2019 Defeats

For a few years now, the title of NFL's Best Watt Brother has been difficult to defend. J.J., the eldest Watt, set a high bar when he was drafted 11th overall in 2011. For the next five years, while his younger brothers were toiling in the high school and college ranks, J.J. ripped the league to shreds, leading all players with 74.5 sacks and winning three Defensive Player of the Year awards. In 2016, however, a back injury limited him to just three games; his brother Derek, then a sixth-round rookie for the Chargers, appeared in all 16 games as a fullback and took the BWB crown by default. Derek only held it for one year, however, losing it to T.J., who started 15 games as a rookie for Pittsburgh in 2017 while J.J. again missed significant time due to injury. 2018 was the only season when all three Watts played 16 games, and J.J. was again the best thanks in part to a league-leading seven forced fumbles. In 2019, however, while J.J. spent half the season in the trainer's room, T.J. took hold as the best player in the family -- and as one of the best defenders in pro football.

Our look back at 2019 data continues today with a look at defeats, one of our favorite stats for defensive players. We have lots of statistics to measure quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, even kickers, but our numbers for individual defensive players are a lot more limited. Defeats are one way to account for defenders who make frequent appearances on highlight reels. As a reminder, a defender is credited with a defeat any time he makes one of the following plays:

• A tackle that results in a loss of yardage, including sacks.
• Any play that results in a turnover, including tipped passes which are then intercepted.
• Any tackle or tipped pass that leads to a stop on third or fourth down.

And, as you have probably figured out by now, your leader in defeats for 2019 was Trent Jordan Watt, edge rusher for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Watt wasn't limited to pass-rushing in 2019. His 36 total defeats break down like so:

• 17 sack plays (including 12 full sacks and five half-sacks -- Watt's official sack total of 14.5 was tied for fourth);
• 10 tackles for loss on running plays;
• three tackles that produced a third-/fourth-down stop;
• two forced fumbles on running plays that gained yardage (Watt's total of eight forced fumbles were tied with Arizona's Chandler Jones for most in the league);
• two interceptions;
• one pass defensed on third/fourth down;
• and one tackle for a loss on a completed pass.

As such, despite leading the league in total defeats, Watt was "only" third in defeats against the pass and fourth in defeats against the run. The leader in the former category was Tampa Bay edge rusher Shaquil Barrett, who had only 14.0 sacks in five seasons with the Broncos but broke out with a league-best 19.5 sacks in his first season in pewter. Those sacks produced the bulk of Barrett's 24 pass defeats. (He also intercepted one pass, tipped another interception to a teammate, and made two third-down stops on completed passes.) Another NFC South player, Atlanta defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, led the league with 17 run defeats -- 11 tackles for loss, five third-down stops, and one forced fumble on a run that gained yardage.

As you can see, the leaderboards here are dominated by edge rushers and off-ball linebackers. We can let some stars shine more brightly by filtering the leaders by position, starting with interior defensive linemen.

Most observers would tell you that two-time Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald was, in fact, the best defensive player in the NFL, and few on our staff would argue. If any interior lineman could challenge the L.A. Rams star, however, it was Pittsburgh's Cameron Heyward, who has routinely racked up sacks, tackles for loss, and Pro Bowl berths himself. In 2019, they were dead-even in defeats -- both had 15 against the pass, 11 against the run, and 26 total. Both played in all 16 games, but Donald finished with about 50 more snaps on defense. So if you want to award the crown to Heyward on defeats-per-snap efficiency basis, have at it.

No interior lineman had more pass defeats than Donald or Heyward, and as mentioned, Atlanta's Grady Jarrett led all linemen (and other defenders) in run defeats. There's a bit of a drop-off after those three, with DeForest Buckner and Dalvin Tomlinson tied for fourth place with 17 defeats apiece. Buckner should be a huge upgrade for his new team in Indianapolis -- last season, Colts interior linemen combined for only 18 defeats.

Here we really see the gap between T.J. Watt and his peers open up. Watt finished second among edge rushers behind Barrett in pass defeats, but no edge rusher had more run defeats. Two other edge rushers did tie him at 14. One was Joey Bosa of the Chargers, who may have lost some press to his brother Nick in San Francisco (Joey & Nick Bosa vs. any two Watt brothers would be a hella fun tag team match), but remains the more productive player. The other was Watt's teammate in Pittsburgh, Bud Dupree. Between Watt, Heyward, and Dupree, that's three Steelers we've mentioned by name in less than a thousand words, and that's not even including Javon Hargrave, who was among the top 20 interior linemen. This is going to be a theme as this column unfolds.

Rounding out the top five we have Markus Golden, who rebounded nicely with the Giants after some injury-filled seasons with the Cardinals, and Danielle Hunter of the Vikings.

While everyone's talking about what Kliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray did for Arizona's offense last season, let's not overlook how Jordan Hicks blossomed in Vance Joseph's defense. Hicks' 150 tackles were nearly 60 more than he had ever made in a season before, and his 11 tackles for loss nearly matched the 12 he had in his first four seasons with the Cardinals. Eleven of Hicks' defeats were third-/fourth-down stops, including one tackle on a Lamar Jackson run that gained 19 yards on third-and-20. But he also made an impact in the passing game with three interceptions and 1.5 sacks. That may not sound like much, but only six other players pulled that off last season. Five of those seven players qualified for at least one of the tables in this story, including third-place linebacker Jamie Collins and fourth-place Darius Leonard.

