A panel of ESPN college football analysts picked four different players earlier in the week as the nation’s best pass rushers.
Despite boasting gaudy stats in 2017, Chase Winovich failed to make the list. Seeing as it’s a meaningless preseason prediction, he didn’t seem to bat an eye.
— Chase Winovich (@Chase_Winovich) July 11, 2018
Ohio State’s Nick Bosa, Houston’s Ed Oliver, Clemson’s Clelin Ferrell and Northern Illinois’ Sutton Smith made the cut. Let’s look at their numbers from 2017.
- Nick Bosa — 34 tackles, 16 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks.
- Ed Oliver — 73 tackles, 16.5 TFL and 5.5 sacks. On one hand, this is insane production for an interior lineman. On the other hand, Houston plays in the AAC.
- Clelin Ferrell — 66 tackles, 18 TFL and 9.5 sacks.
- Sutton Smith — 63 tackles, 30 TFL and 14 sacks. Yes, he plays MAC competition, but those are just mind-boggling totals.
All of these players are elite threats that give offensive linemen nightmares. This does not diminish their effectiveness. However, when looking at Winovich’s numbers:
73 tackles, 19 TFL and 8.5 sacks.
As mentioned in the above tweet, this all happened in one less game than Bosa.
Let’s summarize: Chase Winovich had more overall tackles and TFL than any player on this list outside of Smith. He equaled the amount of sacks Bosa had, facing the same intra-conference competition.
Winovich deserves to be listed here amongst his elite peers.
In the meantime, look out for backfield meetings between him and another edge terror in Rashan Gary.