Melvin Ingram is a Chief. How has he looked rushing the passer this year?
Charting 4 games of the newest addition to Kansas City's defense
It’s no secret that the Chiefs’ defense has been problematic this season.
While the primary issue has been consistent problems in coverage, the pass rush has been part of the concern week in and week out. While Frank Clark has had a pair of solid back-to-back games and Chris Jones is looking more like himself (with many of his pass rushing snaps now coming from the defensive tackle spot), the Chiefs still aren’t getting consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks.
Now, some of that can be chalked up to the ball coming out quickly and some of the aforementioned coverage issues. But some of it is that new addition Jarran Reed hasn’t had the hoped-for impact, nor have many of the younger players the Chiefs were hoping would take a step forward to become another consistent pass rushing threat.
Getting after the quarterback is a sum of the parts issue. Having 4 “good” pass rushers is often superior to having one star and multiple replacement-level players. And of course, the ideal is having multiple stars AND multiple consistent rushers who are able to win one-on-one matchups at times. That was the plan for the Chiefs when they invested in Jones/Clark along with Reed and several younger guys, but it just hasn’t panned out this year.
The Chiefs are trying to address that, bringing in a player they tried to sign this offseason in edge rusher Melvin Ingram.
Ingram chose the Steelers over the Chiefs during the offseason, whether due to a believed scheme fit, opportunity, or money. It hasn’t worked out as he’d hoped and he’s seen his role altered and snap counts drop as the year went along, despite grading out well according to PFF (if one is interested in that). Because of that, he requested a trade and the Steelers were willing to give him up for a relatively low price.
With the Chiefs desperately needing added pass rush juice, it made sense for me to go back and chart multiple games for Ingram’s pass rushing snaps.
If you’ve never read a piece of mine discussing defensive linemen, the methodology is simple. I chart wins/losses/neutral snaps, as well as looking at pressures/hits/sacks and effective double teams. In this case I looked only at pass rushing downs, so I didn’t chart stuffs.
So let’s look at the numbers, then talk about where Ingram wins, his role in PIT vs his role in KC, and where I think this will land in terms of impact.