The wisdom or foolishness of spending big money on a free agent pass rusher,
This is an update of a post I did in 2022. It looks at tackles, pressures and sacks by age in the NFL. The conclusion back then was that pass rushers usually don’t make an immediate impact and their ability to rush the passer fades at a fairly constant rate, but that can be misleading as the number of pass rushers drops as they age. This will update that study with the data from 2023 and 2024.
Much like 2028, 2024 was a year in which very young (21 and 22 year old) pass rushers had very little impact. They combined for only 135 pressures while 23 year old defenders got 392 pressures. 27 year old players led the league with 686 pressures this season. That should not be surprising since that cohort of players led the league when they were 25 and 26 as well.
| Age | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | Average |
| 21 | 53 | 47 | 39 | 75 | 57 | 46 | 11 | 47 |
| 22 | 82 | 217 | 198 | 231 | 212 | 312 | 44 | 185 |
| 23 | 392 | 365 | 335 | 384 | 484 | 308 | 241 | 358 |
| 24 | 491 | 494 | 407 | 736 | 513 | 645 | 627 | 559 |
| 25 | 596 | 480 | 781 | 547 | 774 | 680 | 693 | 650 |
| 26 | 549 | 759 | 464 | 769 | 687 | 483 | 564 | 611 |
| 27 | 686 | 463 | 542 | 667 | 408 | 443 | 513 | 532 |
| 28 | 377 | 525 | 529 | 362 | 410 | 426 | 521 | 450 |
| 29 | 436 | 494 | 224 | 365 | 369 | 379 | 440 | 387 |
| 30 | 440 | 184 | 309 | 262 | 284 | 408 | 572 | 351 |
| 31 | 147 | 232 | 136 | 239 | 307 | 189 | 260 | 216 |
| 32 | 157 | 126 | 108 | 242 | 142 | 141 | 151 | 152 |
| 33 | 77 | 73 | 196 | 50 | 90 | 86 | 96 | 95 |
| 34 | 33 | 61 | 43 | 90 | 16 | 31 | 87 | 52 |
| 35 | 69 | 22 | 30 | 22 | 0 | 17 | 28 | 27 |
| 36 | 14 | 5 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 55 | 17 |
| 37 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 70 | 14 |
| 38 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 39 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 2 |
There were 73 defenders who were 27 in the 2024 season who got at least one pressure. The four most successful were Zach Allen, Jonathan Greenard, Maxx Crosby and Nick Bosa. According to PFR (from whence all of this data comes), they combined for 161 pressures. Which was 23.4% of all pressures from 27 year olds.
By position, players listed as “DE” had the most with 1024 of the 4619 total pressures in 2024.
| Position | Pressures |
| CB | 115 |
| DB | 46 |
| DE | 1024 |
| DL | 794 |
| DT | 733 |
| FS | 1 |
| LB | 819 |
| MLB | 15 |
| NT | 61 |
| OLB | 822 |
| S | 187 |
| SS | 2 |
| Grand Total | 4619 |
Of course positional designations can change from team to team for the same player. To some Bradley Chubb is a defensive end, while to others he is an outside linebacker.
2024 was a banner year for well-aged pressures with 6.7% of all pressures coming from players that were 32 years old or older. 311 of 4619 pressures came from players from “old” players. Two players over the age of 31 got 25 pressures, Kyle Van Noy and Za’darius Smith. Cameron Heyward got 24 at the age of 35 and Calais Campbell got 20 at the ripe old age of 38.
| Season | Total Pressures | Pressures by >32 yrs old | Well Aged Pressures |
| 2024 | 4619 | 311 | 6.7% |
| 2023 | 4571 | 185 | 4.0% |
| 2022 | 4356 | 284 | 6.5% |
| 2021 | 5041 | 162 | 3.2% |
| 2020 | 4755 | 108 | 2.3% |
| 2019 | 4624 | 164 | 3.5% |
| 2018 | 4990 | 257 | 5.2% |
If we turn our eyes to sacks, we find a similar curve (see below).
That same age cohort mentioned above led the league in sacks in 2022 at the age of 25 and in 2023 at the age of 26. In 2024 at the age of 27 they did the same. I would not be surprised if they led the league in sacks in 2025 at the age of 28 as well. Von Miller only generated 16 pressures last season according to PFR. SIS credited him with 24, but it was one of his worst years for pressures. Despite that, Von, who had zero sacks in 2023, got 6.0 sacks, and 7 TFL in very limited snaps (267). His pressure rate of 13.5% was back up to his normal levels after dropping below 10% in 2023.
Tackles tend to be much easier to get at a young age than pressures or sacks. 24 year old players led the league in tackles in 2019. 25 year old players led the league in 2020 and 2021.
Thankfully the Denver Broncos don’t need much help in the pass rush department. John Franklin-Myers and Zach Allen were two of the best IDL at generating pressure last season and both are under contract for the 2025 season.
In fact, the only significant pass rusher that the Broncos don’t currently have under contract is Dondrea Tillman and he will be brought back as he is an exclusive rights free agent. While you can never have too many pass rushers, the Broncos are loaded for 2025 and if they can find another above average pass rusher in the second round like Nik Bonitto, or in the 7th round like Jonathan Cooper the pass rush should continue to be one of the best in the league in 2025.