What is the most important position in football outside of quarterback? That is a question that doesn’t necessarily have a single right answer. But if you ask most serious football followers, edge rusher would be high on that list. NFL decision makers would seemingly agree. Green Bay Packers’ edge rusher Micah Parsons was traded for two first round draft picks and franchise staple Kenny Clark, and was subsequently awarded a four year, $186 million contract. Parsons is one of seven edge rushers among the top 10 highest paid non-quarterbacks in the NFL. Now that we have established that they are so highly valued, let’s explain what an edge rusher actually is and why they are so important:
The edge rusher is the player rushing the quarterback who is lined up to come around the edge of the offensive line. An edge rusher in the NFL today is almost always classified as either a defensive end, or an outside linebacker, depending on the type of formation the defense is employing. In a 4-3 defensive formation (below left) the edge rusher is usually a defensive end. In a 3-4 formation (below right), the edge rusher is normally an outside linebacker.
Credit: SB Nation for both
These edge rushers are important, and good ones are so highly compensated and coveted because they have, arguably, the best chance of any defensive player to affect the outcome of the game. Their number one priority is pressuring the quarterback—meaning to hit him and bring him down or just let his presence be felt in some other way that causes the quarterback to be uncomfortable. This is incredibly important because, for an offense, an uncomfortable quarterback is like a plane ride with an incessantly crying baby: you can make it to your final destination—in the case of the offense, it is winning the game—but it is not going to be a fun journey. To simplify this, the quarterback is indisputably the most important position in football, and edge rushers are the best quarterback neutralizers. That’s why edge rushers are so important.
