The top 12 edge defenders

NFL teams attempted 18,712 passes on 20,876 dropbacks in the 2021 season. 11,926 of those dropbacks, and 11,202 of those attempts, were in dropbacks of zero to three steps. That’s 57.1% of the NFL’s dropbacks, and 59.8 of its passing attempts, coming out of quick game. Those percentages are fairly consistent over the last few, as the passing game expands as the base idea in pro football. As is the case with most things in pro football, that found its way to the highest level from the college game.

Think about what that means for defensive lines at either level who are trying to shut down passing games with pressure. You’re no longer living in a world in which passes are more equally distributed between short, intermediate, and deep. You need to affect the quarterback as quickly as possible. And with RPOs escalating at every level of football, you can’t just pin your ears back; you have to read the backfield if you want to be in the right place more often than not.

Certain traits for edge defenders that used to be necessities may be relative luxuries at this time. The ability to bend around the protection arc — to “dip and rip” — is always a plus as a pass-rusher, but what does it mean if you’re pretty around the pocket, but it takes you an inevitably and disproportionately long time to get to the quarterback when you’re doing that? The guy who can shoot gaps from inside and outside may be more indispensable. The speed counter, allowing you to fool a blocker to think you’re going to his outside shoulder with your feet, and then you accelerate inside, is something you see more in this class of edge-rushers than the old-school bend around the edge. And the ability to use your hands to dislodge blockers from their preferred stations may also be more important, because you have fewer wasted steps.

In a game where the offensive object is to get the ball out as quickly as possible to avoid pressure and to set the tone, the defensive object will be to…