How can Washington rush the passer without Chase Young and Montez Sweat?
Breaking down a few ways Washington can generate pressure without two of its best pass rushers
Washington’s win against the Buccaneers didn’t come without a price. Defensive end Chase Young was lost for the season with a torn ACL during the game and with Washington already missing Montez Sweat with a broken jaw, suddenly the team is lacking edge rushers. Washington’s defensive line had a slow start to the season, but once the rush became more coordinated, the front four were able to generate consistent pressure.
Without Sweat and Young on the edge, however, Washington’s ability to generate pressure with just the front four is much more difficult. The depth behind Young and Sweat wasn’t fantastic and now Washington will be looking for someone to step up from the group of Casey Toohill, James Smith-Williams, Bunmi Rotimi and rookie Shaka Toney. While one or two of those guys may step up and be solid, they’re unlikely to replicate what Young and Sweat brought to the team. So the question becomes, how can Washington rush the passer without its two top edge rushers? Let’s take a closer look at a few different options the team has.
Man blitzes
The aggressive option for Washington is to look to play more man coverage, freeing up the linebackers and safeties to add to the rush as blitzers.
Washington didn’t use this option too often against the Bucs, but they did use it once in a key situation. On third and three here, Washington goes pure man-to-man across the board, with each eligible receiver assigned with a single defender. Safety Bobby McCain is left in the deep middle of the field as the security blanket, while linebacker Cole Holcomb has no receiver to cover and thus is able to blitz.
The end zone replay angle shows this rush to look like Washington is blitzing six defenders, but while linebacker Jamin Davis is lined up on the edge he is reading the release of the back as he has him in man coverage. Still though, with Davis on the edge, the offense feels the need to account for him and the left tackle initially slides outside to block him. That means the left guard has to slide outside to block the actual defensive end, Casey Toohill. This results in the center being left trying to block both Jonathan Allen and Cole Holcomb. He tries to pass off Allen to the left guard and pick up Holcomb, but Allen bursts through and pressures Tom Brady, who is forced to throw the ball away almost immediately.
I don’t anticipate Washington suddenly becoming a heavy man coverage team with lots of extra blitzers, but they do use this situationally as we saw here and I expect that to continue with perhaps a small rise in frequency depending on the opponent and game situation.
Simulated pressure
This is an option I think we’re far more likely to see from Washington going forward. A simulated pressure is a scheme designed to attack protection schemes by looking more threatening than they actually are. They’re typically only four-man rushes, but the four that rush aren’t necessarily the four the offense would expect to rush.
A basic example of this is something Washington used a lot last season. When offenses started sliding to Chase Young too frequently, Washington would occasionally have Young drop back into coverage and send a linebacker or a defensive back from the other side. It was still a four-man rush, but the protection would slide away from the fourth rusher, leaving him free.
I think an example of this we saw against the Bucs could become a common occurrence for Washington in the coming weeks.
On this play, Washington has five defensive lineman on the field. Jonathan Allen is joined by Daron Payne and Matt Ioannidis on the inside, while James Smith-Williams and Casey Toohill flank them on the edges. Allen, Payne and Ioannidis are probably Washington’s best three pass rushers now that Young and Sweat are out, so it makes sense to use looks that get all three on the field and rushing at the same time. Rather than rushing all five defensive lineman though, Washington has both defensive ends drop into coverage, while sending Cole Holcomb to join the rush up the middle.
Tampa Bay’s offensive line actually pick this up relatively well. The guards pass off Ioannidis and Allen to the tackle, enabling them to slide back inside and help deal with Payne and the blitzing Holcomb. However, Tom Brady isn’t sure if the protection will hold up and with two defensive ends unexpectedly dropping into coverage muddies up the look for him, so he quickly checks the ball down to the running back and Toohill joins with Kendall Fuller to make the tackle and prevent any yards after the catch.
Washington might have to adjust the simulated pressures that the team typically uses without Sweat and Young coming off the edge, because protection schemes might change accordingly. But certainly, using this type of look to get all three interior rushers on the field at the same time while still being able to drop seven defender into coverage could be an appealing option for Washington in the next few weeks.
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