Despite being tied for the third-most sacks in the NFL, the Steelers only have one player in PFF’s pass rusher rankings.
Ahead of Week 5, PFF released its NFL pass-rusher rankings. Surprisingly, neither of the team’s top two leaders in sacks made the list. Those being Nick Herbig and T.J. Watt. Instead, Cameron Heyward checked in as the 29th-best pass rusher in the league with a grade of 78.0.
While it’s nice to see Heyward getting love, it is curious that Watt, currently with three sacks this year and tied for the 12th-most in the NFL, is omitted. Herbig has also been dominant with 2.5 sacks, seemingly always applying pressure on the quarterback.
The rankings are based on PFF’s pass-rush grade, where Watt comes in with a 71.0 grade, which ranks 38th among all pass rushers. Herbig’s 73.9 pass-rush grade just missed the list.
Perhaps even more curious is that PFF’s grade does not reflect the amount of attention both Watt and Herbig are receiving. According to their recent study, Watt gets chipped at the third-highest percentage of any EDGE rushing in the league and gets double-teamed at the fourth-highest clip.
The data, which tracked up to Week 3 following the team’s game against the New England Patriots, showed that Watt was chipped at 29.76% of snaps to that point and was double-teamed on half of those. You would think that this, coupled with a top-12 sack total, would receive a curve on Watt’s grading, but it seems that is not the case in the PFF’s system.
Likewise, Herbig has also been drawing the team’s attention when he’s on the field. He totaled a 23.08% up to Week 3, which is good for top 10 in the NFL. For Steelers fans, this should come as no surprise. Herbig has been a terror for opponents every opportunity he has gotten. Now, with Alex Highsmith sidelined due to an ankle sprain, Herbig has continued to show his stardom. In his two starts since Highsmith went down, Herbig has totaled 2.5 sacks, two tackles for loss, a forced fumble, and seven quarterback hits.
For whatever critics say that Watt has lost a step, which, by the data we now know, is more a culprit of scheming than actual play, Herbig has picked it up. With Highsmith potentially returning to the lineup after the team’s bye week, it will be interesting to see how the team handles their rotation.
Outside of belly-aching about Watt and Herbig’s omission, let’s focus on the positive and feel good about Heyward’s inclusion. He has been, as he always is, a wrecking ball in the middle of the Steelers’ defensive line. So far this season, he has a 15.5% pass rush win rate, leading to 11 quarterback pressures. Perhaps his most notable skill has been his ability to knock down passes with two.
No matter which way you look at it, Watt, Herbig and Heyward are among the best pass rushers in the NFL. Not a bad thing for any defense.
