Through the first few weeks of the season, Will Anderson Jr. looks like one of the best players from his draft class. Right now, he ranks 3rd in pass rush win rate, and 2nd in run stop win rate, for all players, not just rookies. 

Teams are already recognizing his ability too, which is why he is double teamed at the 2nd highest rate of any DL in the NFL. Anderson Jr. is a freakish athlete, especially for his size, he has all the traits of an elite pass rusher, and he is already looking like everything the Texans hoped he would be.

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Disclaimer: The following is a transcript of a YouTube video titled “Texans DE Will Anderson Jr. is Absolutely Living up to the Hype: Film Breakdown” The content is for informational purposes only and was originally presented in video format.

When the Houston Texans traded up to three to draft Will Anderson, they were taking a huge gamble. And for that to pay off, they needed him to be elite. If he was just a good top 20 edge rusher, based on the draft capital they spent, I don't think that would have been worth it.

But through the first four weeks, he looks like one of the best players from this class, and a player that's going to give Houston a great return on investment. Right now he ranks third among edge rushers in ESPN's pass rush win rate, and second in run stop win rate. So he's impacting both phases at a high level, and even though he only has one sack, the per snap numbers are a lot more stable over the course of a season.

So I expect the sack total to catch up. And teams are already treating him like an elite edge rusher. He has the second highest double team rate in the NFL. There's a lot of plays where he won the rep, but he was a second or two late getting into his pass rush because he had to fight through chip help. So even on plays where he isn't recording a sack or a pressure, he's still impacting the play by opening up opportunities.

This play really highlights the two things that are going to make him a dominant speed rusher. First of all, he's so explosive off the line of scrimmage. He has that first step to burst out of a three point stance and threaten the outside. He goes speed to power and engages with the block. And then once Morgan Moses punches with the outside hand, he transitions to a rip move. And he has a leap bend to turn the corner and get the sack and draw a penalty.

When people talk about bend, this is what they're referring to. A lot of players in this situation are going to get washed out of the play once they get to the top of their rush and the quarterback can just step up in the pocket and avoid a sack. But Will Anderson's flexible enough to angle back inside. And a key point is that as he's bending around the edge, he's continuing to generate power to force a tight angle back to the quarterback. This is just a rare, high quality sack for a rookie in his first NFL start.

The ability to win the corner like this opens up a lot of opportunities for inside counters, which is actually where most of his pass rushing wins have come from so far. Right here, he's got Braden Smith out on an island. He's got to widen out to protect against the speed rush, but that creates a wide open B gap. You can see he's so fluid transitioning to the inside counter, there's no lost momentum as he crosses the tackle's face. 

Even as he's changing his horizontal path, he continues to work upfield vertically so Braden Smith can't just immediately squeeze inside. And he also does a good job with his hands here. He clubs the inside shoulder to preserve that open space through the B gap and then he rips through with the inside arm to seal him off. This is an example of a play that's going to be lost in history because he didn't get a sack. 

He's lined up over the guard. His first step is upfield to threaten the B gap, which forces the guard to set outside. But again, he's so fluid transitioning to this inside counter, the blocker isn't able to slide over quickly enough to stay in front of him. Once he establishes that inside edge, he rips through and hooks his arm so he can't recover. And then he gets a hit on Lamar Jackson causing an inaccurate pass, and Stephen Nelson undercuts it for an interception. Another one here against Pittsburgh. 

You can see offensive tackles are forced to overset against Will Anderson because they're so worried about getting beat to the outside. But all he has to do is take a couple steps upfield, read the tackle set, and then explode through whichever gap they're leaving open. And he's been equally impactful as a run defender. This play against Baltimore is just an elite rep in terms of play recognition and movement skills. The Ravens are running crack toss, so Isaiah Likely is coming down from the outside to try to wash him out of the play.

Initially, Will Anderson's working upfield, which is what the offense wants, but instead of continuing in that direction and getting taken out of the play, he identifies the toss outside, absorbs the block, and spins out of it, and then tracks down the ball carrier for a short gain. On most zone runs, especially inside zone, you're trying to get double teams to the play side so the backside defensive end is going to be left one on one with a tight end.

And when you've got Will Anderson lined up over the C gap, teams are going to have to start checking out of that play because he's making the stop almost 100 percent of the time. When he's starting out with inside leverage, I haven't seen a single tight end be able to match his power and explosiveness to seal him off. He's usually just able to beat the tight end to his aiming point within the first couple steps and chase the ball carrier down unblocked. 

But even when they are able to make contact, he just fires his hands into their frame and drives through the block. And he does a really good job attacking the inside half of the blocker, so they can't recover their leverage and put up any resistance. The Jags are running inside zone, Anderson shoots into the C gap, but Etienne reads his blocks and cuts it back to the outside. And because Will Anderson has his head up, he's able to identify the cutback and hook underneath the blocker's outside arm to shed and make the tackle. 

When he is in situations where he has to engage with blocks head on, he has so much hand pop on first contact to stand the blocker up.You can see right here the tight end initiates contact with a good pad level, but Anderson fires his hands inside and gets them on his heels so he can't generate any power, and then he just waits for the running back to get close enough to disengage. On this play, he's taking on a base block from Anton Harrison. 

Again, blocker's pad level, and then he uses a long arm to establish separation. Harrison's trying to replace his hands, but he isn't able to latch back on and Anderson just tosses him aside. So Will Anderson's looking like a future top five edge defender. rushers are almost never that productive. It's usually a position where the first year you're looking for splash plays, and then year two you start to really see what they're gonna look like for their career.

But Will Anderson's already playing like a top ten to fifteen edge rusher. I mentioned ESPN's pass rush win rate at the beginning of the video, which is based on the NextGenStats tracking, But looking at PFF's film based win rate numbers, which go back to 2008, Will Anderson would have the highest pass rush win rate ever for a rookie at 17.

Now, for the first half of the season, I gotta include the qualifier, that efficiency metrics are usually gonna go down as you play more snaps, but at this point, he's living up to the third overall pick and all the draft capital the Texans gave up.

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