In today’s NFL, the value of the two-gapping, run-plugging, block-soaking big defensive tackle has become relatively microscopic, while the fortunes for quicker, more sudden big men who can blast through offensive lines with lightning speed have become ever more positive.
One of the primary reasons for this, besides the fact that the NFL is more of a passing league these days, is the advent of quick game as an offensive construct to defeat pressure. Last season, per Sports Info Solutions, NFL quarterbacks took 4,968 passing snaps in which their dropbacks were zero or one step, up from 4,222 in 2018, which is as far back as SIS’s database goes for tracking such things.
