Pressure by position group by team in 2024
The Denver Broncos OL allowed 98 pressures in 2024 according to PFF. PFF shows that he was pressures 180 times on his 646 dropbacks. Meaning that the OL was only responsible for a little more than half of Nix’ pressures in 2024.
According to PFR, Nix was only pressured 102. PFF is much more generous with pressures than PFR is.
According to PFR, the Bronco defense led the league with 204 pressures in 2024. The Titans were the worst with 91 total pressures. The Cowboys ended up with a higher total pressure rate because they faced almost 100 fewer passing attempts than the Bronco D.
By PFR the Bronco leader in pressures was Zach Allen with 47. Allen was second in the NFL with pressures only bested by Trey Hendrickson who had 54. According to PFF, Hendrickson had 84 pressures and Allen had 75. PFF considers Hendrickson an edge while it classifies Allen as an IDL, so both led their position groups in pressures.
The Broncos only got 10 pressures and 3 sacks from DBs, meaning that they generally did not have to rely on “exotic” blitzes to generate pressure on the opposing QB. From a percentage standpoint the percentage of pressures and sacks that the Broncos get from DBs was one of the lowest in the league (see below). Of course, leading the league in sacks in pressures drives this percentage down.
The Patriots, who were terrible at pressuring the QB, had to rely on DB blitzes, while the 49ers finished the season with one DB pressure and no DB sacks. Vic Fangio’s Super Bowl champion defense in Philly also rarely used DB blitzes.
Using PFRs positional designations, the Broncos got 87 pressures and 34 sacks from their OLBs (edge) and 92 and 20.5 from their IDL guys.
On interesting point is that while our ILBs get 5.5 sacks on the season, they only generated 15 pressures. Here are their pass rush snaps:
- Cody Barton – 89
- Justin Strnad – 69
- Alex Singleton – 17
- Drew Sanders – 2
- Kwon Alexander – 1
So they generated 15 pressures on 178 pass rush snaps – 8.4%. That’s quite low for ILBs, who generally get pressure on much higher rates because they blitz infrequently.
The takeaway is that the two best teams in the league at pressuring the passer, Dallas and Denver, used different strategies to pressure the passer. The Cowboys get 6.5 sacks and 15 pressures from their DBs. Those 6.5 sacks from DBs was the second highest value in the league with only the Chargers 7.5 being higher. Of course the Chargers got 5.5 of those 7.5 from one player, Derwin James, who was third on their team in sacks despite only rushing the passer 68 times. He led the league in DB sacks. There were only 14 DBs with 40 or more pass rush snaps in 2024. Josh Metellus of the Vikings had the most with 84. Despite that he had only 15 pressures and zero sacks.
The LB who led the league in pressure rate (min 40 pass rush snaps) was Zaire Franklin. He only rushed the passer 47 times, but generated 16 pressures and 3.5 sacks. Among coverage LBs (rush the passer less than 20% of the time), the best pass rusher on the Broncos was Strnad and he only got pressure 19% of the time on his pass rushes.