Chargers rookie EDGE Tuli Tuipulotu is a future star: Film Breakdown
In this film breakdown, we take a look at Los Angeles Chargers rookie EDGE Tuli Tuipulotu, one of the best rookies so far this season.
Tuli Tuipulotu ranks atop rookie edge rushers in most categories, and is right there in the mix with the rest of the league as well. Many rookies just have a list of moves they can do, but don't really have a pass rushing plan, and a way to string moves together in a coordinated way.
So far, Tuipulotu has shown the ability to do that, even if he isn't always winning. In order to develop as a strong pass rusher, you have to have that ability, which is one of the reasons I'm so high on Tuipulotu already. The Chargers have a rising star in Tuli Tuipulotu.
Los Angeles Chargers EDGE Tuli Tuipulotu Film Breakdown
Disclaimer: The following is a transcript of a YouTube video titled “Chargers Rookie EDGE Tuli Tuipulotu is a Future Star: Film Breakdown” The content is for informational purposes only and was originally presented in video format.
Los Angeles Charger's Edge Rusher Tuli Tuipulotu has been one of the best rookies so far. He has five sacks, thirteen pressures, and thirteen stops. A stop is a tackle that results in an unsuccessful play for the offense. This table shows all of his stats via PFF. The rank column shows how he compares to all NFL edge rushers, and the rookie column is 13 qualifying rookies.
And he's made a high impact as a run defender and rushing the passer. He has given up two plays in coverage, which I don't really weight that highly for an edge defender. But you see that reflected in the 64.0 PFF grade. As a pass rusher, he uses a wide range of moves, especially for a rookie, but he's had success with pretty much everything he's tried. It's not like he's just throwing stuff at the wall, hoping it sticks.
On this first play, he's lined up against Brian O'Neal. He's going to try to use a double swipe and get around the outside shoulder, but O'Neal does a good job timing his punch and shutting that down. But one thing about Tuipulotu is that he just has a relentless motor, if his first move doesn't work, he's immediately getting into a counter and continuing to apply pressure. So when Brian O'Neal catches him with this inside hand, he responds by getting into a swim move.
The tackle's overextended with his inside arm, so if Tuipulotu is able to defeat that, then he can get to the quarterback. So he spins and then he pins his arm on the blocker's back. Mack's initially able to beat Christian Darrisaw to the inside before the guard slides over to help him, and that causes Kirk Cousins to kind of step up into the pocket over to his right; and then Tuipulotu just powers through and hits the quarterback.
The spin move is something I expect to see a few times per game. On this play against the dolphins they run play action so he's a couple seconds delayed getting into his rush…But he's able to threaten the speed rush outside and then he uses a really fluid inside spin.
At this point, he's already used the inside spin a couple times throughout the game. He's going to threaten the speed rush upfield, give a head fake to the inside and then speed rush around the corner. He doesn't just have a list of five moves that he uses with no coordination. I've seen him win a couple times with a crosschop, where he strikes across his body with his inside arm on the blocker's outside arm, and then pulls himself through with the offhand.
This is another play where he's delayed getting into his rush because he gets chip help from the tight end. But once he's square up with the blocker, he uses the ghost technique. So he flashes his arm at the blocker's chest to make him think that he's using speed to power. And then when the tackle extends his arms, he dips underneath around the outside shoulder.
Cousins bales from the pocket, and then great pursuit by Tuipulotu to finish the sack. Right here, he gets a hand on the quarterback using a double swipe into a rip move. The double swipe is using both hands to defeat the blocker's outside arm. And then when Andre Dillard gets into his punch, he's extending that arm and he creates space for the rip move underneath.
Right here. He fakes the swipe move by, flashing out this outside arm, gets the guard to overset, and then he rips through with the inside counter. He's had a lot more success playing from a wide alignment where he's able to build up speed before he gets into his move. On this play he starts out at a five technique and he is rushing against the right guard. He uses a club rip, where he strikes the inside shoulder. Again he gets the blocker to extend his inside arm, which opens up space for the rip move, and he gets a quarterback hit.
