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Aug 29, 2025 4:55 AM EDT
In today’s NFL, gap versatility may be the most important attribute for pass-rushers. You can have all the physical attributes and technique in the world, but if you’re lining up in the same spot over and over for 800-1,000 snaps per season, opposing offensive lines will figure out how to deal with you to a greater or lesser degree, and protection calls will simply shift to your side if you’re the alpha of the group.
Which is why it’s crucial to be able to get to the quarterback in different ways. Myles Garrett and Micah Parsons, two of the most dominant edge-rushers in the league, will also line up right over the center with their own Allen Iverson crossover moves pre-snap, and that’s its own nightmare in the making. Linebackers will become 3-technique stand-up “tackles” in overload blitz looks. And a lot of the best defensive tackles are now playing 30% or more of their snaps either head over, or outside, the tackles.
Which is why it’s important to track and recognize the best pass-rushers from every gap. Teams do this in advance scouting when they want to drill down into how opposing defenses are attacking protections, and they certainly do this when assessing how college pass-rushers and impending free agents might help their teams.
With the help of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions, and a heaping helping of game tape, we’ve put together our own list of the best disruptors from every gap. If you’re unfamiliar with the gap terminology we’re using in this article, this is a good primer for such things.
This is Part Four in a series investigating the NFL’s best players in all kinds of roles and situations; you can read the others at the links below.
And now, our best pass-rushers in every gap from the 2024 season, heading into the 2025 campaign.
0-Tech: Jihad Ward, Tennessee Titans
Jihad Ward isn’t a household name, but the 2016 second-round pick of the Oakland Raiders out of Illinois has developed a real knack for beating up centers as a 0-tech tackle lining up right over their heads. Ward didn’t have any sacks as a 0-tech last season for the Minnesota Vikings, but he amassed a league-high six quarterback hurries, five quarterback hits, and five quarterback knockdowns in 44 pass-rushing snaps.
At 6-foot-5 and 287 pounds, Ward isn’t the usual massive tackle you’d expect to displace centers with brute force; his game is more about speed off the snap, and an array of veteran moves, to get past those centers as they try to deal with Ward quickly following the snap of the ball. Sometimes, there just isn’t enough time to get it done.
Ward signed a one-year, $1.405 million contract this offseason to do his thing with the Tennessee Titans, and it should be fun to watch him in conjunction with Jeffery Simmons and T’Vondre Sweat, two (much) bigger guys who will help Ward amplify his interior efforts with their own.
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Runners-up: Tershawn Wharton, Carolina Panthers/Quinnen Williams, New York Jets/Keeanu Benton, Pittsburgh Steelers
1-Tech: Dexter Lawrence, New York Giants
Source: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images
Dexter Lawrence is an alien unicorn, and we already know that. There is no other player in the NFL today, and very few if any in pro football history, who can match Lawrence’s frightening athleticism at 6-foot-4 and 342 pounds. You’re not used to a guy built like an apartment building chasing down quarterbacks 20 yards outside the pocket, but Sexy Dexy has the ability to do such freakish things.
Last season, before he suffered the Week 13 dislocated elbow that ended things prematurely, Lawrence had 10 sacks and 36 total pressures, which is ridiculous for a guy who spends most of his time inside the tackles, and is double-teamed on a mandatory basis. And as a 1-tech tackle, shaded to one side of the center’s shoulders, Lawrence was an atomic bomb with four sacks, six quarterback hits, six quarterback hurries, and three quarterback knockdowns.
Lawrence can use his pure power and speed to get past centers and guards who try in vain to double him as a 1-tech, but the real move Lawrence has in such situations is the “Half-A-Man” process in which he simply dominates a blocker to one side of his body, and it’s all over from there.
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Runners-up: Vita Vea, Tampa Bay Buccaneers/D.J. Reader, Detroit Lions/Bryan Bresee, New Orleans Saints
2-Tech: Kobie Turner, Los Angeles Rams
The Los Angeles Rams have one of the league’s most dominant defensive lines — proof of that is that they’re the only team with two different players on our list. Let’s start with Kobie Turner, who had my vote for Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2023, and was even better in 2024. Overall, Turner had 10 sacks and 62 total pressures last season, and when aligned as a 2-tech tackle (head over the offensive guard) or 2i (to the guard’s inside shoulder), nobody in the NFL created more problems for opposing quarterbacks.
