Denzel Perryman gives Raiders massive pass rush boost in Week 11
The Las Vegas Raiders pass rush was in full effect against the Denver Broncos, and it wasn’t just Madd Maxx.
When Chandler Jones was signed by the Raiders this past offseason, Las Vegas was supposed to get an upgrade at the edge rusher spot opposite of Maxx Crosby, courtesy of first-year general manager Dave Ziegler. At least, that’s what most of Raider Nation thought.
Yannick Ngakoue led the Silver and Black with sacks in 2021, but the Raiders’ new regime had other plans moving forward. Immediately after agreeing to a three-year deal with Chandler Jones, Ngakoue was shipped to Indianapolis for Rock Ya-Sin.
Unfortunately, the Chandler Jones experiment hasn’t worked out – at all.
After 10 contests, Jones has tallied half of a full sack with only six quarterback hits, both of which are career lows. In 2019, Jones played only five games and still surpassed both of these numbers. As a result of Jones’ failures this year, the Las Vegas Raiders are dead last in the sacks department.
This past Sunday, an unlikely source emerged against the Denver Broncos to help Maxx Crosby in pass rush situations – 2021 Pro Bowler, Denzel Perryman.
In Week 11, Perryman beat his blockers on pass rushes 28.6% of the time, recording a pressure or quarterback hit on 21.4% of attempts to do so. Only three players who tallied as many or more pass rush attempts as Perryman had a higher efficiency percentage than the Raiders’ middle linebacker.
With such a successful outing, Pro Football Focus gave the 29-year-old a pass-rushing grade of 90.6; a mark only three players across the NFL earned higher than.
The Silver and Black are still searching for output from an edge rusher not named Maxx Crosby, but Perryman proved to be an asset when rushing the passer. Have a day, Denzel.
Raiders linebacker Denzel Perryman’s Week 11 success is much different from the other 10 contests
Perryman’s pass-rushing success against the Broncos was the complete opposite of what we’ve seen from him this year.
Through his first 10 contests of the 2022 season, Perryman has earned a pass-rushing grade of 58.8; a much different number than his 90.6 grade from Sunday. In this same timeframe, the Pro Bowl linebacker beat his blockers a mere 4.8% of the time – compared to 28.6% on Sunday – while creating pressure or hitting the quarterback just 9.5% of the time.
During the Raiders’ first matchup against Denver earlier in the year, Perryman logged exactly zero pass-rushing snaps. In fact, it would take five full weeks until he logged more than one pass-rushing attempt on the season.
If this is the Denzel Perryman that Las Vegas gets for the remainder of the year, the Raiders should escape their 32-of-32 sack total with ease. The former Charger is also fighting for a new contract as he plays out the latter half of his two-year deal that expires at the season’s end.