And then going back to his motor and the fact that he just never gives up on a play. Right here he's trying to cross the left guard's face. Ezra Cleveland's able to land an effective punch and stall his pass rush, he disengages, tosses him to the side and gets to the quarterback. So as you can see, he's using a lot of different pass rushing moves, having success with most of them, and athletically he has an explosive first step, he's quick with his hands, and he has good raw power. his one limitation is just a lack of length, and I think at times that makes his cross chop less effective.
But going into a matchup against an offensive tackle, they're each gonna have their own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to pass protection.So the fact that he's able to win in so many different ways, I think is a recipe for consistent production. It's not like his only way of getting to the quarterback is just speed around the edge. And if he's facing a tackle that can get into vertical sets and protect the outside, then you're never gonna hear from him.
The main thing I'm interested to see going forward is how effective will he be as a power rusher. He has really good play strength to fight through, like, incidental contact. And we have seen some flashes over the first three games of an effective bull rush and speed to power. Right here he uses a long arm on Daniel Brunskill where he just centralizes all of his force into one point and drives him into the ground.
But so far the better pass blockers that he's faced have been able to neutralize that power after a few anchor steps. And he's still getting pressure on a lot of these plays. It'll just be interesting to see if he can get home consistently with a bullrush. And then his run defense has also been really impressive through the first three weeks.
He has an 11.5% run stop rate, which ranks 13th in the NFL. His quick movement skills show up with his ability to get around blocks and split through double teams on this play against Miami, you can see how this subtle dip with the inside shoulder causes the tackle to miss with his hands. And then right here he is taking on a kickout block. Again, he's able to dip his shoulder and then rip underneath and make the tackle. And then you've also seen the explosiveness and speed as far as beating someone to their aiming point.
He had a couple reps from the Titans game where he was able to come in from the backside and he was just too fast for the Titan to cut him off. And as far as setting an edge in run defense, the key factor has been whether or not he's prepared to take on the block. If it's just like a one-on-one base block or reach block where he's lined up in front of the player that's blocking him, he's really quick with his punch. He has good play strength and he's able to set the edge stack and shed and then disengage once the running back hits the gap. But he's not this huge defensive end, so if he's not bracing for contact he will get moved out of his gap kinda easily.
So when it comes to taking on blocks in the run game, he either needs to initiate the contact, build up speed, take the power to the blocker, and then when he does get in situations where he's having to react at the last second, I think using his speed and quickness to his advantage is the way to go. The last thing I want to mention is coverage. Now, he's played like 10 coverage snaps, so this isn't a major part of his role.But he was credited for giving up a touchdown, and I do want to discuss that. I don't even think this is that bad of a play.
He does a great job here at the start of the rep. We talk about rerouting players when you're in zone coverage. That means you don't wanna let people run cleanly into your zone. And you can see here he does more than rerouting TJ Hockenson, He pretty much takes him out of the play. So it's a great job to start out the rep and then he's got Josh Oliver coming across on this drag route. He's able to contest the catch, but Oliver still brings it in and gets the touchdown.
So it's still a play that you'd probably mark against him, but there isn't a whole lot more that he could do. Looking ahead to the rest of the season, the main things I'm looking forward to with Polo 2 would be refining his hand placement. We're only three games into the season.
I've watched all the snaps that he's played, but he uses so many different moves that it's like, I have four reps of him using a cross chop, two of him using a double swipe. So how effective he actually is with all those we can't really say. And then one thing from his college tape, he missed an insane amount of tackles at USC, especially as a pass rusher.
He had 56 pressures and 13 sacks his last season. He could've easily had 20 if he was just better at wrapping up and tackling. I saw him miss one or two than the first few games, but we need a bigger sample size to see if that's still an issue. But this pick is already looking like a hit for the chargers.
I'm not exactly sure what to make of Joey Bosa. He hasn't been as productive and efficient. And Khalil Mack is definitely a step down from Prime Khalil Mack. But watching the Chargers defensive line, he's actually still a high impact player. So I think they have three high quality starters at the minimum, and then we'll see if Joey Bosa can return to prior form.
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