Washington Redskins: Ryan Kerrigan Needed Big Week 6

Ryan Kerrigan’s sack totals were down for the Washington Redskins in 2016, but Week 6 saw a change of fortune for the defensive constant

Over the last few seasons, there’s been on constant on the Washington Redskins defense. That constant was Ryan Kerrigan. In 2016, his sack totals weren’t looking very Kerrigan-ish however. A big week against the Philadelphia Eagles changed that.

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Let me get this out of the way immediately: sacks don’t mean much when looking at a player. There are so many ways someone can dismantle an offense. Kerrigan could be stopping the run, playing well in coverage, taking on multiple blockers, or hurrying the quarterback. None of those look as pretty as double-digit sack numbers, but they do the job.

However, Kerrigan has long been the one to get to the quarterback for the Washington Redskins. So, when he entered Week 6 with just 2.5 sacks on the year, it was a little troubling.

2.5 sacks through five games really isn’t terrible. That means he was on pace for about eight sacks in a full year. A lot of NFL players would love to record eight sacks in a single season. However, for Kerrigan, that would be the second worst total of his entire NFL career. His worst total of his career came in 2011, his rookie campaign, when he posted just 7.5 sacks.

Kerrigan wasn’t in the quarterbacks face nearly as often as he had been in past years. He found himself in a dry-spell and without any big games to his credit. However, he built off his sack in Week 5 against the Ravens with his best game of 2016. In Week 6, against the Philadelphia Eagles, Kerrigan absolutely bullied rookie right tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai.

That’s straight up Stelio Kontos, American Dad! level bullying.

Kerrigan picked up two early sacks, and was the main reason Will Blackmon picked one up as well. Kerrigan ran through his blockers, and got to Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, ripping his jersey in the process. That’s not a metaphor—I mean, literally ripping his jersey.

More help came, and Wentz escaped just long enough to let Blackmon bring him down. Kerrigan was credited with a half-sack.

After Kerrigan’s early disruption, he was no longer left one-on-one with Vaitai. That didn’t stop him however. While he didn’t pick up another sack, he did manage to get in Wentz’s face. He forced a few errant throws, and made some nice stops on runs.

That he couldn’t be left in one-on-one situations was the big thing, though. It was something Kerrigan hasn’t brought much of in 2016. He made it impossible for the Eagles to leave him alone. They had to bring help for Vaitai over constantly, and this made it easier for others to disrupt Wentz. In the end, Wentz had easily his worst game of his rookie season and it all started with a rip of the jersey, courtesy of Kerrigan.

While those eight sacks he was projected to finish with were nice, I think Kerrigan would prefer these projections. With five sacks through six games, he’s now on pace for 13 sacks this season. That would be his second-highest season total (13.5 in 2014).

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The Redskins defense has a lot of solid pieces, but Kerrigan is still the one that makes them go. Fans should be excited to see the HBKerrigan seen a lot more in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, opposing offenses are in for a nightmare scenario.