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Pass rusher remains 'one of the hardest positions' for NFL teams to evaluate


BY JOEL A. ERICKSON | [email]jerickson@theadvocate.com
Mar 1, 2017 - 4:17 pm

INDIANAPOLIS – The New Orleans Saints find themselves in the market for a pass rusher, a target nearly every team in the NFL is hunting as the league descends on the NFL scouting combine at Lucas Oil Stadium this week.

Despite the presence of two-time Pro Bowler Cameron Jordan, resurgent tackle Nick Fairley and promising rookie Sheldon Rankins, the Saints finished 27th in the NFL with just 30 sacks, their lowest total since the 2012 season.

The good news is that most of the general managers who took the podium at the combine Wednesday said the 2017 class holds one of the deepest classes of pass rushers the draft has seen in years.

The bad news is that drafting a pass rusher is far from an exact science.

"It’s one of the hardest positions," Cincinnati general manager Duke Tobin said. "You have to fit it within your scheme. Are you willing to take an undersized guy? Do you want to take a full-sized guy? How often is he going to play? Is he going to be in the linebacker room or the defensive end room? Is he on the line of scrimmage or is he off? Is he going to be off the field on first down and on the field on third down, or is he an every-down player?"

Under Dennis Allen, New Orleans typically runs a four-man front, which makes the task of finding a pass rusher a little bit easier, given the difficulty of projecting a college defensive end to 3-4 outside linebacker in the NFL.

"Eighty-90 percent of them don’t play on their feet in college," Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert said. "So the potential for error at the outside linebacker position is really greater than any other position, because most of the time it is a projection."
Pass rusher remains 'one of the hardest positions' for NFL teams to evaluate | Saints | theadvocate.com

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