2022 PFF Grades and Discussion

Wonnum had a hurry as well as the sack, so 2 pressures on 15 pass rush snaps. That’s good for a PRP (pass rush productivity) of 10.0, which is 14th among the 82 edge rushers playing 20%+ snaps. His pass rush grade is a little above average: 62.9, tied for 42nd of 82. His pass rush win rate is 13.3%, 41st.

Wonnum often gets used as the penetrator on stunts, which is what happened on his sack. He wasn’t “triple teamed” and he didn’t lose as a pass rusher — he bounced to the inside of the LT blocking him in order to tie up the LG and pick off the C, freeing up Za’Darius Smith as the looper to come around the edge.




That’s a very good play by Wonnum even before he gets the cleanup sack in pursuit. He’s doing exactly what he’s supposed to do in the scheme.

On plays where Wonnum is rushing vs an OL with a time to throw over 2 seconds (what PFF calls “true pass sets”), he was pretty effective in the Packers game. That was just 8 snaps, of which he was pass rushing on 7 of them, but on that small sample he got his 2 pressures, giving him a sky high PRP of 21.4, tied for 4th of 82 edge rushers. He graded at 68.3, 25th, and his pass rush win rate is 28.6, tied for 19th.

He’s still bad at run defense, but as I pointed out before the season, he’s a decent pass rusher when he gets to line up wide and pin his ears back. He was the 3rd OLB in the rotation in the Packers game, used on 3rd downs when Hunter or ZDS (or both) pushed inside.

Thanks for the context Krauser. Yes, Wonnum finished the play by running down and sacking Rodgers. The Packers had to punt and on our next offense possession we closed out the game by driving down the field and kicking a FG. Wonnum also forced Rodgers to fumble at Lambeau in 2020 to secure the win. He's a nice rotational player who contributes and has a knack of tackling the QB.

I can remember fans dissing Griffen and Robison in their first couple of years in the league. DJ would be wise to work on his weaknesses. He's only 24.    


 

No one mentioned that the reason Wonnum was blocked by 3-4 Packers on that play was that he was running a stunt. You said he was "remaining blocked at the line of scrimmage", without mentioning that that was deliberate.



Over the past 7 games where he's been used as an outside pass rusher, Wonnum has been productive. He had 24 pressures in his last 6 games last year, tied for 6th most among edge rushers in that span, and now he has 2 more in one game of as a rotational backup. Not all of those pressures have been clean up jobs in pursuit. Last year, he beat Jason Peters around the edge for a sack of Andy Dalton, and he worked through a RB chip and a RT to sack Garoppolo.

Clean up or not, Wonnum has 12 career sacks, most of any pass rusher in the 2020 draft class.



"Seems like"?

You have access to the game film, why not rewatch it and give us your scouting report.

I think PFF grades do a good job of recognizing whether pass rushers are winning enough to be effective. The grades give context as to how many blockers they face, whether the QB held the ball long enough for pressure to have a change to get home, etc.

Over the last 6 weeks of 2021 and again last week, Wonnum is grading in the 60s as a pass rusher, which means he's been decent. Not great but not a liability at all, and certainly not deserving of the criticism he's been getting.

2 forced fumbles
5 pass deflections



He's only 24 and could develop into a good solid piece in our D. 

Why only look at the final 6 games of the season when the guy had the 2nd most pass rushing snaps of any player last year?  Seems a bit cherry picked, especially considering the Bears were the only team he was able to get consistent pressure against and games against the Bears make up 1/3 of those 6 games.  How did he fair in the other 4 games?  9 pressures and 2 sacks, a win % of 8.7 and a pressure percentage of 3.4.  Significantly worse than his season average, meaning outside of the Bears games he was bad from start to finish at rushing the passer and worse at stopping the run.

Looking at those Bears games, his win % was 14.5 compared to Maxx Crosby's 31.8, who had the same number of pressures in those two weeks.  That implies that even in his only two "good" games he wasn't needing to beat a blocker to generate pressure.  Doing the math, Crosby beat his blocker around 30 times to generate 15 pressures while Wonnum got 15 beating his blocker 12 times.  The other 2 edge rushers with similar pressure numbers all had win rates higher than 20, so Wonnum is a clear anomaly hear.

As for why people are hard on Wonnum, it really isn't his fault to be honest.  I think it all stems back to 2020 when there were claims he could be the next Hunter despite no evidence he was close to the same level.  Then there are the talking heads who see his 8 sack total without looking at the context in which he got those sacks, and claim he is a viable pass rusher when he clearly is not.  Finally, I think a lot of fans want more out of a position like OLB/DE than we are getting from a guy who plays so much.  It isn't his fault there is so little depth at that position, but we don't have it so he gets ripped for being ineffective.