It’s hard to comprehend just how quickly the Raiders went from several years of being one of the worst pass-rushing teams in the NFL to being far and away the best pass-rushing team in the league.
It’s easy to see the night-and-day improvement by the Raiders’ defensive line. But even as good as it is, some folks who have followed the Raiders exclusively for years may find themselves wondering if the improvement is drastic merely compared to how bad it was or compared to the rest of the league.
It’s both, actually. And this graph from Next Gen Stats offers the best illustration of this I’ve seen yet.
The Raiders defense has generated at least a 30% pressure rate in all seven games this season, the longest streak to start a season in the NGS era (since 2016).
Raiders Defense (2021)
🔹 38.7% pressure rate (3rd-highest in NGS era)
🔹 15% blitz rate (lowest)#RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/VBhacUPRqE— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) October 27, 2021
Most NFL teams are that oval cluster in the middle. Then look in the upper lefthand corner, separated from everyone else. It’s the Raiders.
That’s exactly where you want to be because it means the Raiders blitz less than any other team in the league and yet still have the third-highest pressure rate (38.7). It makes them an extreme outlier as the rest of the NFL shows.
The NFL’s Next-Gen Stats added that the Raiders have gotten pressure on 30% of their snaps in every game this season. Which explains why they have six different players with multiple sacks, led by Maxx Crosby (5.0) who also leads the entire NFL QB hits (19) and is second in pressures (36) only to teammate Yannick Ngakoue (38).
Ngakoue is the reigning AFC Defensive Player of the Week.
