INDIANAPOLIS — If there’s one thing NFL teams need as much as a capable quarterback, it’s someone capable of getting to the quarterback.
Super Bowl 50, in which the Broncos rode Von Miller’s MVP performance to a victory over Cam Newton’s Panthers, might have even turned that equation on its head.
It’s why Jason Pierre-Paul and his mangled hand still will cash-in during free agency this offseason, and it also is why teams practically are salivating at the abundance of talented pass rushers on display all week at the scouting combine.
“You watch the Super Bowl, and that’s pretty much the only example I have to give,” Ohio State defensive end Joey Bosa said at the combine Thursday. “The defense won that game, 100 percent. Von Miller really showed what a pass rush can do for a team.”
For teams in need of edge rushers like the Jets and the Giants, whose 23 sacks last season were third-fewest in the league and a major contributor to Big Blue ranking dead last in pass defense, this year’s bevy of rush specialists could be a godsend.
Led by the 6-foot-4, 275-pound Bosa, who had 26 sacks in three seasons for the Buckeyes, a whopping 21 defensive ends and outside linebackers are ranked among the top-100 prospects this spring by most of the top scouting services.
Other top pass rushers available include former Ohio State end Noah Spence, Oregon’s 6-foot-7 DeForest Buckner, Shaq Lawson and Kevin Dodd of Clemson, and Oklahoma State’s Emmanuel Ogbah, who had 13 sacks last season.
The only other spot with more depth in this draft class is defensive tackle, where 16 prospects are ranked in the top 100 by Scouts Inc.
In short, if you’re an NFL team looking for a front-seven defender capable of producing right away, this looks like the year to find one … or two or three.
“You could wait until the third or fourth round this year and get a defensive tackle that in past drafts was a first-or second-rounder,” NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said in a pre-combine conference call.
But while defensive tackles are becoming more athletic and racking up more sacks because of that (the Jets’ Muhammad Wilkerson, for example, had 12 last season), it’s the outside rushers that are in demand.
That demand is so high that Bosa and Spence both are mentioned as candidates for the No. 1 overall pick, held by the Titans, even though Spence had to transfer to Eastern Kentucky because of substance-abuse issues.
No other position is mentioned as much with regard to the top choice. The other two players pegged to that spot are Ole Miss offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and Florida State cornerback Jalen Ramsey.
Helping the draft stock of pass rushers, the NFL’s ability to scout them and their increasing knack for contributing right away is that more and more college programs are using 3-4 schemes or multiple defensive fronts popular at the pro level instead of the 4-3.
The latest crop of pass rushers doesn’t seem to lack for confidence, either.
“I do believe I’m the best player in the draft,” Bosa said. “There’s, of course, a lot of amazing players in the draft and it’s going to be up to Tennessee to make that decision. But I think as a top player, if you don’t believe that, then there’s kind of something wrong.”