The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots both topped the NFL in one meaningful statistic, laying out the blueprint for Super Bowl teams.
The NFL’s next-generation statistics account released the information today on X.
Four defensive players had over 30 pressures, which is the true definition of a ferocious pass rush. The Patriots accomplished that goal. However, the Seahawks are 150% full with six players in total. Building a defensive line with so many players requires not only a ferocious pass rush, but also a deep enough rotation and enough freshness to give any offensive line they face a hard time.
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Last year’s Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles were highly praised for the quality and depth of their defensive line. However, their pass rush is still only half as strong as the Seahawks’ 30+ pressure players. Maybe we don’t talk enough about the Seahawks’ pass rush.
This week I wrote about Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II, individually and together, who are tied for third among all NFL defensive tackles this season. To explain how difficult it is to get nine sacks from inside like they did, one needs to look at the size required to play position in the run game and maintain the line of scrimmage while still being explosive enough to do so.
Still, the Seahawks’ rusher rotation needs more trust. DeMarcus Lawrence, Uchenna Nosu, Boye Maffei and Derek Hall are all important parts of this Super Bowl team. It’s hard to talk about a team with six different defensive linemen, but it can’t be ignored.
This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks vs. Patriots: Seattle’s dominant pass rush leads NFL
