free agents the Ravens could be most interested in:

What Tom Brady’s contract means for the Buccaneers

Tom Brady created cap space in his question for ring number eight.

Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady announced on Friday that he signed an extension with the team that will keep him in Tampa Bay after winning Super Bowl LV. Brady, who turns 44 prior to the start of the regular season, signed a four year deal that theoretically could keep him with the Buccaneers until he’s almost 50 years old.

However, this extension isn’t actually a four year extension. It’s really a creative way for the Buccaneers to save cap space in a tight year by giving Brady an extension with void years at the end of it. What this does is spread out the cap hit from Brady’s signing bonus over multiple years so that the Buccaneers have more cap space to work with to build a team around Brady.

The contract really only locks Brady in through the 2022 season with the void years coming after that. More importantly, it saves the Buccaneers $19 million against the cap according to ESPN. That will get the Buccaneers under the salary cap, give them space to re-sign star edge rusher Shaquil Barrett, and allow them to go sign free agents to improve their roster from a season ago.

This extension doesn’t mean that Brady will be playing until he’s 50 years old, it just means the Buccaneers are going to maximize whatever years he has left in the league.

Tampa Bay is going to be better than they were a season ago. That’s the important part of this extension. That’s great for Buccaneers fans and very annoying for people who are tired of Tom Brady’s two decade reign of dominance over the NFL.

The 51 best NFL free agents left on the open market

After the Dak Prescott and J.J. Watt deals, and eight franchise tag designations, here are the NFL’s 51 best upcoming free agents.

The 2021 NFL free-agency period, which officially begins at 4 p.m. ET on March 17, promises to be like few others in the league’s history. Due to projected revenue shortfalls in the age of COVID, the league has anticipated that the 2021 salary cap will be somewhere between $180 million and $185 million per team.

That’s down from $198.2 million in the 2020 league year, which obviously puts several teams in a major pinch. Right now, per OverTheCap.com, there are 12 NFL teams over a projected salary cap of $180.5 million, and teams like the Saints ($58,718,146 over before franchising safety Marcus Williams), Rams ($35,136,331 over), Eagles ($34,146,468 over, which is mostly the Carson Wentz aftermath), Chiefs ($22,984,019 over), and Steelers (from $26,131,664 over to $3,617,086 over after a lot of pruning), will have to engage in some highly creative accounting just to get into compliance — forget about making any big splashes.

On the other hand, we have teams like the Jaguars ($71,821,714 under the cap), Jets ($67,341,082 under), Patriots ($62,211,837 under before the Trent Brown trade), Colts ($44,681,614 under), and Bengals ($40,979,130 under). The radical disparity between the haves and the have-nots when it comes to the capacity to spend in free agency could lead to an unusually constricted market, especially for those players who are more rank-and-file than sheer superstar. Not that those players won’t have offers; but those offers might not be what they may have been in previous years. It’s not the fault of the players; it’s simply how the market lands in this particular time. This could result in a lot of free agents taking one-year contracts and shining it on until new television deals and the hope of a more “normal” world make things more equitable in the 2022 league year.

After the Cowboys signed Dak Prescott to a four-year, $160 million contract, the Cardinals signed J.J. Watt to a two-year, $28 million free-agent deal, the Buccaneers signed Lavonte David to a two-year, $25 million contract, and franchise tags were handed out to eight different players (Broncos safety Justin Simmons, Jets safety Marcus Maye, Saints safety Marcus Williams, Bears receiver Allen Robinson, Buccaneers receiver Chris Godwin, Panthers offensive tackle Taylor Moton, Jaguars offensive tackle Cam Robinson, and Washington guard Brandon Scherff), the free agency picture got shaken up, especially at or near the top of everybody’s lists.

So, let’s talk about remaining free-agent value, at least how we see it at Touchdown Wire. Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield have compiled their list of the top 51 players who should be available as unrestricted free agents, after tags have been applied and new deals were signed. Mark assembled the offensive players, Doug put together the defensive list, and they then compiled the top remaining free agents in the upcoming 2021 league year, regardless of position.

