The Titans have accidentally settled one of the NFL's most controversial QB debates
Sacks are a QB stat, and the Titans are proving it.
One of the most common Monday morning debates amongst NFL watchers is who deserves the most blame for quarterback sacks. Especially after a disappointing performance, the finger pointing over who deserves our ire for each of the 6 sacks allowed in the big game flies hot and heavy. And often, the debate boils down to three main culprits: the quarterback, the offensive line, and the route runners attempting to get open.
Coverage sacks certainly happen in the NFL. Sometimes the QB goes down because his guys just cannot get open downfield. But most of the time, a sack is a team effort between a QB and his blockers. Titans coaches have responded with this general sentiment many times this season when asked about sack blame: "sacks are an offensive problem".
Now, to fans looking to pile-on the offensive line they're furious with, this kind of answer feels like a cop-out. Sacks are given up by the offensive line, why can't we just call them out for it? It's their job to pass protect, and when a rusher gets home, that's on them.
But I'm here to tell you that sacks are a quarterback stat. You may have heard that before and brushed it aside. But the 2024 Tennessee Titans have accidentally proven this to be a fact with their two quarterbacks this season.
Enter: Will Levis and Mason Rudolph. Two players who approach the QB position pretty differently. And one of their starkest differences, when you open up the stat sheet, is pressures and sacks.
Will Levis is dead last out of 43 qualifying passers in terms of pressure-to-sack ratio (P2S) at an eye-watering 31.0% clip. Mason Rudolph's P2S is 10.1%, the 4th best in the league this year. To put actual numbers to it, Levis has been sacked 40 times on 129 dropbacks and Rudolph has been sacked 7 times on 69 dropbacks.
How can this be, as both passers have been in and out of relatively the same lineup multiple times this year? It's been a controlled experiment the Titans have had the misfortune to perform for us. And it demonstrates first hand how all quarterbacks have a very active hand in their sack rate.
Pointing out that sacks are a QB stat doesn't imply that they aren't an offensive line stat. They're obviously both. But how a QB navigates the pocket, steps up within the framework of the protection, and his timing to cut it loose downfield or find an escape hatch to further create is paramount to sack avoidance.
Will Levis does this very poorly. Mason Rudolph is quite good at it. And they've become the latest test-case for why sacks on the quarterback are, in fact, a total-offense problem.
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