Meet Me at The Quarterback - Being Thankful for Cool Moments

By Lee Wakefield

Another slightly different format this week. With us passing week 13, we’re heading into the fourth quarter of the season, and that means players are hitting milestones, storylines are fully developed, and we’re starting to look forward to the end-of-season awards.

So I wanted to shout out ten cool things that happened in the world of pass rushing and defence around the NFL this week. Starting off with the best defensive player in the league…

I simply won’t ever get bored with talking about him. I hope you won’t tire of reading about him.

Myles Garrett: Alien

For a long while, Aaron Donald was the premier defensive player in the game and the gold standard of causing defensive disruption.

However, Myles Garrett now holds those titles, and I don’t think it’s particularly close either.

Garrett has 19 sacks in 12 games this season after a single takedown of Brock Purdy on Sunday. This, of course, means that Garrett is alone, sitting atop that particular statistical category. According to the markings on his game day wrist tapes, he’s aiming for 25 sacks this year, so six more to go. The Season may be long done for Cleveland, but it’s clear their star man is going to be playing hard right until the end.

The single-season sack record is 22.5, held jointly by Michael Strahan (2001) and T.J. Watt (2021). Garrett has at least one sack in each of his last six games, he’s got six games remaining this year and is 4 sacks from the record… It seems pretty nailed on, barring catastrophe, doesn’t it?

Is Garrett the best player on a really bad team ever? Let me know, @Wakefield90 on Twitter/X.

Let’s finish off by talking about Garrett’s Eurostep move.

How someone that big and powerful has the lateral quickness and agility to move that almost appears to defy physics.

You can see below that it’s not some backup tackle that he’s abusing with his apparent powers of teleportation, it’s future Hall of Famer, Trent Williams.

Micah Parsons: Alien II

Micah Parsons was one of the main reasons why the Lions had their traditional Thanksgiving game ruined, as they dropped further back in the NFC playoff race.

Parsons was the dominant force that Green Bay brought him in to be on Thursday night. He posted a pass rush win rate of 35.7%, had 2.5 sacks on Jared Goff and seven pressures in total.

Parsons also showed up in the biggest moments, too, registering this sack in the fourth quarter with Detroit in the red zone.

The NFC North race is really heating up, and if the Packers are going to usurp the division leading, *checks notes*, erm… Chicago Bears, they’ll need more game-swinging plays from their star pass rusher.

Parsons now has 12.5 sacks on the season, which means he’s the first player in NFL history to have 12+ sacks in each of his first five seasons in the league.

I wonder how many more years he can keep this going for..?

Has Dallas’ Defensive Line Finally Stuck a Fork in the Chiefs’ Chances in 2025?

I’ve got a couple of players who I want to big up after they’ve followed a particular career trajectory. The players who came into the league as a top-5 pick, didn’t live up to it, but are still having decent careers.

Jadeveon Clowney is the first one.

Clowney came into the league as the first overall pick, has been decent but not spectacular, and has now carved out his niche as rent-a-pass-rusher, as he makes his way around the league on a string of short-term deals.

On Thursday night against Kansas City, Clowney registered a 30.8% pass rush win rate, which yielded four pressures and a couple of sacks on Patrick Mahomes as the Cowboys stole a close game.

Cowboys Head Coach Brian Schottenheimer was effusive in his praise for Clowney after the game.

Over on the other side of the defensive line, rookie Donovan Ezeiruaku wasn’t too bad, either. The edge defender out of Boston College actually bettered Clowney’s win rate, with 35.3%. 

Just for good measure, and to ensure that Patrick Mahomes was pressured from all angles, Quinnen Williams continued his strong start to his time in Dallas. Williams had six pressures on Mahomes as well as three run stops. 

The loss, of course, means that Kansas City are 6-6 on the year, likely meaning they simply have no margin for error remaining.

If the Chiefs are going to get a fourth Super Bowl of the Mahomes-Reid era, they have to run the table the rest of the way.

