EDGE Jason Pierre-Paul – 6-5, 275 – 31 years old – 11th season

Pierre-Paul has had one of the oddest careers of any player in the league, both on and off the field. Despite losing part of his hand in a fireworks accident on the Fourth of July in 2015, suffering a sports hernia that required season-ending surgery in 2016 and fracturing his neck in a single-car accident in May of 2019, Pierre-Paul not only remains in the league, but has played some of his best football over the past two seasons.

Figuring out exactly who JPP is as a pass rusher has been extremely challenging. In his second year in the NFL, the former first-round pick burst onto the scene with a 16.5-sack season with the New York Giants, after just 4.5 the year before as a rookie. Despite having the look of a rising star, JPP managed just 8.5 sacks over his next two seasons, including only two in 2013.

Bucs OLB Jason Pierre-Paul – Photo by: Mary Holt/PR

Since then JPP has been all over the production map, but his two seasons and 24 games in Tampa Bay haven’t disappointed at all. Pierre-Paul has averaged almost one sack per game as a Buccaneer, with 21 QB captures over the season-and-a-half he’s managed to be on the field for the Bucs’ upstart defense.

Anyone around the team will tell you that Pierre-Paul’s return to the gridiron after recovering from a broken neck was one of the biggest sparks lit under Todd Bowles’ unit. Led by JPP’s aggressive nature and outspoken demeanor, Tampa Bay’s young squad found their identity a bit and played excellent football down the stretch.

“JPP is a force,” Cheah said. “I honestly believe in a lot of behind-the-scenes stories that his most valuable trait is something that isn’t on tape – it’s his championship attitude. It bleeds through from work habits, to teammates’ demeanor, to practice, to game day.”

Heralded as a vocal leader who won’t hesitate to hold teammates accountable, JPP is one of the league’s toughest players, providing the edge that Tampa Bay’s defense has lacked for so long. Under Mike Smith the unit was widely considered one of the softest in the NFL, but the addition of players like Ndamukong Suh and Pierre-Paul has done wonders to change that reputation.

JPP on the field has always been a good, well-rounded player, who has been a seesaw of a pass rusher and a consistently strong run defender. There are a few games or match-ups every year where you wonder if JPP is underrated, then a few games where he disappears as a rusher, sometimes for long stretches.

Those stretches occurred far less often in half-a-season in Todd Bowles’ defense, as Pierre-Paul brought power and hand usage to the table that the Bucs simply didn’t have opposite Shaq Barrett over the first seven weeks of the season.

That’s Falcons left tackle Jake Matthews going for a ride into Matt Ryan’s lap. Not a lot of guys doing that to Matthews. JPP is a bully. That hurry forced a heck of an interception by Bucs cornerback Carlton Davis, too.

Atlanta’s young pup right tackle Kaleb McGary had his hands full in both games against the Bucs in 2019, as JPP clubbed inside of him without hesitation on this sack of Ryan. Pierre-Paul is able to work through and around blockers without losing sight of the ball, which is an underrated trait that consistently allows him to take the best path to the pocket.

“On tape, JPP is a very strong, yet bendy rusher,” Cheah said. “He’s got very long arms and has the ability to win with both speed and power. He’s become a crafty rusher in his age, too. He’s also outstanding against the run and regularly blows up running plays that are originally intended for his direction. His hand usage is advanced and he does a nice job setting an edge and using his long arms to control the blocker and his gap.”

Pierre-Paul might not be a dominant player, but Cheah is right that there are few weaknesses to his game. He wins without being ultra-explosive or flexible as a rusher, yet still has enough of both to complement his array of rush moves and ability to beat tackles outside, inside and through. That variety of attacks consistently keep his opponents off balance.

Lions left tackle Taylor Decker braces for the long arm, but Pierre-Paul hits him with the faux stab before cross-chopping around the lineman’s outside edge. You even see a little of that subtle shoulder dip to turn to the pocket that Cheah was talking about in his quote above. That’s impressive for a big, 6-foot-5, 275-pound edge rusher.

Jaguars left tackle Cam Robinson thinks Pierre-Paul is coming with power, only to see the double swipe work him over as JPP slips around his outside edge. Those hands are deadly.

It’s hard to nail-down a go-to move for JPP because he offers such a variety of combinations on a regular basis, so I asked Cheah for his take on the USF product.

“If he’s on the outside he likes a bull rush where he can get hands inside and use his long arms to walk the tackle back into the QB,” Cheah said. “He’s got some counters off that with clubs, rips, and swipes, but the bull is his go-to on the outside. On third downs he typically kicks inside in the Bucs’ NASCAR package and he’ll utilize his quickness against slower guards. He goes with a lot of misdirection stuff where he’ll press outside initially to get the guard to widen out and hop back inside.”

Cheah is 100 percent correct about JPP’s pass rush game being built off power moves, as the reps above show exactly how his deployment of moves evolves off of long arms and bull rushes. While JPP won’t run under a table at full speed like Von Miller or have the burst off the line of scrimmage that an Everson Griffen may offer, he ticks the boxes in those areas enough to be effective with his go-to moves.

The last thing I’ll say about JPP: he’s in unbelievable shape and almost never comes off the field. That’s a huge added bonus given the Bucs’ depth issues at edge defender, as Pierre-Paul has 89 and 92 percent of his team’s defensive snaps during each of his last two full seasons in 2017 and 2018. When he returned during Week 8 of last season, it took about one week before Pierre-Paul was back to shouldering a full-time load en route to recording 24 tackles, two forced fumbles and 8.5 sacks – five of which came in the Bucs’ last two games. I wouldn’t expect much deviation from that workload in 2020.

It would be terrific if the Bucs could add another effective edge rusher to their roster, freeing up Pierre-Paul to rush over guards and centers a lot more this season. He’s at his most effective as a rusher when he can out-reach and out-athlete the blocker in front of him, and those gifts are a lot more noticeable on a per-snap basis when he’s rushing inside in nickel defense.

But wherever he lines up, Pierre-Paul will make an impact. He’ll never be the most consistent one-on-one pass rusher in the NFL, but his spurts of high-end play can simply ruin a game for the opposition. If Pierre-Paul can stay healthy, the Bucs really need two more years of quality play before he succumbs to age a bit, as they simply have no suitable depth behind he and Shaq Barrett right now. With how well he’s taken care of his body outside of his accidents, I think JPP will still be a strong presence in 2020 as he enters the two-year, $27 million contract extension he signed with Tampa Bay this offseason.