As a edge rusher, your favorite duty as a defender is when you get to pin your eats back and rush the quarterback. There isn’t a better feeling than beating a tackle around the corner and flattening into the pocket, decleating the passer with a jarring hit and then celebrating the sack.
However, football is much more than just a passing game and the best edge rushes also must be skilled at stopping the run. When playing on the edge, the term “setting the edge” gets floated around a lot without little context. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky and Marcus Spears recently conducted a segment on NFL Live highlighting Pittsburgh Steelers OLB T.J. Watt and his ability to set a strong edge against the run.
“I’ve heard Marcus Spears say so often that you have to earn the right to rush the quarterback,” Orlovsky said on NFL Live. “Now, that means you have to be willing and able to stop the run. One of the phrases we hear when it comes to stopping the run in defensive football is you have to set the edge.”
“The strong-side DL setting the edge means not just running and flowing with the play,” Spears said. “You’ve gotta put a stop to the offensive lineman to condense where that run pocket is so you can squeeze and your guy on the backside has a shorter area to cover.”
As the defensive end/outside linebacker lined up on the end of the line of scrimmage, your job is to condense everything back inside and not allow the opposing run game to get outside of you. That means the defender must be able to hold his ground against the opposing blocker looking to move him off his spot and drive him out toward the sideline or down the line of scrimmage, creating a wide running lane for the runner to exploit for an explosive play.
Watt has become one of the best run-stopping edge rushers in football, having the strength and size to hold his own at the point of attack against opposing offensive tackles as well as the explosiveness and quickness to work through and around blocks in pursuit of the ball. We see Watt do a great job not giving ground when the ball is coming his way as well as giving phenomenal effort on backside pursuit of the football, chasing down running backs from behind.
Watt has 30 total tackles and nine tackles for loss to go with the 10.5 sacks he has racked up by the midway point of the season. He has done a great job living in the opponents backfield not only as a pass rusher, but also as a run stuffer, setting a strong edge to condense the run back inside as well as keeping outside contain on runs to the sideline and playing backside pursuit. While we can appreciate Watt being one of the best sack artists in the game today, he remains one of the best overall defensive players in football thanks to his contributions as a run defender. They can get overlooked but never should be taken for granted.
