Establish the Fun: Maxx Crosby, Brian Burns, and the art of elite EDGE play

Hello all and welcome back to Establish the Fun, where football is fun and I want to establish that. We’re still running on maximum fun, even as the regular season winds down, so before you tune into the next batch of games on Sunday, here’s who you should be tuning in to see when you set up your Sunday Ticket, or turn on RedZone, or however you watch games.

Quite simply, Raiders DE Maxx Crosby has been one of the best EDGE defenders in the NFL. Among all defensive linemen in the NFL this year, Crosby is ninth in total pressures and 22nd in the NFL in pressure rate among players with 30 or more pressures. With 10.5 sacks on the season, Crosby is playing out of his mind and put himself near the top of the Defensive Player of the Year race.

In their win against Seattle, his dominance was on display in both the run game and the passing game. When the Raiders needed their top end talent to win the game, Crosby stepped up.

To the outside fan, the first thing that probably gets noticed about Crosby is his motor. Crosby is relentless and can often string together different pass rush moves while making his way to the QB. This play is a perfect example of who Maxx Crosby is. Watch him use the long arm move, try and arm over, change paths and then make his way to forcing an errant throw by Geno Smith.

Don’t let the motor fool you, though. Maxx Crosby is a very good athlete. Entering the league in 2019, Crosby’s numbers in the explosiveness department are among the best of anyone who’s entered the league.

That explosiveness and bend was on display for another one of his pressures that he got against the Seahawks. Watch when he uses a great first step to get a lead and widen the angle on the right tackle Abraham Lucas, then use a repeated swipe to move Lucas’ outside hand and force Smith up into the pocket, where he was sacked. Stringing moves together is something a lot of pass rushers struggle with, and Crosby goes into the game with a plan that gets executed every time.

This was one of my favorite pass rush reps for Crosby in this game. It’s the fourth quarter and the game is tied. Third down and the Raiders overload one side of the line to get a designed one on one for Crosby. Crosby goes directly through Lucas and sacks Geno Smith, converting speed to power in an instant. This is all over the tape for Crosby, who has been one of the best pass rushers in the NFL this year.

Then, he followed it up with another fantastic pass rush rep in overtime. The Seahawks try to chip Crosby with Noah Fant, who doesn’t slow Crosby down at all. This chip widens the angle though, so now Lucas has to run out and catch Crosby. Crosby absolutely disregards Lucas with an outside swipe and blows by the Seahawks RT and almost gets a strip sack. Big time players make big time plays in big time games, and Crosby made plays when it mattered the most.

Crosby and the Raiders take on the football throwing demigod Justin Herbert and the Chargers on Sunday. Despite an offensive line that hasn’t been spectacular, Herbert gets sacked at the fourth lowest rate in the NFL. Crosby will have his work cut out for him if he wants to wreak havoc.

The Bengals defense is quietly playing really good football this year. They’re 11th in EPA/play and 12th in defensive DVOA. They’re also doing this largely without any overwhelming superstars on the defense. What they do have, however, is a group of players who work will with each other, both in the front and the back end of the defense.

The Bengals defense ROCKED against the Titans on Sunday, holding Derrick Henry to 38 yards on 17 carries, a rare Derrick Henry Fetty Wapping (shoutout to former SB Nation writer and Northwestern alum Rodger Sherman). Let’s start up front, and how they stopped Derrick Henry.

The first big piece (both literally and figuratively) in this defense is DJ Reader. His ability not only to eat blocks and double teams up front, but to make plays out of these double teams is crucial to how the Bengals play their defense.

The Bengals are in a five man front with two linebackers behind them. This is a traditional bear front that the Bengals deployed a lot to stop Tennessee’s outside zone run game. Watch Reader (98) take on this outside zone double team and not only keep his linebackers clean, but change the path of Henry, forcing him to cut back. Reader’s ability to negate blockers in the run game is crucial to how the Bengals play defense.

