Wisconsin Football Boasts one of Nation's Most Impactful Pass-Rushers Through 2 Games

Despite the low sack total, the Badgers have an outside linebacker who's putting up elite pressure numbers.

Wisconsin linebacker Sebastian Cheeks. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The Badgers' defense has only recorded one sack through two games. That comes out to one sack across 58 total drop-backs by opposing quarterbacks — certainly not great.

However, dive into the pressure numbers, and Wisconsin's pass-rush looks a little more formidable. The Badgers have generated 25 pressures across those 58 drop-backs, per Pro Football Focus, amounting to a pressure rate of just over 43%.

One Wisconsin outside linebacker has accounted for a disproportionate amount of said pressures: fifth-year senior Sebastian Cheeks. In his final year of college football, the edge defender has racked up 10 pressures through two games, notching his own stellar pressure rate of 26%.

That ties him for 6th in the country in total pressures alongside a host of other defenders who also have 10. But of the players he's tied with, only three have generated pressure on a higher percentage of their snaps (LSU's Princewill Umanmielen, SMU's Malcom Alcorn-Crowder and USC's Jide Abasiri).

Sacks are of course important and Wisconsin certainly needs more of them, but they're not the end-all, be-all of pass-rush. Getting pressure on a quarterback can be just as impactful or even more so if it forces him into a bad decision or to put the ball in harm's way.

Sacks can be somewhat volatile, but they'll come for Cheeks. What's important is that the outside linebacker has clearly taken that next step as a pass-rusher that his coaches publicly challenged him to.

"How much growth is Sebastian gonna have going into his last year?" defensive coordinator Mike Tressel asked rhetorically in spring practice. "DP had huge growth going into his last year. Can we have something similar out of Sebastian?"

Cheeks has easily been the best defender on the Badgers at pressuring the quarterback. The next-closest player is defensive lineman DeNigel Cooper with three.

Cheeks and Tyreese Fearbry have easily the most pass-rushing snaps at outside linebacker with 38 and 31, respectively, but while Cheeks has notched 10 pressures, the latter has just one.

Should Wisconsin use Nick Clayton more?

Wisconsin edge Nicolas Clayton. | Christian Borman

Fearbry simply hasn't been that effective. He had three tackles and one tackle-for-loss against Western Illinois, but again, one pressure across 31 pass-rushing snaps isn't going cut it.

Meanwhile, Clayton has two pressures across just 14 pass-rush snaps. If he's truly taken the next step as a run-defender and edge-setter that the coaching staff claimed he did, he should have the chance to leapfrog Fearbry on the depth chart.

"Now he’s up to 245, he’s getting way more violent setting edges and being way more disruptive in the run game. That’s where the biggest change has been from a physical development, that run game dominance," outside backers coach Matt Mitchell said of Clayton way back in spring ball.