7 Best Tier 2 Edge Rushers Hitting the Market This Offseason Part 3

BY ADAM GREENE

It’s time to wrap up our Tier 2 list of edge rushers with Nos. 5-7. This section is populated with some familiar names that come with some familiar red flags.

5. JAMIE COLLINS, OLB, UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENT

2019: 81 tackles, seven sacks, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, seven passes defended, three interceptions, one defensive touchdown

After getting shipped out of New England to Cleveland in 2016, Collins made his triumphant return to the Patriots, putting up solid numbers and the highest sack total of his career. So why isn’t he ranked higher?

Because those were the highest sack numbers of his career. Collins is a good outside linebacker but not a natural edge rusher as Pats used him last season. It knocked his tackle totals down from the triple digits, but did make him far more dangerous to quarterbacks.

Where he should end up: Buffalo Bills

If I’m the Bills, I don’t hesitate to bring in Collins and put him in a natural outside linebacker position in a 4-3 instead of the 3-4 edge rusher he was with New England last season. You can still utilize that skillset, but Collins can play in space and it’s smart to use him that way. And, again, the Bills need to jump on the opportunity that’s opening up in 2020.

6. SHAQ LAWSON, DE, UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENT

2019: 32 tackles, 13 for a loss, 6.5 sacks, one forced fumble, two passes defended

Lawson is a guy that’s just never turned into what it looked like he would when the Buffalo Bills drafted him out of Clemson with the 19th pick of the 2016 draft. His junior year with the Tigers, he racked up 24.5 tackles for a loss (you read that right) and 12.5 sacks. He, only after his fourth season, hit 25 tackles for a loss in the NFL and 16.5 career sacks.

Lawson isn’t a guy the NFL is going to give up on. He’s been productive, but those numbers look a lot more like a journeyman third round pick than a guy that planted 24.5 bodies in the backfield his final year in college. It’s why the Bills didn’t exercise their fifth-year option and will be content to let him walk.

Where he should end up: Houston Texans

The Texans have one of the superior outside linebackers in the 3-4 business in Whitney Mercilus, but don’t have much on the other side in Brennan Scarlett, who they recenty re-signed to a one-year extension. Lawson will be a cheap flyer, a guy that, at worst, can be a rotational pass rusher and, at best, might find that switch he looked to have coming out of Clemson.

7. JASON PIERRE-PAUL, DE, UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENT

2019: 27 tackles, 8.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, two passes defended

JPP is a sea of red flags and maybe that’s not fair, but it’s his history and it comes with him. Pierre-Paul nearly blew off his hand in a fireworks accident in 2015 and last offseason suffered a potentially career-ending neck fracture in a car accident.

He did come back and play well, obviously, and put up those numbers in just 10 games and eight starts.

Pierre-Paul has had multiple surgeries on his hand, back surgery on a herniated disc and, you know, last year almost bought it in a car wreck. He’s 31, which isn’t old, but at some point you have to wonder if all this will take its toll. It will certainly keep him from landing any lucrative long-term deal.

Where he should end up: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Dramatic injury recoveries aside, JPP has been an elite rusher since the Bucs shipped the New York Giants a third round pick for him in 2018. If he’d played a full season at full health last year, that’s a 17-sack projected year. Bruce Arians likes older players and can usually coax the best years out of guys that are a little long in the tooth. Tampa should make an effort to keep Pierre-Paul with all the money they’ll save by not using the franchise tag on Jameis Winston.

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