Hawkeye0202
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LOL......many fans wanna get rid of him
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profo...-andy-reid-kansas-city-chiefs-peter-king-fmia
I thought there were five strong candidates, all edge players: Maxx Crosby, Myles Garrett, Khalil Mack, Micah Parsons and T.J. Watt, in alphabetical order. (Four very good ones didn’t make my cut in Josh Allen, Nick Bosa, Danielle Hunter and Aidan Hutchinson).
This contest, as has happened with many of the awards now, has been impacted by advanced metrics. It used to be, maybe 15 years ago, that you’d look at the sack leaders or the interception leader and give the nod to one of them. But times have changed, with deeper dives into numbers and pass-rush metrics from Next Gen Stats and PFF. This one number illustrated how close this contest was: Garrett and Watt, the front-runners in the eyes of many, each had 86 regular-season quarterback pressures (sacks/QB hits/hurries), per PFF.
My criteria is not precise. Which player lifts his defense the most, perhaps making a good defense great? Which player both masters the new-age metrics and passes the eye test for major impact all season? How do players and coaches and GMs I’ve spoken with during the year rate the best players?
The cases for all five will show you I could have picked any of them and had a strong argument:
Crosby, Las Vegas: For my money, the highest-energy defensive player in football. Best run defender of them all, with 42 run stops and 18 run stuffs (rushers tackled for zero or negative yards). Played every snap in 10 Raider games this year, a rarity; four other players with one each were the only others to do that. Had more overall pressures (94) than Garrett and Watt. His negative is time to pressure—3.19 seconds per pressure, per Next Gen Stats. That’s almost a full second slower than Parsons and Garrett.
Garrett, Cleveland: Heartbeat of his team. “I’ve coached three players who made every coordinator who ever played us say, ‘That’s the guy we’ve got to account for on every play,’” Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz told me. “Ray Lewis, Calvin Johnson and Myles Garrett.” Average time to get to the quarterback: 2.32 seconds, which was second only to Parsons’ 2.31 seconds. His most impressive metric: PFF rated Garrett number one in pass-rush grade and pass-rush win rate—how often the pass-rusher is judged to have beaten his blocker on pass-rush snaps. His win rate of 27.3 percent was significantly better than Watt’s 16.9-percent win rate.
Mack, L.A. Chargers: Sneaky excellent season, including against the run, with the same number of tackles behind the line (38; 21 tackles for loss and 17 sacks) as T.J. Watt. More passes batted down (10) than any edge player, and the most forced fumbles (five) in this group. He forced his way into this group despite his team being the worst among the top candidates.
Parsons, Dallas: There’s a stat Next Gen uses called “quick pressure.” It’s a measure of how many pressures a rusher gets in 2.5 seconds after the snap or less. Parsons had 62, Garrett 54 and Watt 37. Parsons had the highest average pressure rate (pressures divided by overall rushes) at 21.4 percent, 4 points ahead of Garrett, 8 points ahead of Watt.
Watt, Pittsburgh: This year became the first player to win the NFL sacks a third time with 19.0 sacks. That’s 4.5 more than Crosby and five more than Garrett and Parsons. That matters, getting home more than anyone else. It matters a lot. Per Next Gen Stats, though, Watt had a pressure rate of 13.7 percent per rush—good, but down the list from the best edge-rushers. Watt would have won it in bygone years because of his sack numbers, and his terrific overall play could win it this year when the awards are announced in Las Vegas on Feb. 8.
I almost thought: Flip a five-sided coin.
I picked Garrett. In order, my top five were Garrett, Parsons, Watt, Crosby and Mack. Garrett was high in both PFF grade and Next Gen pass-rush metrics, and his team was the number one defense in football. More than that, I kept thinking of one play—amazingly, not a pass-rush or strip-sack or some great spin move.
