Philadelphia Eagles: Vinny Curry Will Out-Sack Olivier Vernon

New York Giants defensive end Olivier Vernon may make $10 million more than Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Vinny Curry this season. But Curry will be the better pass-rusher when the year is over.

Two pass-rushers signed new contracts this offseason, with one of them having a sizable difference. Those two players that quarterbacks hate to see coming off of the edge are Olivier Vernon and Vinny Curry.

Vernon, who signed with the New York Giants this offseason, signed a ridiculous five-year, $85 million contract with more guaranteed money than J.J. Watt ($52.5 million). Curry stuck with the team that drafted him, the Philadelphia Eagles, and signed a five-year, $47.25 million deal with $23 million guaranteed.

As you can see, the contracts are clearly different with Vernon taking home more guaranteed money than Curry’s entire contract, so obviously Vernon must be a much better pass-rusher than Curry, right?

Wrong.

Both players were drafted in the 2012 NFL Draft with Curry going in the second round (59th overall) and Vernon going in the third round (72nd overall).

Over the span of the four years both players have been in the league, Vernon has started 46 career games (played in 64 games total) while Curry has yet to start a game (52 total games). If you just looked at the contract numbers and the amount of games each player has played in and started, you would guess Vernon has a significantly higher sack total, right?

Wrong again.

Vernon has 29 career sacks, with a career high 11.5 sacks coming in 2013. Curry has 16.5 career sacks, 12.5 less than Vernon, but in 46 less starts and 12 less games played. Curry’s career high came in 2014 where he had nine sacks on the year.

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You may argue that it doesn’t matter, Vernon still has more sacks, but I would counter by saying production is the most important aspect of football. And by going off of production, Vernon hasn’t really produced the way someone who will be making $13 million this season should be producing.

Combining the last two seasons worth of sacks, Vernon only has 14 sacks (32 starts) while Curry has 12.5 sacks (0 starts). Again, Vernon has more, but when dissecting the number of snaps you can see that his numbers are not better than Curry’s.

In 2014, Vernon played in 839 snaps and he played in 943 this past season for a total of 1,782 snaps over the last two seasons. Curry on the other hand only played 372 snaps in 2014 while adding 427 last year for a total of 799 snaps. That means Vernon played 983 more snaps than Curry, but only had one and a half more sacks than him.

Dissecting these numbers further, every 127 plays Vernon recorded a sack over that span while every 64 snaps Curry recorded one.

I’m no mathematician, but it is pretty evident that Curry has been the better pass-rusher over the last two seasons. To only have 12.5 less sacks, but start 46 less games, it’s pretty clear that the better pass-rusher is the one who does the most with the amount of time they are on the field.

(via FanSided) /

The Vernon fans of the world will see the facts in front of them and state that Vernon may not get sacks, but he does get a ton of hurries.

Let me start by saying hurries are not a true stat in my eyes. When a player gets a hurry, the result of the play is what should matter, but it isn’t what we look at. A player could have 100 hurries, but on 99 of those hurries the quarterback could throw for a touchdown. Would the hurry matter then? No.

Looking at the last two seasons again, Vernon had 16 hurries in 2014 and 20 in 2015 for a total of 36 in those two years. Curry had 10 in 2014 and added 10 more in 2015 for a total of 20. That means that Vernon had 16 more hurries than Curry in the last two seasons, which looks nice on paper, but when you add in the fact that Vernon had 1,782 snaps and Curry only had 799, it once again debunks the myth.

Going off of the hurry numbers, Vernon averages one hurry every 50 snaps while Curry averages one hurry every 40 snaps, proving once again that Curry has the edge as a pass-rusher.

must read: Philadelphia Eagles: 5 Potential Breakout Stars In 2016

If you were betting on Vernon vs. Curry for sacks in 2016, bet big on Curry because he will be starting for the first time in his career. Curry is already the better pass-rusher with a limited role, but the Eagles are letting him free and he will be flying high this season.

The Eagles are usually the team that people pick on for signing a free agent to a huge deal and they don’t pan out, but they may get a good laugh at the Giants for their mega-deal with Vernon, especially when they have a cheaper, yet better option.

Curry may not be the best pass-rusher in the NFL in 2016, but he will have more sacks than Vernon despite the $10 million difference in their salary.

Note: All contract numbers courtesy of Spotrac and all statistics courtesy of Sportingcharts.com

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Philadelphia Eagles: Vinny Curry Will Have More Sacks Than Olivier Vernon In 2016

By Jeremy Klump | Jun 14, 2016

New York Giants defensive end Olivier Vernon may make $10 million more than Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Vinny Curry this season. But Curry will be the better pass-rusher when the year is over.