The NFL places a premium on the ability to get to the quarterback. Here are the league’s 11 best pass-rushers heading into the 2020 season.
What makes a great edge defender? You can go over traits and production and add them together any way you choose, but when I spoke with Chiefs right tackle Mitchell Schwartz recently for the “Speaking of Everything” podcast, he talked about the importance of having multiple ways to get to the quarterback.
“On the whole, it’s guys who can do multiple things,” Schwartz said of the pass-rushers who give him fits on the field. “If a guy is really good at tone thing, for the most part, you can stop it. If it’s Justin Smith power, there’s only so much you can do against that. But for the most part, if a guy can only do one thing, it’s not the best version of it you’ve ever seen. If a guy is super-quick and that’s all he can do, you get him off the [snap], and he’s done. If a guy is really strong and only has a bull-rush, and you’re sitting on it, there are things you can do to disrupt the timing, and there’s not much else he can do. The thing [the best pass-rushers] can do is any combination of three moves — some variation of the inside move, some variation of the speed or outside move, and then, the power move. If you’ve got the ability to do two of those, let alone three, the offensive lineman doesn’t have anything he can wait for or predict.”
The edge defenders on this list can beat you in multiple ways, and from multiple gaps. And though the primary focus is on quarterback disruption, you’re not going to be one of the NFL’s top 11 pass-rushers if you can’t break off pressure to stop the run in an instant. And if you can drop back in basic coverage… well, that helps as well. Here are the best players when it comes to presenting impossible math problems to opposing offensive linemen.
Honorable Mentions
(Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports)
The Washington Football Team now has five first-round picks along its defensive line with the addition of second-overall pick Chase Young, but Ryan Kerrigan led the edge guys with just 37 total pressures. Matt Ioannidis, a fifth-round defensive tackle out of Temple in 2016, was the team’s best pass-rusher last season. So, there’s that. As far as guys who were tough to keep off the Top 11, let’s start with San Francisco’s Arik Armstead, who totaled 73 pressures and had 42 stops, tied for third-best in the league. Everson Griffen had 70 pressures and 30 stops for the Vikings last season and is currently an unsigned free agent. We’d expect that to change soon, depending on an actual football season happening. Brandon Graham of the Eagles seems perennially underrated because he gets more pressures than sacks, and he amassed 68 pressures in 2019, along with 38 stops. Harold Landry III of the Titans is an up-and-comer who could have a breakout season in 2020, and the Falcons certainly hope Dante Fowler Jr. can keep up the career-year pace he set last season with the Rams.
The 50 media members who vote for the NFL’s All-Pro team seem to need a little help getting it right. Here are a few suggestions.
There are those who will tell you that the votes for Pro Bowl and All-Pro selections aren’t a big deal. It’s just a popularity contest, right? Well, not really. A lot of players have bonuses built into their contracts based on their nominations on those teams. Hall of Fame voters absolutely take the number of Pro Bowl and All-Pro selections into account when deciding who is given the NFL’s greatest honor.
The All-Pro vote is supposed to be taken more seriously because there is not a fan element involved, but when looking at the selections from a panel of 50 media members, it’s hard to say that every vote should be given equal weight. And that, for all the reasons listed above, is a real problem. Here’s the list for the 2019 team; see what you think, and give these five suggestions for improving the process a look-see.
Give every voter a subscription to an advanced metrics website.
Frank Clark’s one defensive tackle vote was not well-deserved. (Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports)
Whether it’s Pro Football Focus, Sports Info Solutions, or Football Outsiders, there are websites which, for a nominal subscription rate, give anybody a much better look at who’s doing what in the NFL. I’m not talking about PFF’s grades, per se — I find them far less accurate than their charting stats. But those charting stats have a lot of merit, as do the SiS and FO numbers. With these subscriptions, you can do everything from deducing which quarterbacks and receivers are the best on which routes, which outside cornerbacks and slot cornerbacks are the most effective in coverage, which teams run which defenses most effectively, and which pass-rushers are the most disruptive beyond just sack numbers. There are too many votes that are obviously skewed to old-school box-score thinking, and we should be way past that at this point in time. We have better metrics, and the game has exploded in both complexity and positional specificity.
PFF also has positional snap counts, which would have helped the one voter who wanted to add Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark to the list of interior linemen. Per PFF, Clark has 718 defensive snaps this season, and six of those are inside — one at left defensive tackle, four at right defensive tackle, and one at nose tackle. We don’t know what this voter was thinking, but we’d sure like to.
Dak Prescott, Russell Wilson and Tom Brady are chasing milestones in Week 17.
Players will tell you they are about team and not individual marks. However, there are plenty of players looking to hit marks for 2019 as the regular season comes to a close.
Jameis Winston
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The erratic Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston needs 92 yards to reach the 5,000 mark in 2019. His previous best was 4,090 in 2016.
Stephon Gilmore may win DPOY but the better bet may be T.J. Watt based on the history of the award.
Most Valuable Player should essentially be called Best Quarterback in the NFL. As for Defensive Player of the Year, that’s recently been Best Lineman or Edge Player of the year. Since 2008, a non-lineman or edge rusher has won the award three times — Charles Woodson, Troy Polamalu, and Luke Kuechly. The award has been given out every year since 1971, and in that time a cornerback has only won the award five times. Winners have normally been linebackers or defensive linemen. Which brings us to 2019 and Stephon Gilmore. If history is any indicator, Gilmore has a tough shot at winning the award.
The DPOY race looks like it’s going coming down to Gilmore and T.J. Watt with Danielle Hunter with an outside shot. That’s two defensive linemen/edge players and one corner. There are definitely arguments for Gilmore who has been a shutdown corner all year and is considered one of the best players at his position. I say one of the best players because there is another corner who can make an argument he’s been just as good as Gilmore.
If we go by historical precedence, Watt is going to win the award. He’s been the best player on one of the best defenses in the league. He has 13 sacks, 14 tackles-for-loss, six forced fumbles, and two interceptions. The Steelers have a history of DPOYs. Watt plays a position that normally gets the DPOY the year nod.
Per Doug Farrar — in his great breakdown of Stephon Gilmore v. Tre’Davious White — Gilmore’s stats have been pretty good — and that’s an understatement:
“Gilmore: 38 receptions allowed on 82 targets for 444 yards, 152 air yards, no touchdowns, six interceptions, and that 32.8 passer rating allowed.”
Still, Gilmore has an uphill battle. Cornerbacks simply aren’t normal DPOY candidates. Darrelle Revis never won a DPOY and that’s the last time we’ve seen this type of dominance from a cornerback. Of course, Revis’ best year was the last time a cornerback won the award but it was Woodson who took it home. If we were making comparisons to the MVP award, defensive linemen are quarterbacks, linebackers are running backs, and corners are receivers. Gilmore is trying to flip that narrative on its head.
