[CBFF] ESPN - NFL's most underrated and overrated pass rushers

[Jerry Madsen]

 Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Pryce not receiving enough credit
By KC Joyner
ESPN Insider

In this week's installment of the NFL's most underrated and overrated
players, I will be reviewing pass-rushers. The method I use to grade
pass-rushers is based on the different sack types. The major sack
types are coverage, garbage, individual, run and scheme. (The full
list of sack types can be found in the complete glossary.)

Individual effort sacks are considered the most valuable because they
show the pass-rusher can beat one-on-one blocking. Scheme sacks are
also valuable because they show the rusher can be utilized in a number
of ways.

Coverage, garbage and run sacks do have value, but I don't consider
them great indicators of pure pass-rushing ability. Any player
tallying a lot of these sacks may not be as good a pass-rusher as his
sack total would indicate.

Sacks can also be split between categories. If a defensive ends stunts
to the inside and is picked up by the guard, then beats the guard with
a bull rush, the sack is listed as being half a scheme sack (for the
stunt) and half an individual effort sack (for beating the guard
one-on-one).

As has been the case for each of the overrated/underrated articles,
players are rated based on their 2006 metrics. Pro Bowl berths are
given significant weight in determining the perception of a player.

Overrated pass-rushers

Will Smith
Smith made the Pro Bowl last year in large part due to his 10.5 sacks,
but those included three coverage sacks and 1.5 garbage sacks. Smith
is still a very good player and probably deserved the Pro Bowl berth
based on his overall game, but he is not as good a pass-rusher as his
sack total would indicate.

Jared Allen
Allen's sack total (7.5) in 2006 was the lowest of his career, but he
actually did even worse than the total indicates. Allen had one run
sack and was practically gifted another when his blocker blew an
assignment and left Allen completely unblocked. Only three of his
sacks were individual effort sacks, and one of those came when Allen
was matched up against a running back.

Others:
Robert Geathers: His 10.5 sacks tied for 14th in the league, but four
of these were of the coverage/garbage/blown block variety.
Bobby McCray: McCray racked up 10 sacks last year, but 3.5 of these
were coverage sacks and another 1.5 were garbage sacks.

Underrated pass-rushers

Trevor Pryce
Pryce did not make the Pro Bowl despite registering 13 sacks last
year. His sack total is even more impressive when you consider that
6.5 of Pryce's sacks were of the individual effort variety and only
2.5 were of the garbage/blown block variety. He is a superb
pass-rusher in both one-on-one situations and when utilized on the
blitz.

Mark Anderson
Anderson posted 13 sacks as a rookie last year, including eight of the
individual effort variety, and also didn't make the Pro Bowl.
Amazingly, Anderson's individual effort sack total would have ranked
26th in the league on its own.

Others:
Elvis Dumervil: Dumervil was a situational pass-rusher for the Broncos
last year and put up 8.5 sacks, 7.5 of which were individual effort
sacks.
Kamerion Wimbley: Wimbley's 11 sacks showed he had a very good rookie
season, but it was the diversity of the sack types that put him on
this list. He had 6.5 individual effort sacks but also had a total of
two scheme sacks. The scheme sacks were all split with other sack
types, so he actually had sacks on blitzes/stunts on four separate
plays. He is just as good at moving around the defense to get past his
man as he is at simply beating his man one-on-one.

KC Joyner, aka The Football Scientist, is a regular contributor to
ESPN Insider. His core passing metrics can be found in the ESPN
Fantasy Football Magazine, which hits newsstands on June 19. A free
sample of his latest release ("Scientific Football 2007") is available
at his Web site.