A Nice Day for Another Dallas

There’s not too much to shout about for Minnesota right now, but I thought I’d give some props to another Dallas, coming off the back of my bit on the Cowboys above.

Dallas Turner was a wrecking ball with 2 sacks, 2 forced fumbles on Sunday as the Vikings went down to the Seahawks, 26-0.

Minnesota aren’t in rude health. However, the majority of the issues lie on offence, particularly on Sunday and particularly when Max Brosmer is making these sorts of decisions.

The defence still conceded 26 points on Sunday. And that’s with Jaxon Smith-Njigba being held to just 23 yards.

So it’s far from rosy news, but Dallas Turner having himself a day was a cool achievement for him, in an otherwise forgettable game for the Vikings.

Turner hasn’t exactly lit the league on fire since being drafted in the first round of the 2024 draft. He had 3 sacks his rookie year in a limited role, and moves on to 5.5 for this year, with an increased snap count. In recent weeks the production has taken a sharp upswing, too, so whilst these aren’t numbers to write home about, performances like he had against Seattle will give everyone hope that the ceiling has yet to be reached. 

Shout out to the Houston Defence

The best defence in the league. Simple as that. 

I know I’ve talked up the Broncos’ and Seahawks’ pass rushers in recent weeks, but from front to back, Houston has the scariest unit in the NFL.

I know that also, the Colts’ offence has fallen off a bit in the past few weeks, and a major contributing factor is that Daniel Jones is a little banged up.

However, to hold the Colts’ offence, which is still a top-5 unit by DVOA, to 16 points is very good work.

Will Anderson has become the headline act of the unit and is one of the best defensive players in the league.

It’s plays like the one below that show his power and versatility; aspects of his hand that DeMeco Ryans utilised every week. I also think that this shows the development that Anderson has had in his short time in the league. Anderson came into the league as a speed rusher and one who was actually better against the run than the pass.

It’s a testament to how strong and powerful he’s become that he’s able to bowl over interior linemen with ease.

He would be in for DPOTY if it weren’t for Myles Garrett.

Houston have joined the Rams on the list of defences that deserve their own deep dive before the end of the season, so keep your eyes out for that.

Tuli Tuipulotu is Someone More People Should be Talking About

When the Chargers brought Khalil Mack back for another year, it was clear that this was the team bringing back the leader of the room, their best edge defender, and a living legend for the rest of the room to look up to.

That experience was especially valuable in an offseason that saw Joey Bosa head to Buffalo (more of him shortly).

Long-term, the Bolts needed someone else to emerge from that room for them to feel secure about the future.

Thirteen weeks into the year, and it’s clear that Tuli Tuipulotu is that guy.

The former USC Trojan is ascending into a star.

After a good year in 2024, when he had 9 sacks and 40 pressures as the third rusher after Mack and Bosa, Tuipulotu now has 10 sacks for the year. Breaking double figures is a career best, and he has 48 pressures with five games to build upon these numbers, too. Plenty of promise considering this year is his first year of being a full-time starter and not playing a lot of special teams snaps.

Tuipulotu isn’t in the class over Will Anderson, or as flashy as Nik Bonitto, but is incredibly powerful, has a developing array of moves and counters and is solid against the run. The Chargers need to replace Mack with a high-quality player, but they have a good one in situ with their home-grown edge. 

It’s far from a foregone conclusion that this season is the last we see of Mack. The passing of the torch, but Khalil isn’t needed just yet. 

On Sunday, Mack showed his power on this sack that was credited to Tuipulotu, as he just picked up the Raiders’ right tackle, DJ Glaze, and just walked him into the backfield.

The Bolts’ edge rushers met at the quarterback shortly after on a third down, where they both dominated their matchups on this rep as the Chargers won a blowout at home.

Joey Bosa with Another Forced Fumble

As a Chargers fan, I like Joey Bosa; he was a really good player during his time in both San Diego and Los Angeles. He seems like a good guy and was always entertaining when he was mic’d up or speaking in press conferences.

The only drawback was he wasn’t healthy often enough to really push himself into the conversation of Chargers greats.