As a 2-tech, Turner had seven sacks, nine quarterback hits, 13 quarterback hurries, and two quarterback knockdowns. At 6-foot-3 and 288 pounds, Turner brings a shocking amount of power to his rush plan for a man his size, and he’s got all the athleticism you’d expect from a guy who struggles to tip the scales at 290.
The Rams were able to steal Turner in the third round of the 2023 draft out of Wake Forest in part because people weren’t sure about his ability to man up against multiple blockers at his size. Not that we’re comparing Turner to Aaron Donald, but you think teams would have learned about undervaluing undersized disruption tackles based on Donald’s example…
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Runners-up: Vita Vea, Tampa Bay Buccaneers/Zach Sieler, Miami Dolphins/Tershawn Wharton, Carolina Panthers
3-Tech: Zach Allen, Denver Broncos
Source: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
Speaking of undersized and underrated third-round interior defensive linemen who went on to demolish all kinds of things in the NFL, there’s the case of one Zach Allen. Selected with the 65th overall pick in the 2019 draft out of Boston College by the Arizona Cardinals, the 6-foot-4, 285-pound Allen barely got on the field in his first couple of seasons, but by 2022, he had established himself as one of the league’s best and most consistent agents of chaos.
Sadly for the Cardinals, Allen’s six-sack, 35-pressure season in 2022 prompted the Denver Broncos to give Allen a three-year, $45.75 contract with $32.5 million guaranteed, and that roved to be quite the bargain. In Allen’s first season with the Broncos, he totaled seven sacks and 60 total pressures, and last season, he had 14 sacks and 81 pressures — the most sacks and the second most pressures (behind only Chris Jones’ 88) in the NFL.
The 3-tech tackle is generally known as the most prominent interior pass-rusher, because there are a lot of opportunities to bag quarterbacks when you work to the guard’s outside shoulder. In 229 pass-rushing snaps as a 3-tech last season, Allen was also the league’s most productive, with five sacks, 19 quarterback hits, 14 quarterback hurries, and 10 quarterback knockdowns. Allen can blow up anybody’s passing game from any gap, but with a head start on those poor guards, things tend to end for opposing offenses before they even begin.
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Runners-up: Jalen Carter, Philadelphia Eagles/Milton Williams, New England Patriots/Ed Oliver, Buffalo Bills
4-Tech: Braden Fiske, Los Angeles Rams
4-tech defenders, who line up head over the offensive tackle, and 4i defenders, who align to the tackle’s inside shoulder, don’t have the same benefit of a head start. Generally speaking, these are tackles who are tasked to use power as their position requires, with a side order of edge-rusher speed. It’s not an easy thing to do, but there was one rookie who absolutely nailed it in 2024, and that was Braden Fiske of the Los Angeles Rams.
The Rams decided to take edge terror Jared Verse in the first round of the 2024 draft and Fiske in the second round, based on how well the two worked together at Florida State. As the legendary John Facenda often said in those great old NFL Films clips, “It was a wise decision.” Verse bagged Defensive Rookie of the Year with his eight sacks and 89 total pressures, and Fiske was even more productive when it came to takedowns, with 11 sacks and 59 total pressures.
Pretty good numbers for a 6-foot-5, 297-pound guy who plays all over the line, and in Fiske’s case, he did a lot of his best work as a 4 and 4i. With just 137 pass-rushing snaps in those alignments, Fiske led the league with five sacks, adding eight quarterback hits, eight quarterback hurries, and one quarterback knockdown.
Getting off the snap quickly is a requirement when you’re a 4-tech, and Fiske has no issue with that. Add in his speed to the pocket, and you can see why he’s already such a disruptive force.
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Runners-up: Nnamdi Madubuike, Baltimore Ravens/John Franklin-Myers, Denver Broncos/DeForest Buckner, Indianapolis Colts
5-Tech: Chris Jones, Kansas City Chiefs
Chris Jones is already on a Hall of Fame track as an interior defensive lineman; especially as a 3-tech tackle, it could be argued that he was robbed of Most Valuable Player opportunities in Super Bowls LIV and LVIII. Last season, however, the Chiefs had a different plan for Jones, as he lined up outside the guards on a career-high 34% of his snaps. Most 6-foot-6, 310-pound tackles wouldn’t know how to excel with that much change, but there was no struggle for Jones — all seven of his sacks, and 52 of his 88 pressures, came outside the guards last season.
