Taking a look at Trey Hendrickson's Sacks in 2020

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(03-16-2021, 01:10 PM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: When it was initially announced that we signed Trey Hendrickson for the same AAV as Carl Lawson, my initial reaction was "Why wouldn't they just offer a little bit more to keep Lawson? Come on! This is a lateral move at best, but I've heard that Trey had a fair number of coverage sacks last year. That won't work on this team!"

After thinking that, I figure I may as well actually look into that to see if it's true.

Here's a video of every sack Trey had last year.

Looking back at each and every one of Trey Hendrickson's 13.5 sacks this season ?

A breakout star on defense ️ pic.twitter.com/tfJufOS9kA

— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) January 26, 2021

I just want to share my thoughts on each of the sacks and see what you all think.

Sack #1 @ 0:00
This was a good rep by Trey. He got around the tackle and avoided the (shitty) chip block by #10). He gets to Brady in about 3 seconds, which is definitely not a coverage sack. You could say "Oh, the defense sniffing out the RB dump off made Brady hold the ball rather than get rid of it, so this shouldn't be a sack" but that's nit picking hardcore. I give Trey full credit for this sack.

Sack #2 @ 0:13
This is a coverage sack. He does get doubled for a short period of time (basically the time it took for the Oline to adjust to what looks like an unintentional stunt),  but this sack developed over about 6 seconds, which is coverage sack #1 all the way.

Sack #3 @ 0:31
He gets stonewalled early, but keeps fighting and gets a clean up sack that was partially created by two other guys breaking down the pocket. Not necessarily his effort that created it, but he was in position to clean it up. Give him half credit, I'd say.

Sack #4 @ 0:46
Quality rep. Beats the LT outright and gets right to the QB, despite being held briefly.

Sack #5 @ 0:52
The whole Chargers line collapsed on this play (as I hear they were prone to do), but this is still a quality rep.

Sack #6 @ 0:59
He was playing from inside on this play and...I kind of hope we don't use him there that often. He is pretty much handled the entire play until the QB scurries out to the sideline. Even then, this should have been a thrown away ball, not a sack. Coverage sack #2.

Sack #7 @ 1:13
This is a decent rep. He gets kind of thrown into the backfield, but he recovers and cleans up when TB is forced to back up into his own LT. Another I'd give half credit for.

Sack #8 @ 1:26
He looks like he jumped Offsides on this play and it wasn't called, but other than that, a good rep.

Sack #9 @ 1:39
Honestly, this is a really bad play by Trey. He looks to be in contain, but then he runs up on Ryan when he sees he's about to throw. Ryan re-directs and, if Ryan weren't old and unathletic (relatively speaking), this is a loss of contain and a huge QB run. Since Ryan is old and unathletic, it is instead a 0 yard sack.

Sack #10 @ 1:51
Quality sack. No notes. He just drives the LT right into Ryan's lap.

Sack #11 @ 1:59
This one is on the edge of a coverage sack. He had a good push and his push kind of threw the LT for a loop (he literally spins haha), but this play took a little over 4 seconds to develop and I just don't know if this happens in Cincinnati often.

Sack #12 @ 2:09
No notes. Quality sack.

Sack #13 @ 2:19
This is a good sack, but I think it's worth noting how insanely deep Mahomes drops back on this pass. If he dropped the standard 5 yards or so, Trey is pushed around the pocket and out of danger by the LT here. But because he drops back 12 yards, the otherwise good re-routing by the LT turns into a sack here. But, to be fair to Trey, he lined up way outside on this play, so they obviously game planned with Mahomes' crazy drop backs in mind.

Sack #14 @ 2:34
And, finally, a sack that looks like it's entirely caused by the blitz. He comes in unblocked and takes the QB down. I can't complain about this play because it was executed to perfection, but I can't help but feel like this wouldn't happen in Cincinnati haha.

So, if we're counting it up, that's 2 coverage sacks, 2 clean up sacks, 1 sack that's kind of on the edge of what I'd consider a coverage sack and 1 really bad play that counted as a sack because Ryan is so slow.

Now, if he produced these 14 sacks and then didn't really provide any other pressure, that'd be concerning. You'd be forgiven for fearing this was an Antwan Odom signing. But, the good news is that, in addition to his 14 sacks, he also had 12 TFL, 25 QB hits and he finished with the third-highest pressure rate (16.3%) in the NFL and was first in the league in third-down pressure rate (25.5%) according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

So, overall, I'm pretty pleased with this signing. I think Bengals fans naturally were hoping we kept Lawson, since we knew he could produce to the level that he did with zero help from his team, and we wonder if Trey relied a little bit too much on the Saints players around him, but you can't blame a player for the success of his teammates. I am hopeful that this guy will be a good player for us for a long time.

He seemed to be lined up on the right side for almost every sack.  Wonder if they are envisioning Hubbard on the left side now?   

One thing in this very brief scouting of him that I will say as a positive:  He rarely took a wide arc outside and took himself out of the play.  He seemed to have a very quick "get off" and then would often punch and cut back inside.  Drove me nuts watching Michael Johnson and Dunlap just take wide arcs and eliminate themselves from the play so many times.  

I remembered scouting him in college and liked him as a potential Bengal.  Hope he continues with his high motor and good health.