Not only can he negate blockers with power, but defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo will slant him away from the center on outside zone runs. That movement post snap changes the picture for the center, who couldn’t even get his feet under him on this play. Reader doesn’t make this play, that would be LB Logan Wilson, a good player in his own right. However, Reader does his job to the point where a negative play happens for the offense. His ability is crucial to the Bengals run defense.

In the passing game, Anarumo can get very creative with his secondary pairings and coverages because he has two safeties that are incredibly smart and versatile. Jessie Bates and Vonn Bell work incredibly well together, and the addition of rookie Daxton Hill makes them use really creative pairings in the secondary.

On this play, Logan Wilson is the only linebacker on the field, and Jessie Bates is playing the hole defender in Cover One. However, Bell also comes down as a robber, taking away any over route that follows the shallow, which would put Bates in a bind. There’s not a single route open, and it results in an incompletion. Their personnel allow them to play sticky amoeba coverage like this.

The Bengals deploy the amoeba defense on the back end primarily. They use a lot of post snap rotation, which requires a lot of communication on the back end. Here, they rotate from single high into Tampa 2, against the Titans who try and run a clear out concept to the three man side and then a fade paired with an out from the slot.

The Bengals also dropped both edge defenders, taking away anything underneath. If DB Cam Taylor-Britt doesn’t slip here, he might pick this off.

A very underrated part of this defense is LB Logan Wilson. His ability to take away a lot of the passes over the middle and most importantly get depth is crucial, and a large part of the reason why the Bengals are ninth in defensive DVOA on passes over the deep middle of the field. Watch Wilson close this window on the throw to the endzone by Tannehill, it’s something the Bengals defense does very well.

He takes away a switch concept that should beat cover three by shifting with the over route, but then breaking back on the deep sit route by the other receiver. It’s a fantastic play.

The Bengals defense has a massive game on Sunday, facing the Kansas City Chiefs. This is a revenge game for Kansas City, who lost to the Bengals in the AFC Championship game last year. Kansas City is still the best offense in the NFL, manned by the best QB in the NFL and presumptive MVP favorite in Patrick Mahomes, so Anarumo and company will need to keep their amoeba defense firing on all cylinders.

Remember how I said that Maxx Crosby was ninth in the NFL in total pressures?

Well Brian Burns is first, and also has 10 sacks this year.

In a season that has been very much a disaster for the Panthers, Burns has put together another fantastic season. Like I said, he’s first in total pressures and tenth in pressure rate, and doing this while being the top pass rush threat on the Carolina Panthers.

Burns was disruptive against the Broncos, but in a way that I didn’t expect him to be, which is exciting!

The first thing that stood out about Burns against the Broncos was his power in pass rushing situations. One of his biggest issues going into the year was finding consistent counters to his amazing speed and burst on the edge and around tackles. If he can now go through tackles consistently, watch out.

Here, the Broncos left tackle jumps out in his pass rush set to try and counter Burns’ speed to the edge. Burns sees this, and hits a wicked long arm move with an 83 ¹⁄₂ inch wingspan that puts him in the 93rd percentile of all EDGE defenders that attended the combine. Then, he humps him (no, not like that) out of the way and nearly gets the sack. This was an unforseen, yet welcome moment in the development of Brian Burns!

However, Burns’ speed is the name of the game, and buddy he has a lot of it. His ghost technique is one of the best in the NFL, and he used it to almost get a strip sack on Wilson. Those long arms come in handy, but watch how low Burns can get to the ground, and how flat he can make his surface. It makes it near impossible to block this move if the tackle doesn’t get a good set.

Another counter he has off of this move is the inside spin move, which is absolutely wicked. Because of how quick and explosive Burns is, he can lower his hips and get a good spin before the tackle even notices. This inside spin forces Wilson up and out of the pocket, and into an eventual incompletion.

Burns is one of the most talented pass rushers in the league, but seeing him start to develop consistent counters to his game is so cool to see in real time. The Panthers play the Seahawks on Sunday, which should be a fun matchup between Burns and young tackles Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas. Watch for the Spider when you watch the Panthers defense.