Is the 2015 D-Line better with less rest?

Not 100% sure of all the numbers, but I think for 2015, there have been 181 defensive snaps thus far.

2015 Defensive Line Snaps- From PFF:

Bennett- 146, 80.7%
Avril- 141, 77.9%
Rubin- 101, 55.8%
Mebane- 92, 50.8%
Hill- 79, 43.6%
Clark- 51, 28.2%
Marsh- 27, 14.9%
Dobbs- 22, 12.2%

Not sure about this, but the total snaps listed is only 659. If there were 181 plays and you multiply by 4 D-Linemen, the total snap count would be 724...so I'm thinking the rest might be Irvin, but PFF apparently doesn't differentiate Irvin's snaps as LB vs. DL.

2014 Defensive Line Snaps- From PFF:

Bennett- 851, 84.9%
Avril- 736, 73.5%
Williams- 445, 44.4%
McDaniel- 413, 41.2%
Hill- 366, 36.5%
Schofield- 341, 34.0%
Mebane- 289, 28.8%
Marsh- 71, 7.1%
Scruggs- 68, 6.8%
Dobbs- 39, 3.9%
King- 20, 2.0%
Tukuafu- 17, 1.7%
Robertson- 4, .4%

There were 1002 defensive snaps in the regular season last year. It seems kind of tough to make a definitive comparison though, considering changes in personnel and injuries last year.

In 2013, there were a total of 1130 defensive snaps, and the snap counts were as follows:

Bennett- 617
Clemons- 585
Avril- 574
McDonald- 546
Mebane- 540
McDaniel- 536
Bryant- 488
Schofield- 145
Hill- 65

All in all, I'm really not sure how to make comparisons between the last 3 seasons. Bennett and Avril have a lot more snaps the last 2 years, but they have also both played better (at least according to PFF), even though they get less rest. Of course, 2015 isn't much of a sample size yet, but the sample did include the "best" offense in the NFC, the Packers. Apparently the Rams offense is pretty good so far against NFCW opponents, probably due to the fact that "good" Foles showed up against the Hawks and the Cards, and "bad" Foles showed up against the Redskins and Steelers.

According to PFF, in 2015, for DT's, Hill is #1 and Mebane is #8 in pass rush productivity. Hill and Rubin are ranked #4 & #5 in run stop % and for whatever reason, Mebane is ranked last at #62. In 2014, Mebane and McDaniel were both ranked in the lower 1/3 of the pack in run stop %, while in pass rush productivity, Hill was ranked #19, Williams was ranked middle of the pack, and McDaniel was ranked 3rd from the bottom. In 2013, Mebane was ranked #3 and McDonald was ranked #8 in pass rush productivity; in run stop %, McDaniel was #4, McDonald #13, and Mebane #22.

According to PFF, in 2015, for 4-3 DE Avril is ranked #1 and Bennett is ranked #3 in pass rush, and in run stop, Avril is #8 and Bennett is #10; in 2014, in pass rush, Avril was ranked #6 and Bennett was ranked #7, and in run stop, Bennett was #13, Schofield was #30, and Avril was #46. In 2013, in pass rush, Bennett was ranked #3, Avril #8, Clemons #22, Bryant #37, while in run stop, Bennett was #9, Bryant #11, Clemons #43, Avril #48.

The conclusions I would make, are that Bennett and Avril have both improved or played as well as they did in the previous years...Avril has improved a lot against the run. And even though Bennett and Avril are playing more snaps, they are doing much better than did Schofield, Clemons and Bryant in previous seasons. Hill, Mebane and Rubin appear to be an improvement over McDaniel, Williams, and McDonald.

From what I can see, rotating more didn't make the DL any better.

Your stats certainly don't hold up to the eye test, our 2013 rotation was one of the greatest lockdown/sack/run stopping pass rushing D-lines in the history of the league.

I don't see that same dominance yet in 2015.

Obviously defense is predicated on the LB's and DB's as well, so not entirely fair to judge the two seasons. But I'm still for a deeper fresher rotation of D-lineman where there's no dropoff. It's far more conducive to keeping everyone fresh and productive until the end of the season and through the playoffs.

thanks willy Im the one who requested this in the other thread.

Sgt. Largent":2x5y4g6b said:

Your stats certainly don't hold up to the eye test, our 2013 rotation was one of the greatest lockdown/sack/run stopping pass rushing D-lines in the history of the league.

I don't see that same dominance yet in 2015.

Obviously defense is predicated on the LB's and DB's as well, so not entirely fair to judge the two seasons. But I'm still for a deeper fresher rotation of D-lineman where there's no dropoff. It's far more conducive to keeping everyone fresh and productive until the end of the season and through the playoffs.

Click to expand...

I certainly agree with most of what you said. Bear in mind, all of this is based on PFF grades. I guess I don't necessarily see the correlation between freshness and productivity. For example, if you use Dobbs and King and give them as many snaps as you give to Hill and Rubin tonight, does it translate to more productivity? I don't really think so. Just because a player is fresh, doesn't mean they will play like a beast. Is the following scenario possible? Say Dobbs and King are half as productive as Hill and Rubin, so we assign Dobbs and King a grade of 5, and Hill and Rubin get a 10. If we give each of them 40 snaps out of 80 total snaps, the grade would average out to 7.5 for the 2 interior DT positions. If we would instead give all the snaps (or at least most of them) to just Hill and Rubin with zero rest, how much of a dropoff would there be in the performance of Hill and Rubin? Even if their grade would drop to an 8, that would still be a better overall grade for the game. Of course, some of the freshness would be determined by specific games. Last year in the SD game, the Hawks D had 82 snaps...in the Eagles game, they had only 46.

I also noticed a rather strange phenomenon: the heavy rotation from 2013 has steadily decreased, and for whatever reason, the number of defensive snaps have also gone down from 1130 snaps in 2013, to 1002 in 2014, and if 2015 is extrapolated to include 16 games, the total snaps would come out to 965.

Also, take a player like Mebane, His grades have steadily dropped since 2013. He's almost 31, and he's not as good as he was in 2013. Then there's the secondary...Kam missed the first 2 games...the secondary hasn't performed as well as in 2013. Wagner didn't have a very good game against the Rams or the Packers. All of this affects how well the D-Line plays. In 2013, the Hawks had 337 total pressures. In 2014, that number dropped to 278. Yet for 2015, they already have 60 pressures in 3 games (20 per game)...over 16 games that would be 320 pressures. It is quite possible that with Kam back, Wagner back up to par, and with the rest of the secondary getting better, that the D-Line could conceivably out-perform the 2013 D-Line in pressures.

I truly believe that this year's front 7of Bennett, Avril, (Mebane), Rubin, Hill, Irvin, Wright, Wagner, and the subs Clark, Marsh, King, Dobbs, Morgan, KPL, and Coyle, have the potential to surpass the 2013 front 7. I guess we'll see how it plays out.