ESPN suggests this ‘daring’ offseason move to help the Jags improve on defense

ESPN’s Football Outsider suggested the Jaguars improve their defensive line by signing edge rusher Shaq Barrett if the Bucs don’t tag him.

Jacksonville’s defense was second to last in the league in 2020 in both yards and points allowed. The team may be landing a potential franchise quarterback in Trevor Lawrence, but as long as the other side of the ball lags behind the rest of the league, it’s going to be hard for the Jaguars to compete for the postseason.

The Jags also have the 25th pick courtesy of the trade with the Los Angeles Rams for Jalen Ramsey, but if they choose to address defense with a big free-agent signing, ESPN’s Football Outsiders have an idea.

Tampa Bay defensive end Shaq Barrett is set to become a free agent, and if he isn’t tagged by the Bucs, the Football Outsiders think the Jaguars should make a play for him. The 28-year-old has burst onto the scene for the reigning Super Bowl Champions the last two seasons after a slow start to his career in Denver.

He totaled 19.5 sacks in 2019, and though his production dipped a bit in 2020 when he had just eight sacks, he was a key part of the defensive improvements the Bucs made this season.

The Jaguars finished last season with just 18 sacks, second fewest in the NFL. Josh Allen needs running mates up front, and the Jaguars need to rebuild the defensive line after trading Calais Campbell last offseason. Thanks to landing the No. 1 pick, the Jaguars actually don’t have to play the quarterback sweepstakes.

That leaves an easy intersection of a player whom Tampa probably shouldn’t franchise, one who is good enough to make an impact for a bad team, and the team that can afford to pay the freight to move Barrett across the state. The Jaguars are projected to enter free agency with more cap space than any team in the NFL. Lawrence and Urban Meyer will create a culture that should be easy to get excited about, but the defense is still problematic on quite a few levels.

The Jaguars probably aren’t going to turn it around and make it a top-10 unit in a year, but Barrett can make them more respectable than they were in 2020, and it costs nothing but cash.

Jacksonville clearly needs help in the pass rush, and playing Barrett opposite Allen is certainly tantalizing, but there’s one major hangup: 2020 first-round pick K’Lavon Chaisson. He didn’t have the most productive rookie year, notching just 19 tackles and a sack despite playing in all 16 games with three starts.

Much of that can be blamed on coaching, as Chaisson spent much of the season playing outside his natural edge-rushing position. With the new multiple defense being installed under defensive coordinator Joe Cullen, it seems unlikely Jacksonville gives up on him. Especially when they could address the interior defensive line, a much greater position of need, with a player like Leonard Williams.

Still, signing Barrett would undoubtedly be an immediate improvement for one of the league’s worst defenses. It would also bolster the Jags’ pass-rush rotation, which can carry them a long way if fluid.

Shaq Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul, two steps, and the play that turned Super Bowl LV

Before halftime the Buccaneers forced a field goal from the Chiefs. Here’s how Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul turned Super Bowl LV.

With just over a minute remaining in the first half of Super Bowl LV, the Kansas City Chiefs faced a 3rd-and-6 at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 14-yard line. Patrick Mahomes, already battered and bruised from the onslaught of Tampa Bay pass rushers, had the Chiefs in position to perhaps change the course of the Super Bowl. Kansas City trailed by 14-3, but with a touchdown on this drive they could cut the Buccaneers’ lead to just four. That, coupled with the knowledge that the Chiefs would receive the second-half kickoff, made this a pivotal moment.

It was the buildup to a scene crafted so many times before by Mahomes and this Kansas City team. Despite trailing early in games, they would slowly begin to figure things out, and unleash a barrage of points, overwhelming their foes. Players like Deshaun Watson, Ryan Tannehill, Jimmy Garoppolo and Josh Allen learned this lesson the hard way over the past two seasons. In this moment, it looked like the next to learn this would be Tom Brady.

