Do Pass-Rush "Bags" Actually Matter for NFL Success?

James Foster charted 2,797 QB pressures from 2023 and 2024 to determine which pass rushers have the most diverse skill sets.

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

I charted every pressure from the top 52 edge rushers by pass-rushing move over the 2024 season, and in this piece, I’ll discuss my results and takeaways. The point of this study is to categorize edge rushers stylistically and identify players with particularly advanced or rudimentary movesets.

I did the same study last summer, and with two years of data, we can also evaluate players’ development from 2023 to 2024. Completing this project involves watching a lot of tape (2,797 pressures to be exact), so I have a lot of miscellaneous takeaways to share as well.

You can view all of the data as a sortable table here.

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In this piece:

• Methodology

• Takeaways, Qualifiers

• Do Pass Rush “Bags” Matter?

• Power Moves

  • Power Rushers

    • Jared Verse

    • Will Anderson Jr.

  • Long-Arm

• Speed Moves

  • Speed Rushers

    • Boye Mafe, Harold Landry

  • Speed-Rip

  • Cross-Chop

  • Ghost

  • Swipe-Chop

• Inside Moves

  • Inside Rush Specialists

    • Micah Parsons

  • Spin Move

• Unique Pass Rushers

  • Danielle Hunter

  • Aidan Hutchinson

  • Will McDonald

• Unblocked Pressures

  • Yaya Diaby

  • Travon Walker

• Other Takeaways

  • Most Improved Pass Rushers

  • Most Underrated Pass Rushers

• Edge Rankings

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Methodology

Using PFF data, I charted every pressure as one of 10 moves, which are grouped into four broad categories. I’ll discuss each move in depth later, but this is the basic outline:

Power

• Bull Rush: Two-handed power rush

• Long-Arm: One-handed power rush

• Power-to-speed: Rusher starts with power before transitioning to the outside track. This counts 50% for power and 50% for speed.

Speed

• Speed-Rip: Speed move with no strike to the outside hand

• Ghost: Flash a move and dip underneath the tackle’s outside hand

• Swipe-Chop: Rusher strikes the tackle’s outside hand with his outside hand (double-swipe, one-hand-swipe, stab-chop, etc.)

• Cross-Chop: Rusher strikes the tackle’s outside hand with his inside hand

Inside Moves

• Inside Counter: Any face-up move through the B-gap

• Inside Spin: Spin through the B-gap

UPS

• Unblocked/Pursuit/Stunt

Pressures resulting from power, speed or inside moves are classified as move pressures. That total is the denominator for calculating usage rates (power%, cross-chop%, etc.). UPS pressures are separate from the total.

Takeaways, Qualifiers

This kind of data is easy to misrepresent or draw the wrong conclusions from, so it’s important to lead with some qualifiers and establish what you should and shouldn’t take away from this analysis.

The three primary objectives of this project are:

1. Categorize edge rushers and show the different ways they win (describe players rather than rate them)

2. Identify players who are elevated by an advanced moveset or limited by a one-dimensional approach

3. Track players’ evolution and development from year to year

Do Pass-Rush Bags Matter?

Some people overstate the importance of a pass-rushing “bag,” although that disagreement might partially result from different definitions.