Ranking top-5 edge rushing duos after Chargers blockbuster trade for Khalil Mack
By Jason Reed
3. Maxx Crosby and Yannick Ngakoue, Las Vegas Raiders
Maxx Crosby had a huge coming-out party in 2021 as he led all of the NFL in total pressures on PFF. However, some of the pressure numbers with Crosby are a tad inconsistent, as Pro-Football-Reference has him at 42 pressures. That is a big discrepancy from the 108 total pressures that he logged on PFF.
His sack numbers indicate that as well as Crosby got to the quarterback 11 times despite having over 100 pressures. Sack numbers can be very inconsistent, though, and most times the pressure numbers are the better measuring stick of how a player is doing.
When it is close between elite players and the sack numbers are much lower then it can be a deciding factor, which is why Crosby and the Raiders rank third on this list. Yannick Ngakoue is part of the reason as well. He was obviously still really good for the Raiders to get them to third on this list but he is probably the least impactful player on this entire list.
It will be interesting to see how the Raiders' pair performs moving forward. Crosby's season came out of nowhere and he is going through yet another defensive coordinator change. Meanwhile. Ngakoue has been rather hit or miss in his career and 2021 was a positive year for him as well.
As it stands right now, the Raiders' duo checks in at no. 3 despite having the most combined pressured on this list because of Crosby.