In the 2020 NFL season, per Sports Info Solutions, quarterbacks threw from 0-3 step drops on 12,252 dropbacks. Conversely, quarterbacks threw from 5-7 step drops on 4,760 dropbacks. When you have an increasing quick game, and RPO concepts have become the order of the day, there often isn’t enough time for edge-rushers to upset the quarterback’s timing and rhythm.
Because of this, interior defensive pressure has become more crucial than ever. It’s a simple matter of the shortest distance and a straight line, and the inside guys have the advantage. There are many reasons that Aaron Donald is the most important defensive player in the NFL, but that’s certainly one of them. When you have a guy who plays more than 70% of his snaps on the interior, and he’s able to average about 100 total pressures a season, you are dealing with a player who can single-handedly change a passing game.
Flip that to the other side of the ball, and you understand why centers and guards are also so crucial in today’s NFL. Someone’s got to deal with the Aaron Donalds of the world, and the best at those positions will be rewarded appropriately.
The defending AFC champion Chiefs released offensive tackles Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz this offseason after a Super Bowl loss to the Buccaneers in which their backup tackles were exposed over and over. So, how did general manager Brett Veach and head coach Andy Reid spend their cap dollars? By signing former Patriots guard Joe Thuney, who handled Donald as well as anybody has back in Super Bowl LIII, to a five-year, $80 million contract with a $17 million signing bonus and $46.89 million in injury guarantees. And ask those same Buccaneers how their offensive was negatively affected when left guard Ali Marpet lost a couple games due to injury in mid-season.
When turning to the 2021 draft class of interior offensive linemen, there are both career inside guys, and a couple of potential offensive tackle converts whose skill sets I think might work better with a positional move. The top players have the potential to have more of an impact in the NFL than they might have in previous seasons.
Note: The percentiles in parentheses listed next to pro day data are compared to all historical athletic testing (combine and pro day) at the respective position of the player. Kudos to Pro Football Focus, and their Pro Day Schedule and Results Tracker, for this. As there was no scouting combine in 2021, and pro day schedules vary, we may not have all testing information for all prospects at publication time. For offensive tackles whose positional specificity is in question, we will include percentiles for both positions per PFF’s data.
Also: PFF’s True Pass Sets, explained in further detail here, represent snaps in which an offensive tackle pass-protects specifically without play-action, rollouts, and screens, with more than a three-man rush, and with between two and four seconds to throw the ball. This gives a more accurate picture of true pass protection.