Quietly, Gholston is putting together the best season of his career and one of the best iDL in the entire NFL. And I'm not talking about top 20. I'm talking top 10.
He's playing more techs than he ever has with the loss of Vea.
His Run Stop % is down this year (he was # 2 in the NFL last year for iDL), but he's certainly not been bad in the Run Game. He's been solid.
However, the big change this year is how productive he has been in Pass Rush. And he's been this productive despite a system that puts its 3T and 5T players in Stunts and Loops to free 2nd level players (typically White or an NCB or SS) on the blitz. He has a ridiculous 15.3 % Pressure Rate this year. He's the # 5 iDL in Pass Rush Productivity through 10 games (way clear of 5 and just behind 3). He's been phenomenal in Pass Rush. He hasn't just been good overall, but he's been consistent. In every game where he has 20 or more Pass Rush Snaps, he has 4 or more Pressures. That is fantastic.
Contrast with Suh who is making 8 Million to Gholston's 4.75 Million.
Suh is bottom of the league in Run Stop %.
Suh is # 21 in Pass Rush Productivity.
Suh has 8 games with 3 or less Pressures (despite having only 2 games with less than 30 Pass Rush Snaps; 27 and 28).
Suh's Pressure Rate is almost half of Gholston's at only 7.7 %.
This is like a Buccaneers microcosm of the greater problem with player production recognition in the NFL (which maps to LVD's issues in the league over the last many years). By the tape...by the metrics, Gholston has been absolutely stellar for the Bucs. Forgetting Vea for a moment (if he were here and Gholston's play was the same through 10 games, you would have to bump WInfield), a list of top 5 Bucs defenders in 2020 has to look like this:
David
Davis
Barrett
Gholston
Winfield
That is how good, how impactful, how consistently effective Gholston has been. But as far as our fanbase and the league goes, the recognition and celebration of his excellence has been sucked into the predictable void of "WHO?" and "BUT SACKS/SPLASH PLAYS!"
TLDR - When you're putting together your prospective 2021 Offseason, don't let Gholston's "quietly effective" 2020 land him on your "cap casualty" list.
