New York Jets: Team pass rush more important than individual

For the New York Jets, people have been pointing to sacks to judge their overall pass rush. There’s one problem, though, individual sack totals are overrated.

Fans of the New York Jets are wondering about the team’s pass rush, and if someone will step up and be the dominant edge rusher for the team. The problem is, having that dominant pass rusher doesn’t often lead to Super Bowl wins, nor does it consistently lead to being in the playoffs.

Jets fans yearn for the days of John Abraham, when a guy would consistently finish off pass rushes with a sack. However, when you look at winning formulas, it’s not about sacks, but simply getting pressure on the quarterback in any way, no matter if it results in a sack or not.

It is true that the last time the Jets were in playoff contention, Muhammad Wilkerson had 12 sacks. But again, when you look at the dominant team in this era, it’s not about individual or team sacks.

For the New England Patriots, it hasn’t been all about the sack. Since Bill Belichick took over as coach, they’ve only averaged 39 sacks per season. Only two of their Super Bowl appearances were when their team leader had 10 or more sacks on the season, and they’ve had just as many season where they a player with double-digit sacks as one where they had a player with fewer than seven. Those both happen four times each. In the end, sacks aren’t the be all and end all for pressure stats.

There are several ways to disrupt the passing game. A defense can get a sack — that’s great. However, they can also hurry the throw, hit the quarterback while he’s throwing and force the quarterback to throw the ball away.

Sacks don’t necessarily correlate to wins, and having a dominant pass rusher doesn’t either. What the Jets need to focus on is team defense and not worry about sacks. They will come. They just need to focus on being disruptive in the passing game. It’s not all about sacks.