NFL’s Best Young Pass-Rushers Proving Immense Value of Position

November 7, 2016   ·   Justis Mosqueda   ·   Jump to comments

For decades, the NFL has been trending more toward a passing league on nearly a year-to-year basis. Because of that, there should be no surprise that the 14 largest average salaries in the NFL, according to Spotrac, are all going to quarterbacks.
What is interesting, though, is what the next most-valued position in the sport is: line-of-scrimmage defenders. Coming in 15th in average salary is Denver's Von Miller, a pass-rusher, which in general sets the tone for where most of the money is spent on the defensive side of the ball in the NFL.
Line-of-scrimmage defenders, be it interior linemen or edge defenders, have run fits they need to fill on handoffs, but unlike off-the-ball linebackers, their contributions in the passing game come from shooting gaps, not dropping back into short zones or covering backs and tight ends one-on-one.
Of the 12 highest-paid defenders in the sport, 11 of them play on the line of scrimmage. If you look at age and production, it's fairly easy ...

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