Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell had an interesting quote last week when he was asked about how he views sacks vs pressures.
“Sacks aren’t that big of a deal as long as you’re getting the pressures.” Campbell said. “As long as you’re getting pressures and those pressures show up and affect the quarterback negatively, you know. Now would you rather have a sack, absolutely I’d rather have sacks, loss yardage and all those things, but the pressures are more to me. Pressure, that affects the quarterback.”
Some took that as Campbell saying that he didn’t think sacks were important, but he does. He just thinks there’s a lot of value in pressures. Maybe a little more than sacks. You can get sacks, but if you’re not getting pressure outside of them, it doesn’t really matter. The idea that affecting the quarterback in any way is good is the route he’s taking here.
As it turns out, Campbell isn’t the only person to have this opinion. Someone from within the NFC North has a similar take. New Vikings edge rusher Jonathan Greenard was ask for his view on Dan Campbell’s view of sacks vs pressures on Wednesday and here’s what he had to say:
“Just in general as a rusher, I mean, the mindset is obviously to get the sack or be disruptive. I think that’s a mindset in general, everybody wants the sacks. You’re going to rush every time to get the sack. But as you know, they get paid on the other side too. Those are 300-pound men who have families to feed, just like we do, too. So, you have to counter those things. If you’re not getting there but being disruptive, I think that does a lot to the quarterback. He gets his timing messed up, he might sway a little bit in the pocket and get his feet stepped on – they hate that. Getting a hand hit -whatever the case may be to make it as crowded as possible in that pocket.
I believe that affects anybody. I mean, I don’t care who you are, you can be the best quarterback, but even Tom Brady will tell you, you get him in a tight space like that, I mean, he doesn’t like it. So, just being effective in any way. So yeah, with that statement I mean, it’s different from each player. Each coach has different philosophies. Some guys that say, ‘Hey, we want sacks.’ As we know, I mean, we’re not getting a sack every single play. I mean, come on now, what’re we doing? But that’s the mindset. I’m a firm believer in that, as well.”
That really says it all. Sacks are important and everyone wants to see them, but it’s not feasible that they happen a lot in every game. So any pressure you can get on a quarterback is going to go a long way. Both Dan Campbell and Jonathan Greenard are right in this situation. We’ll see if Greenard is able to get any pressures on Jared Goff twice this season.