Article

Film Room: All Of Payton Wilson’s College Sacks

By Ross McCorkle

Posted on May 26, 2024 at 7:30 am

The Pittsburgh Steelers bolstered their inside linebacker group with the addition of the 2023 Bednarik and Butkus Award winner in NC State’s Payton Wilson. This was after they made Patrick Queen their highest-paid free-agent addition in team history. The Steelers want no part of the struggle they endured in 2023 with seven different starters at the position, and they have made the unit a real strong point of the team. Wilson was taken with the No. 98 pick at the end of the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Many thought his tape and skills were the cream of the crop for the ILB class, but injury concerns caused him to slide to the Steelers at great value.

We have already reviewed a couple of aspects of his play on the site. You can check out Alex Kozora’s review of his pursuit and closing speed on YouTube, and Jonathan Heitritter’s review of his pass coverage.

Today, we will examine his sacks. He had six sacks in 2023, which is right in line with the league leader at ILB in the NFL. The Steelers will have multiple guys capable of blitzing from the position, which could lead to some creative looks from Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin this year.

Patrick Queen was in the top ten at the position last season with 3.5. Queen ran a 4.50-second 40-yard dash at the combine, and Wilson ran a 4.43. Speed kills, and the Steelers now have plenty of it in the middle of their defense.

Payton Wilson lined up primarily as an off-ball linebacker, but they also used him out on the edge at times. When lined up at OLB, he tallied four of those sacks compared to the 11 at ILB. For 9.5 of those sacks, he was either rushing off the edge or blitzing, and the remaining 5.5 were either broken plays that he cleaned up with a sack or plays where he was acting as a spy and brought pressure once the threat of a run was contained.

As with the rest of his game, the closing speed and burst were the two biggest standouts in watching through his sack reel. Every one of these reps was won with speed. He only took on blocks once or twice, and in one of those plays, he lost his footing and popped back up to make the play. He will need to be able to take on running backs and win with something other than pure speed at the NFL level, so that will be something to watch develop.

The biggest thing that stuck out to me was his decision-making process. Payton Wilson will play it safe until he feels like the play is contained, but once his target is acquired, he is like a heat-seeking missile towards the quarterback. That quick trigger and burst will create issues for opposing offenses.