And as a 5-tech end, working to the outside shoulder of the offensive tackle, Jones was one of one in 2024 with a high rate of those pressures and sacks. Jones also played a lot of wide-9 snaps in which he was way outside the tackle, but when he was asked to blow up the tackles in short spaces, nobody in the league was better.
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Runners-up: Denico Autry, Houston Texans/Braden Fiske, Los Angeles Rams/Leonard Williams, Seattle Seahawks
6-Tech: Greg Rousseau, Buffalo Bills
Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix (10) gets grabbed by and then sacked by Buffalo Bills defensive end Greg Rousseau (50) during the second half of the Buffalo Bills wild card game against the Denver Broncos at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park on Jan. 12, 2025.
Source: Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Ever since the Buffalo Bills selected Greg Rousseau out of Miami (FL) with the 30th overall pick in the 2021 draft, everybody’s bean waiting for Rousseau to maximize his physical attributes, which are considerable. At 6-foot-6 and 266 pounds, Rousseau has the power you’d want for that size, and all the speed around the edge you’d ever need.
2024 proved to be that breakout season, as Rousseau totaled 11 sacks and 70 total pressures. He was a real problem for offensive tackles, playing 99% of his snaps on the edge. Where Rousseau proved to be the NFL’s best was when he was aligned as a 6-tech end, to the tight end’s outside shoulder, or in that area without a tight end to that side. In 44 such pass-rushing snaps, Rousseau had one sack, two quarterback hits, five quarterback hurries, and two quarterback knockdowns.
It’s a great use of Rousseau’s hybrid size to put him in that role, and one would expect the Bills to keep that going.
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Runners-up: Kayvon Thibodeaux, New York Giants/Trey Hendrickson, Cincinnati Bengals/Montez Sweat, Chicago Bears
7-Tech: Laiatu Latu, Indianapolis Colts
7-technique ends align to the inside shoulder of the tight end, or the space where the tight end would be if he isn’t there, so it’s a bit of an inverse 6-tech. And in 2024, the NFL’s most effective 7-tech was a first-round rookie in a middle-of-the-pack defense — Laiatu Latu of the Indianapolis Colts. Outside of Latu, who had four sacks 38 total pressures in 2024, the only other edge guy who really gave opposing quarterbacks trouble was Dayo Odeyingbo, who is now with the Chicago Bears.
So, Latu may have to do even more in his second season, and the 15th overall pick seems ready to do just that. Especially as a 7-tech end. In 56 pass-rushing snaps as a 7-tech, Latu had one sack, seven quarterback hits, four quarterback hurries, and one quarterback knockdown.
Like Rousseau, the 6-foot-5, 265-pound Latu has the body type that can win in multiple gaps, and he’s already staked his claim to at least one.
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Runners-up: George Karlaftis, Kansas City Chiefs/Mike Danna, Kansas City Chiefs/A.J. Epenesa, Buffalo Bills
9-Tech: Myles Garrett, Cleveland Browns
Source: Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
9-tech ends, who line up outside the tackles and tight end spaces, are the most prevalent pass rushers in any era of football, because they have the most geometric advantages when it comes to antagonizing quarterbacks. And in today’s NFL, there’s no 9-tech rusher (and perhaps no defensive player overall) who compared to Myles Garrett.
Last season, with a broken offense, an injury-plagued defense, and very little pass rush help to keep blockers off of him, Garrett had 14 sacks and 83 total pressures, and nobody created an equivalent cradle of imminent quarterback destruction from the 9-tech alignment. In 368 pass-rushing snaps from there, Garrett had 12 sacks, 25 quarterback hits, 28 quarterback hurries, and 12 quarterback knockdowns. And this was no fluke — in 2023 with 370 pass-rushing snaps from the 9-tech role, Garrett had 13 sacks, 32 quarterback hits, and 33 quarterback hurries.
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So, none of this should come as a surprise. Perhaps the most stunning thing about Garrett’s tape when he’s rushing the passer from a wide alignment is how double teams simply don’t work against him. Whether he’s bulling through those poor blockers, running around them, or setting a knife edge with his technique, Myles Garrett is the NFL’s best pass-rusher overall, and certainly the best wide pass-rusher you’ll find.
Runners-up: Danielle Hunter, Houston Texans/T.J. Watt, Pittsburgh Steelers/Trey Hendrickson, Cincinnati Bengals
About the Author
Doug Farrar
NFL writer, analyst