Twice before, in matchups between those two quarterbacks, Brady had seemed a script like this play out but been able to withstand that onslaught. In the two meetings between the Chiefs and the New England Patriots in 2018 – one in the regular season and the other in the AFC Championship game – Brady’s Patriots had gotten out to halftime leads, only to see Mahomes and the Chiefs offense kick into gear in the second half. It seemed the script writers had pushed up the clock for this meeting, with Kansas City on the cusp of paydirt.

However, it seems that Todd Bowles and the Tampa Bay defense never got that script.

Super Bowl LV changed in the blink of an eye, when the Buccaneers defense was able to thwart Mahomes and prevent the Chiefs from scoring that pre-halftime touchdown. Rather than pull off the “double-dip” – a touchdown drive before halftime and another after the break, something Brady’s Patriots were known for – the Chiefs were held to just a field goal on each drive.

It would be Brady and the Buccaneers who finished their drives with touchdowns.

How did that happen? It happened thanks to two explosive steps made in beautiful synchronicity from Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul.

In the coming days much will be written and said about the job that Tampa Bay’s defense did against Mahomes. Bowles put together a plan to pressure the Chiefs passer with usually just four defenders attacking the pocket, trusting in the talent of the players up front against the patchwork offensive line Kansas City was forced to start Sunday night due to injuries. The turning point of Super Bowl LV was one more in a litany of examples from this game of four pass rushers flushing Mahomes and forcing him into an impossible situation, preventing that double-dip and setting the stage for one from the Buccaneers:

Both Barrett and Pierre-Paul beat their blockers, flushing Mahomes outside the pocket and out of the camera view for a moment. Forced to yet again run for his life, the quarterback eventually runs out of time and options, lofting a throw towards the sideline and away from any available receiver.

Bring on the field goal team.

But what is so beautiful about this play from the two Buccaneers defenders is how they implement the same pass-rushing move, in concert. The dance of the pass rusher can be a wonderful, artistic thing when executed at a high level, and that is what Barrett and Pierre-Paul do on this snap. Both defenders release off the line and threaten the right shoulder of the nearest blocker. Then, simultaneously, each explodes off their left foot and onto their right, meaning Barrett now angles to the inside of the right tackle, while Pierre-Paul cuts to the outside of the left guard. Both tackle and guard are left grasping at air, while the two defenders continue unabated towards the QB:

There would be another window of hope for the Chiefs, early in the second half. After their opening drive of the third quarter resulted in a field  goal, Kansas City trailed by 21-9. Their defense put Tom Brady and the Buccaneers offense into a third down situation on the ensuing Tampa Bay possession, and a three-and-out would throw that window wide open for the Chiefs.

But Brady, as he has done so many times before, came through, and the window slammed shut.

There will be discussions – in fact there already are – about the game plan from the Chiefs. Discussions about pass protection designs and backup tackles and more. On this play, the fact is both Barrett and Pierre-Paul won their matchups, and won them quickly in the down, leaving Mahomes with nothing to do, nowhere to go, and few good options.

Looking back, it was this play from Barrett and Pierre-Paul, forcing the throwaway and ensuing field goal try, that truly closed that window and turned the course of Super Bowl LV.

Why Shaquil Barrett should be the MVP of Super Bowl LV

We know what is going to happen. Tom Brady will win MVP of Super Bowl LV. But the choice should be Shaquil Barrett. Here’s why.

Right now the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are salting away a victory in Super Bowl LV. Despite being underdogs, Tom Brady and Tampa Bay have stunned the football world, turning in a double-digit victory over the favored Kansas City Chiefs. This will be Brady’s seventh Super Bowl ring, and with his three first-half touchdown passes, it is likely that he will pick up another Super Bowl MVP award.

But there is a better choice.

Here’s why Shaquil Barrett should be the MVP of Super Bowl LV.

The biggest question mark of the entire two-week buildup to Super Bowl LV was this: How would Todd Bowles and the Tampa Bay defense slow down Patrick Mahomes and the explosive Kansas City offense? After all, just a few months ago this Chiefs offense came into Raymond James Stadium and hung 17 points on the Buccaneers in the first quarter alone, en route to a three-point win.