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profo...-andy-reid-kansas-city-chiefs-peter-king-fmia
The DPOY Dilemma
The day my NFL awards ballot was due to the Associated Press 12 days ago, I finished seven categories, knowing for a couple of weeks I’d struggle on the eighth. In very few cases over the years filling out this ballot have I agonized the way I did this year on Defensive Player of the Year. I’ll take you into my deliberations.I thought there were five strong candidates, all edge players: Maxx Crosby, Myles Garrett, Khalil Mack, Micah Parsons and T.J. Watt, in alphabetical order. (Four very good ones didn’t make my cut in Josh Allen, Nick Bosa, Danielle Hunter and Aidan Hutchinson).
This contest, as has happened with many of the awards now, has been impacted by advanced metrics. It used to be, maybe 15 years ago, that you’d look at the sack leaders or the interception leader and give the nod to one of them. But times have changed, with deeper dives into numbers and pass-rush metrics from Next Gen Stats and PFF. This one number illustrated how close this contest was: Garrett and Watt, the front-runners in the eyes of many, each had 86 regular-season quarterback pressures (sacks/QB hits/hurries), per PFF.
My criteria is not precise. Which player lifts his defense the most, perhaps making a good defense great? Which player both masters the new-age metrics and passes the eye test for major impact all season? How do players and coaches and GMs I’ve spoken with during the year rate the best players?
The cases for all five will show you I could have picked any of them and had a strong argument:
Crosby, Las Vegas: For my money, the highest-energy defensive player in football. Best run defender of them all, with 42 run stops and 18 run stuffs (rushers tackled for zero or negative yards). Played every snap in 10 Raider games this year, a rarity; four other players with one each were the only others to do that. Had more overall pressures (94) than Garrett and Watt. His negative is time to pressure—3.19 seconds per pressure, per Next Gen Stats. That’s almost a full second slower than Parsons and Garrett.
Garrett, Cleveland: Heartbeat of his team. “I’ve coached three players who made every coordinator who ever played us say, ‘That’s the guy we’ve got to account for on every play,’” Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz told me. “Ray Lewis, Calvin Johnson and Myles Garrett.” Average time to get to the quarterback: 2.32 seconds, which was second only to Parsons’ 2.31 seconds. His most impressive metric: PFF rated Garrett number one in pass-rush grade and pass-rush win rate—how often the pass-rusher is judged to have beaten his blocker on pass-rush snaps. His win rate of 27.3 percent was significantly better than Watt’s 16.9-percent win rate.
Mack, L.A. Chargers: Sneaky excellent season, including against the run, with the same number of tackles behind the line (38; 21 tackles for loss and 17 sacks) as T.J. Watt. More passes batted down (10) than any edge player, and the most forced fumbles (five) in this group. He forced his way into this group despite his team being the worst among the top candidates.
Parsons, Dallas: There’s a stat Next Gen uses called “quick pressure.” It’s a measure of how many pressures a rusher gets in 2.5 seconds after the snap or less. Parsons had 62, Garrett 54 and Watt 37. Parsons had the highest average pressure rate (pressures divided by overall rushes) at 21.4 percent, 4 points ahead of Garrett, 8 points ahead of Watt.
Watt, Pittsburgh: This year became the first player to win the NFL sacks a third time with 19.0 sacks. That’s 4.5 more than Crosby and five more than Garrett and Parsons. That matters, getting home more than anyone else. It matters a lot. Per Next Gen Stats, though, Watt had a pressure rate of 13.7 percent per rush—good, but down the list from the best edge-rushers. Watt would have won it in bygone years because of his sack numbers, and his terrific overall play could win it this year when the awards are announced in Las Vegas on Feb. 8.
I almost thought: Flip a five-sided coin.
I picked Garrett. In order, my top five were Garrett, Parsons, Watt, Crosby and Mack. Garrett was high in both PFF grade and Next Gen pass-rush metrics, and his team was the number one defense in football. More than that, I kept thinking of one play—amazingly, not a pass-rush or strip-sack or some great spin move.
he played quite a bit of LBer the last few games
