In 63 hundredths of a second after the snap, T.J. Watt is already, on average, a quarter yard past the line of scrimmage and racing toward the quarterback. That's the fastest pass-rush get-off not only by any player this season but also by any player in the previous two, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
How he pulls that off is a two-part story: alignment and jump. With some help from NFL Next Gen Stats, let's take a closer look at how the Pittsburgh Steelers' talented outside linebacker becomes an instant threat in opponents' backfields, helping him to 4.5 sacks so far this season.
An exceptional pass-rush get-off
The first part of Watt's get-off is simple. He lines up closer to the line of scrimmage than anybody else in the NFL.
The league's tracking data measures a player's location by a point in between the chips in each of his shoulder pads -- roughly the base of his neck. With this data, we learn that Watt is the only player in the league among those with at least 60 pass rushes from a position along the line (excluding plays as a second-level defender) to line up, on average, within one upfield yard of the center.
His average of 0.99 yards is roughly 1.5 inches closer to the center than the next-closest player, new Buccaneers nose tackle Steve McLendon, and about 11 inches closer than the average qualified pass-rusher in our data set. For the Steelers' sack artist, taking those extra inches pre-snap is a conscious effort.
"I think from day one as a pass-rusher, we're always taught to have that credit card alignment," Watt said recently, adding that he tries to get a feel for where his helmet aligns with the neutral zone. "If you can get closer to the line of scrimmage, it's kind of one of those things: Why wouldn't you?"
Here's an extreme example of Watt's alignment from Pittsburgh's Week 1 game against the Giants. The Steelers pass-rusher is so far forward that he almost should earn a flag for being offside. But he doesn't, and it becomes a big advantage.
— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) October 22, 2020
But it isn't all about where he lines up; Watt also has one of the best jumps in the game. We can measure jump by upfield distance traveled in the first 0.4 seconds of a play. That's long enough to capture movement but short enough to largely avoid contact with the opponent.
Watt's average of 0.66 yards in the first 0.4 seconds ranks him second in the NFL behind teammate Bud Dupree (0.67). The average jump for a player on the edge is 0.44 yards, meaning Watt moves almost eight inches farther upfield in those first four-tenths of a second than the average edge player.
Combine that with favorable positioning, and it becomes apparent that Watt has the best get-off -- the NFL Next Gen Stats measurement of time to move a quarter-yard past the line of scrimmage -- in the league. And it's how he ends up this far along in his pursuit of the quarterback so quickly, evidenced by another snap from that Week 1 meeting with New York.
— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) October 22, 2020
But the results did prompt one question: Was Watt's jump being elevated by his team's circumstances, given Dupree's strong numbers? That includes how often the Steelers blitz, the situations in which Watt was pass rushing, the talent of quarterbacks faced and the rate of play-action the Steelers have faced.
In order to answer that, I built a mixed effects model to control for those factors. And while a non-Steeler (Bengals fourth-year end Carl Lawson) pulled ahead of Watt in the best jump rankings, the two Pittsburgh pass-rushers remained first and third. The model indicated that, even while accounting for extra factors, Dupree's and Watt's jumps were an estimated 0.25 and 0.22 yards above the qualifying average of 0.40.
In other words, while adjusting for other factors is useful, Watt's jump wasn't being artificially inflated by other variables. It's as good as advertised. And it's no surprise that Lawson has the second-best get-off in the league after Watt, registering in the top five in both proximity to the line of scrimmage and estimated jump.
Comparing 2020 to the 2019 season
All of these metrics have improved for Watt since last season. So while the former Wisconsin star was already on the outskirts of the Defensive Player of the Year discussion a year ago, his improvements could nudge him toward being one of the leading candidates in 2020. His work pre-snap and in the first half-second of a pass rush are translating to other results, too. Watt ranks second in pass rush win rate from the edge position and has recorded 4.5 sacks in five games.
Watt isn't the only player to see an improvement, either.
Colts rotational defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad has vaulted his get-off from below average for an edge player to above average. He is lining up closer to the line of scrimmage but has also improved his jump -- though the change hasn't seemed to convert into other results. His pass rush win rate has decreased from last season and is well below average.
The Broncos' Shelby Harris has improved from 1.1 seconds to 0.94 seconds to get a quarter yard past the line of scrimmage, though that is almost all a product of playing closer to the line. Pittsburgh's Stephon Tuitt has stepped closer to the line of scrimmage and is covering more ground in the first four-tenths of a second than he did a season ago, resulting in a 0.16 improvement in get-off.
OK, but who has declined so far in 2020? Detroit's Danny Shelton leads that group. He is playing more 3-technique with the Lions after playing mostly nose tackle in New England. It's possible those moves could be a factor here because Shelton's get-off drop is mostly related to lining up farther away from the line of scrimmage. His jump change is minimal after accounting for situational variables.
The next two players on the list -- both Cowboys -- have also disappointed this year. Dontari Poe has been near the bottom of our win rate rankings against both the run and the pass, and no qualifying player has a worse jump in all of football this year (0.15 yards), though he is playing a bit farther back from the line this season compared to last season in Carolina. DeMarcus Lawrence, meanwhile, has been banged up with a knee injury, and his pass rush win rate has taken a fairly substantial dip from 27% on the edge last season to just 18% this season. Most of his drop in get-off has come from a reduced jump, which seems consistent with playing hurt.
As for the two Smiths on Green Bay, it's different stories. Za'Darius Smith is playing more defensive tackle this year, where jumps naturally tend to be a little smaller, and is lining up a little farther from the line of scrimmage. But Preston Smith's fall in get-off appears to be almost entirely related to a reduced jump.
Watt stands out, though, not because of how well he ranks in this area but also the fact that he is one of the largest year-over-year improvers. He was already above average in the first place and only gets faster each season. So it's no surprise he's across the line of scrimmage before anyone else in 2020.
Brooke Pryor, Brian Burke and Brian Macdonald contributed to this article.