Speaking of Leonard, he led all linebackers with 23 pass defeats: eight third-/fourth-down stops (seven tackles, one pass defensed), six sack plays, five interceptions, three tackles for loss on completions, and one forced fumble on a completion. The leader in run defeats was Tennessee's Rashaan Evans with 16 (10 tackles for loss, six third-/fourth-down stops). This is bleak news for running backs in the AFC South this season.

We've mentioned five different linebackers so far but we overlooked Lavonte David, who finished just one defeat short of Hicks for the positional lead. Then again, David should be used to being overlooked by now. He finished third in the league with 30 defeats, the sixth time he has hit 30 in eight NFL seasons, and yet his career average dropped to 33.6 after last season. David was drafted in 2012, just like Luke Kuechly and Bobby Wagner. Since then, however, David has been awarded with just one Pro Bowl berth and one first-team All-Pro nod; Kuechly has seven and five, while Wagner has six and five, respectively. When it comes to highlight plays, however, David dominates them both, particularly when it comes to fumbles and making tackles in the backfield.

Sorry Pittsburgh, but no Steelers qualified for the leaderboards here. (Devin Bush was closest with 18.) Fear not! We'll get back to you soon.

Surprise! In three NFL seasons, Arizona's Budda Baker has yet to record an interception, and he managed only half a sack in 2019. Yet somehow, he led all safeties with 25 defeats. He did it by making tackles -- a lot of tackles, 147 in all, including an NFL-high 104 solo stops. Those tackles helped him make a dozen run defeats (11 tackles for loss, one third-/fourth-down stop), most among safeties. He also made 13 pass defeats (eight tackles for third-/fourth-down stops, two more third-/fourth-down stops on passes defensed, one sack play, one forced fumble, and one tipped pass that was intercepted by a teammate).

Jamal Adams of the Jets and Taylor Rapp of the Rams matched Baker with 13 pass defeats. They fell behind him in run defeats, but they still joined Baker as the only safeties to hit double digits in both categories. (Baker and Rapp, by the way, were teammates at the University of Washington in 2016 when the Huskies went 12-2, led the Pac-12 in scoring defense, and reached the College Football Playoff.)

Denver's Justin Simmons led all safeties with 16 pass defeats. He made 11 stops on third and fourth down (six tackles, five passes defensed) and produced five interceptions (four of his own and one he tipped to a teammate).

Oh! And there are two Pittsburgh safeties on this list: Terrell Edmunds and Minkah Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick, if you're wondering, made all 15 defeats in his 14 games with the Steelers following his trade out of Miami.

Defeats aren't always a useful metric for cornerbacks; the top players are usually nickelbacks who are on the field enough to make a bunch of tackles near the line of scrimmage. New England's Stephon Gilmore, the Defensive Player of the Year, led all corners with 21 pass defeats (a dozen stops on third-/fourth-down between tackles and tipped passes; a half-dozen interceptions of his own and two other passes tipped to teammates; and one forced fumble). He was tied in total defeats with Buffalo's Tre'Davious White, who joined Gilmore on the first-team All-Pro team.

Both Gilmore and White, however, finished behind Tennessee's Logan Ryan in total defeats. Ryan was one of the busiest players in the league last year -- he was in the top 10 among cornerbacks in targets in pass coverage and second with 39 tackles on running plays. It's those running plays that put Ryan over the top -- he led all corners with six run defeats (four tackles for loss, two third-/fourth-down stops).

And yes, there are Steelers on the list -- Joe Haden and Mike Hilton both made the top 10. That's eight Pittsburgh players who made the top 20 at their respective positions. With that kind of star power, you might expect the Steelers to lead the league in defeats as a team. And you would be right -- kind of.

The Steelers made 203 total defeats, tied with the Buffalo Bills for most in the league. The Bills were especially effective against the pass, where they led the NFL with 138 pass defeats. The only Buffalo defender to come up in conversation so far has been Tre'Davious White, but defensive linemen Jordan Phillips and Ed Oliver; edge rusher Shaq Lawson; linebackers Tremaine Edmunds and Matt Milano; and safety Jordan Poyer each made the leaderboards at their positions too. (The Rams also had seven players in the leaderboards, but still barely made the top 10 in team totals.)

No defense had more run defeats than the Jets, who had 85. We have barely talked about the Jets so far, but safety Jamal Adams (11 run defeats), linebacker James Burgess (10), and defensive lineman Kyle Phillips (nine) were their leaders against the run. They might have had more names rank higher as individuals if their front seven hadn't been ravaged by injuries.

In last place, we have the Oakland Raiders with 81 pass defeats; the Green Bay Packers and Miami Dolphins tied with 39 run defeats; and the Detroit Lions with 124 total defeats. The Raiders attempted to solve their problems by drafting one defensive back (Damon Arnette) and signing three more (Prince Amukamara, Jeff Heath, and Damarious Randall). The Dolphins used free agency to add three pass-rushers (Kyle Van Noy, Shaq Lawson, and Emmanuel Ogbah) and cornerback Byron Jones; they also drafted another corner, Noah Igbinoghene, in the first round. Meanwhile, the Packers attempted to solve their defensive problems by drafting a quarterback in the first round, and the Lions traded their top cornerback to the Eagles. Because the NFC North is crazy.