Washington Redskins 2015 Profiles: Jason Hatcher

Thanks to the offseason additions of Stephen Paea and Terrance Knighton, the Washington Redskins have one of the NFL’s best defensive lines. Both Paea and Knighton are certainly accomplished players, but the team’s 2014 offseason signing, Jason Hatcher, is good enough to lay claim to being the team’s best DL after another fantastic season rushing the passer.

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Hatcher, who had 11 sacks in his final season with the Dallas Cowboys in 2013, now has three straight seasons of high-level passing on his resume and is one of the most disruptive 3-4 defensive ends in the game. He and Ryan Kerrigan did their best to carry the Redskins defense last season, and their work rushing the passer, along with the work that will be done by new stars Knighton and Paea up front next season, will help take pressure off of a secondary that still has major questions at safety.

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With any position, it’s important to look at the right numbers that go beyond the basic box score stats, and that’s especially important when focusing on a 3-4 defensive end who didn’t have the best line-mates last season (Stephen Bowen, Frank Kearse, Barry Cofield, Kedric Golston, and Jarvis Jenkins were all thoroughly underwhelming). It’s easy to look at Hatcher’s meager 25 tackles (his lowest output since 2010 when he was a mere part-time player for the Cowboys) and 5.5 sacks and say that he failed to make much of an impact, but that’s simply not the case.

First of all, 5.5 sacks isn’t a bad haul for a 3-4 DE, especially since you can’t just measure a player’s pass rushing skills at that position just by looking at his sack haul.

Per Pro Football Focus, Hatcher had the second-best Pass Rushing Productivity among 20 qualifying 3-4 defensive ends last season. J.J. Watt was obviously way in front of everyone else, so it’s thoroughly impressive that Hatcher was able to beat out the elite Sheldon Richardson and the beastly Mike Daniels in the pass rushing efficiency department last season. Of course, both Richardson and Daniels are better players due to their significantly better contributions in run defense, but it would be unfair to call Hatcher a liability against the run.

After logging 784 and 773 snaps in 2012 and 2013, respectively, Hatcher missed some time in his debut season with the Redskins, ending 2014 with just 533 snaps. That drop-off in opportunities accounts for the fact that several 3-4 defensive ends finished with more total pressure on the quarterback, but, as stated above, he was more efficient at getting after the passer than the vast majority of his peers at the position.

Hatcher’s sack numbers and overall production as both a pass rusher and run defender figure to go up next season for a number of reasons. Firstly, his snaps should go up, as he did miss three games last year, though this is likely the weakest reason for the projected uptick in numbers. Secondly, he’ll face less attention from opposing offenses with Knighton and Paea up front, as both are big bodies and legitimate difference-makers who could be better players than Hatcher (I’d rank him behind Knighton but in front of Paea for now).

And thirdly, the new defensive scheme figures to favor Jason Hatcher as a pass rusher. According to Mike Jones of the Washington Post, Hatcher is excited that new defensive coordinator Joe Barry’s scheme will call for him to shoot gaps and go directly after the quarterback more instead of freeing up the linebackers. That means more of Hatcher’s work in the passing game will show up on the stat sheet, giving him an outside shot at producing the second double-digit sack season of his career.

Oct 12, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; Washington Redskins defensive end Jason Hatcher (97) against the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cardinals defeated the Redskins 30-20. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

It’s more likely that Hatcher will end up with something in between the 5.5 sacks he had last season and the 11.0 sacks he had in 2013.

In that same piece by Jones above, the reporter observed Ricky Jean-Francois taking Hatcher’s place in sub-packages, so it’s possible that the 32-year-old’s snaps could be reduced in a rotation, especially now that he’s getting older (Hatcher certainly qualifies as a late-bloomer in this league).

But Hatcher should have ample opportunities to wreak havoc on opposing passing games, and the Washington Redskins have one of the league’s most efficient 3-4 defensive ends on their hands.

He now has three seasons of strong tape under his belt, and his ability to make good on his big contract in his first season with the Redskins quelled any concerns that he was a one-hit, 11.0-sack wonder in Dallas (of course, that notion overlooked his quietly promising 2012 season).

Hatcher, Kerrigan, Paea, and Knighton are four big names on an excellent-looking Redskins front seven, and they look all the more impressive and intriguing as a unit when you factor in youngsters Trent Murphy and Preston Smith.

Murphy is a player that the coaching staff has seemingly been high on for a long time, while Smith is a favorite of draftniks and a real sleeper at the outside linebacker position.

The Redskins sure have questions at safety, but with some big offseason additions across the defense and returning stars like Hatcher and Kerrigan, this unit is poised to take key and expected steps forward this season.

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