In my recent article where I built the perfect pass rusher, I praised Bosa’s hand usage and his mastery of forcing fumbles. In Buffalo’s game against Pittsburgh on Sunday, we saw a little bit of everything I’ve just talked about.

Bosa forced another fumble, which took his total to five for the year. This was an impactful play; not only did Christian Benford scoop and score, but the hit also knocked Aaron Rodgers out of the game.

In the perfect pass rusher piece, I wondered if he’d be able to match, or even exceed, his career high for a season this year, which stands at seven.

Two to tie, three to set a new record, in the five remaining weeks…

Will he do it, or will the Bills wrap the oft-broken rusher in proverbial cotton wool as they prepare for their January playoff push?

The bad news is, Bosa exited the game with a hamstring injury, which might mean any record attempt will be shelved in favour of a playoff push.

It really was the full Joey Bosa experience on Sunday. 

Clelin Ferrell is on Fire in San Francisco

Back to San Francisco for the next little tidbit.

It’s fair to say that Clelin Ferrell has fallen short of his draft position since coming into the league as the fourth overall pick out of Clemson.

In his seven seasons, Ferrell has never managed more than 4.5 sacks in a season. That was a total set in his rookie year, whilst in Oakland, which is one way to make it feel like it was even deeper in the past than you first thought.

Ferrell has bounced around a little since leaving the Raiders. He had a stint with the 49ers previously, he’s been with Washington. Hehe appeared in one game for the Chargers earlier this season after a short time on their practice squad, before ending up back in San Francisco in late October.

Even then, he wasn’t fully elevated to the Niners’ active roster until November 15th. Not exactly the typical pathway for a former top-5 pick.

So I think it’s a pretty cool story that since arriving in the Bay Area, Ferrell has four sacks in four weeks, not bad for a mid-season pick up, and a guy on his third team this season.

Sunday’s game saw Ferrell put up nine combined tackles (six solo), two sacks, and two further QB hits.

Ferrell credits the 49ers coaches for making the adjustment a smooth one, and everyone involved is reaping the benefits.

I Want to See Maxx Crosby on a Competitive Team at Some Point in his Career

The Raiders are having a season to forget in Pete Carroll’s initial season in Vegas, but Maxx Crosby had a nice game on Sunday and passed a nice personal milestone.

Crosby had a couple of sacks on Justin Herbert, as well as a little altercation with the Chargers’ QB. He also topped up his TFL numbers with another four tackles in the backfield. This brought his season-long figure to 23, which means the corner Eastern Michigan Eagle has gone beyond 20 TFLs for the third time in his career.

He is now one of only four players in NFL history with 20+ TFLs in three of his first seven seasons (J.J. Watt, Aaron Donald and DeMarcus Ware).

I think this justifies my selection of him being the best run-defending edge rusher in the league quite nicely.

I highly doubt that Crosby will ever request a trade, so whether we’ll ever see him on a legitimately good team lies squarely on whether Las Vegas can muster a competitive roster around him.

Despite being a fan of a rival, it would be nice to see him have a proper crack at a deep playoff run.

Nik Bonitto Calls Game

I wanted to give a quick shout out to the final play of the game against Washington to finish off this week. The Broncos are in a commanding lead for the AFC West with the Chiefs losing and the Chargers’ health diminishing at the moment, so they’re about to go into a really tough run of games to end their season.

Some will say it’s another lucky win in a close game for Denver, but this defensive unit, led by their pass rush, is making this possible.

Bonitto has been coming up big all year, and this latest clutch moment gets Denver their tenth win of the year.

I began the year by talking about how underrated Bonitto is, and when I had him as a top-5 pass rusher in the league in my rankings, I thought that might be a semi-hot take.

Fast forward from the first quarter of the season to the start of the final quarter, it feels like it’d be crazy not to have him in the top handful.

Lee Wakefield

NFL Content Lead

Lee Wakefield IS A defensive line enthusiast, Chargers Sufferer, and LONG-TIME writer and podcaster with a number of publications. @Wakefield90 on twitter/X.