All-Twenty Tuesday: Barrett & Pierre-Paul

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We will get to some of the Jason Pierre-Paul stuff, but first I wanted to point out a few other tidbits I noticed while watching the coaches’ film from the Titans game.

Outside linebacker Shaq Barrett is not just a pass rush specialist. I have been really impressed with not only his willingness to defend the run – which is not a common attitude for a player who leads the league in sacks – but his improvement in doings so throughout the season.

Barrett has spoken to the media about how he has improved as a pass rusher with counter moves. Counters all start with fast, active hands. Whether it’s a rip move, a push-pull or some form of snatch or swipe, getting off blocks requires fast hands. Barrett has them, and as you can see above, he’s become very natural at using them.

It looked like Barrett’s eyes weren’t even on the offensive lineman, which is some next level stuff. His eyes just stayed in the backfield the whole time. Barrett said his swipe move was one of the first he knew coming into the NFL. Though he has expended his pass rush arsenal, that swipe move has only gotten better.

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I said this on last week’s episode of The Insiders show on WDAE (tune in at 9:00 am on Sundays! Rick Stroud, Jenna Laine, Pat Donovan and I have a blast talking Bucs and NFL football): you stop the run with discipline, you stop the pass with talent.

I mentioned this above, but it really is rare to see Barrett having the kind of success he is having as a pass rusher yet also watch him be such a willing run defender.

In the play above, Barrett did his job perfectly, and on that play his job happened to be the dirty work. Lined up in a stand-up position over the strong side C-gap beyond the tight end’s outside shoulder (towards the bottom of the screen), Barrett was tasked with setting the edge. This means that you have to position yourself and take on a block in such a way as to funnel the run back to the inside (where you have more teammates who can help you tackle him) and not let the ball carrier get to the sidelines (where there are less teammates to help).

As you can see, Barrett ended up having to take on two blockers because of the play design, but he put himself in the perfect position to not only take up both blockers but still force the running back to cut back inside. That’s disciplined defense. That’s what makes a good run defender.

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Now let’s get into some of the nuances of Barrett’s pass rushing I saw on Sunday.

Through the first four games of the season, Barrett had an astounding nine sacks. Before that time, there wasn’t a lot of tape on him, so offensive tackles really didn’t know what to expect – the element of surprise is always advantageous. Following his nine-sack stretch, everyone was ready to give Barrett the biggest contract in Buccaneers history. I made sure to get some playful jokes off on Twitter regarding the matter, too, but in reality I knew it was all about what happened next after team knew who he was and were able to study his tendencies.

The following two weeks both teams – New Orleans and Carolina – knew who Barrett was. As Arians said Barrett was “in the big leagues now.” Barrett wasn’t facing one-on-ones anymore. So now that his opponents knew his initial stuff, it was up to him to win in different ways – that is the sign of a good pass rusher, one who can always keep moves and tendencies fresh as to not get predictable throughout a season and even a career.

Because this was going to be Barrett’s first time going through something like this (being a heavily emphasized player to stop) I was waiting to see some of what is in the clip above. I knew Barrett was going to start to jump the snap a little as to give himself an advantage. This was expected, as it is a natural thought process for what to do when you’re first-time star rusher in a slump. Though it was expected, it does worry me just a tad.

On one hand, he’s being conscious of getting every millisecond he can once the ball moves, which is good. On the other, you don’t just want him heavily leaning on jumping the snap for his success. Such a strategy will give you flashes of success when you time it right, but overall it’s not a reliable way to win.

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Even on the one sack Barrett did have in the Titans game, he almost went too early. It appeared the Titans were doing some weird stuff with their snap count, as the Bucs were caught jumping early a few times, and it wasn’t just Barrett. But the point still stands.

Getting a little jumpy on the snap is a natural thing to see from a pass rusher who is learning how to deal with extra attention. But Barrett can’t just become a snap-jumper. He has to continue to work at his craft to expand his rush moves and more importantly expand his knowledge of when to use them. That, as well as a well anticipated jump off the ball, is what will get him back on track as a constant presence on the passer.

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Alright let’s get to Jason Pierre-Paul.

Two plays into his 2019 season and Pierre-Paul already recorded a sack. Now, to build off what we watched above, part of that was due to Barrett getting lucky and not getting called for offsides when he jumped the snap early (one of three times Barrett did during the game). But Pierre-Paul still looked dominant going up against his guy on that rep, and the bottom line is he finished the play with a sack.

That exact formation is the true vision for this Bucs defensive line. Barrett and Pierre-Paul in some combination of stand up or hand-down edge positions with Nassib’s length as a moveable piece depending on which side is the strong side, with Suh and Vea in the middle to clog up space.

That has the highest potential to give those edge guys one-on-ones, and we’ve seen what happens when they get it.

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Additionally, Pierre-Paul, like Barrett, is great at defending the run, and he showed that once against against the Titans with three tackles for loss.

I cannot tell you how advantageous it is to have, not only Tampa Bay’s best two pass rushers, but best two edge rushers play also at the caliber of Barrett and Pierre-Paul do against the run.

These guys never have to come off the field. I’m sure you’ve heard people talk about how Rams coach Sean McVay likes to stay play versatile in few formations, meaning he can run a multitude of plays from the same look. This is like the defensive version of that. By having two edge players like Barrett and Pierre-Paul who can positively impact both run and pass defense at their level means defensive coordinator Todd Bowles has the freedom to get creative and move players behind them in unique ways elsewhere.

That’s a nightmare for any offense.