The answer? Pressure and speed. While we all did the math and tried to come up with calculations for how the Buccaneers secondary would cover the various Kansas City weapons, Bowles and the Tampa Bay defense found ways to pressure Mahomes throughout the game, often forcing the young quarterback to simply run for his life.

To be fair, part of this might be due to the Chiefs being forced to play with a number of backups up front due to injuries. But the Buccaneers were able to get pressure early and often, and usually just bringing four after Mahomes. On many occasions, it was Shaquil Barrett who was bringing the heat.

It started early, with the pass rusher getting to Mahomes for a knockdown shortly after kickoff:

But as the game wore on, Barrett continued to wear on Mahomes and the Chiefs passing game. Take this sack of Mahomes from the third quarter:

Barrett keeps his motor running, fighting through the left tackle and finally getting to Mahomes for the sack.

Prior to halftime, it looked like the Chiefs were finally going to get into the end zone to make it a much tighter game when The Weeknd took the stage. Instead, Kansas City was forced to settle for three points. Why? Because it was Barrett who fought through the offensive line and flushed Mahomes, sending him running for his life before he was forced to throw the ball away:

Barrett was also part of this trio of pressure on Mahomes in the fourth quarter, combining for the sack of the KC quarterback. This time he is working through the right tackle to help get to the QB:

In Super Bowl XLII, Steve Spagnuolo put together a game plan against Tom Brady and the previously-unbeaten New England Patriots. That plan included using pressure from four defenders up front to frustrate Brady and slow down one of the most explosive offenses in football.

On this night, Spagnuolo had a front-row seat while another team did that to his offense. And it was Shaquil Barrett who led the way, helping to answer the most vexing question in football: How do you slow down Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs?

For that, he should win Super Bowl MVP.

 

Tampa Bay’s pressure gets to Patrick Mahomes on Chiefs’ first Super Bowl drive

So far, the Buccaneers have kept the Chiefs in check with pressure.

The Chiefs had a few passing possibilities on their first offensive drive, but in the end, the Buccaneers were able to hold the defending champions at bay with pressure. On that drive, Patrick Mahomes completed one of four passes for three yards, running twice for 13 yards and Kansas City’s first down.

The problem? Pressure. Here, Bucs edge man Shaquil Barrett gets to Mahomes and forces a rapid throwaway. In the NFC Championship game against the Packers, Tampa Bay sacked Aaron Rodgers five times, and each sack came with four-man pressure.

If the Bucs can keep getting pressure like this, the Chiefs may have to recalibrate their expectations regarding the deep ball — which they have done throughout the postseason. In his two postseason games against the Browns and Bills, Mahomes has attempted two passes of 20 or more air yards — one in each game, with no completions. That’s it. He’s thrown four touchdown passes in the postseason for a grand total of 30 yards.

How the Chiefs shortened their passing game to protect Patrick Mahomes

5 pending free agents Colts should watch in Super Bowl LV

Indy should keep an eye on these FAs in the Super Bowl.

All eyes will be on Super Bowl LV as the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers conclude the 2020 season at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday.

The Indianapolis Colts have been hard at work trying to prepare for what will be a busy offseason. The free-agent market should have a heavy hand in that, especially given that the Colts are among the teams with the most salary-cap space in the NFL.

Here are five pending free agents the Colts should watch in Super Bowl LV:

5 players in the Super Bowl the Jets should target in free agency

Jets Wire takes a look at five players playing in Super Bowl LV that Joe Douglas and company should take a look at in free agency.

All eyes will be on the Super Bowl on Sunday, and that should include those belonging to Joe Douglas and the Jets front office.

New York brass should be glued to the game, as there are several players playing in Tampa Bay that are set to hit the open market in March. The two best teams in the NFL are strapped with talent and it would be foolish for the Jets to not want to model their franchise as the Chiefs and Buccaneers have.

With that said, let’s take a look at five Super Bowl participants that the Jets should have their eyes on come free agency.