You have to create your own space, and in order to do that, you need to control the man in front of you, and displace him.”Ĭontrol and displacement again, and here, we bring up the aforementioned Quinnen Williams as the ideal for these positions. Because you don’t have space on one side, like an edge-rusher does. But in tight areas, you need the ability to control and displace. There’s nothing wrong with being quick as well - I think that Quinnen Williams and Jeffery Simmons have what makes people great at those positions, which is a combination of both. “In an ideal world, you need to be country-strong,” Greg said. When looking at 2-tech and 2i players, who work head over the guard and to the guard’s inside shoulder, strength and speed are equal requirements. This is an example of a guy just bombing the inside of an offensive line, which Lawrence does more often and better than anyone else in the NFL from these positions. On this sack of Washington’s Taylor Heinicke in Week 13, Lawrence had no trouble controlling and displacing the Commanders’ center and right guard at the same time. Lawrence has become such a dangerous interior pass-rusher because he combines formidable size (6-foot-4, 342 pounds) with speed to and through the pocket you’d expect from a man 40 pounds lighter. Those 47 total pressures ranked first in the NFL by more than twice as much as No.2 on the list - Vita Vea of the Buccaneers with 18. Last season, from 0- and 1-tech, Lawrence had one solo sack, three assisted sacks, 34 quarterback hits, 30 quarterback hurries. Last season, Lawrence wasn’t just the most productive pass-rusher from over the center or to the center’s shoulder - he was the most productive by an absolutely crushing margin. And that’s where I think of those 0-techniques more than anything else - their ability to control their gap.” So, having a 0-technique or a 1-technique who can control the center and win one-on-one versus the center, or if he’s being double-teamed by a down block from the guard as well as the center… he’ll either stalemate that, where he doesn’t get pushed back, or he’ll defeat it. “Keep in mind that we’re also seeing more “tite” fronts - 3-0-3 fronts and 4-0-4 fronts, meaning that we’re seeing two 3-techniques and a zero, or two four-techniques and a zero as part of a five-man front. But normally, when you think of 0-techniques and 1-techniques, you think more in terms of playing the run.

Dexter Lawrence had an unbelievable year last year, just with bull-rushing - just driving the center into the quarterback. Jeffery Simmons doesn’t come off the field. “Obviously, Quinnen Williams doesn’t come off the field. “Normally, the guys we think of as the best at those positions, and there are exceptions, but they’re usually more run players than pass players,” Greg said. You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:Ġ-tech players, who alight right over the center, and 1-tech players, who are in the gap between the center and a guard, are obviously required to use speed and power to get through all that mass to the quarterback. Who does it best, and what are the tools needed to do it? Greg and Doug spent this week’s “Xs and Os” building the ideal defensive line with those specific traits, and here, we drill down to the best pass-rushers in the 2022 season from every gap. In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” Greg (of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup) and Doug (of Touchdown Wire) get into the traits needed to get after the quarterback from every gap - from 0-tech (right over the center) to wide-9 (far outside the offensive tackle).

Still, quarterback disruption is about more than just scheme - you also have to have a certain number of guys with the right tools and traits to blow things up from every gap. In the effort to defend explosive plays, defenses align their pass-rushers all over the line of scrimmage in everything from stunts off of base fronts to overload fronts, where offensive linemen have to adjust more than they’d like to against numbers that don’t work for them.Īnything to get to the quarterback as quickly as possible. Today’s NFL is about two things above all else - creating and defending explosive plays.

Edge control touchdown