As such, the league has been putting more emphasis on technological advances, namely Next Gen stats, by putting microchips onto footballs and player uniforms, hoping to gain better insight into players’ abilities. It’s not sufficient anymore to believe that a team with the most sacks is the best at applying the most pressure.
The two are understandably linked, but thanks to the Next Gen tracking data, the NFL now has the ability to see how much pressure is being created by defensive fronts. As it so happens, the Redskins, after a thorough combing of the information, applied the second most pressures (269) in the NFL in 2017, 22 behind the Eagles.