The Ravens have plenty of decisions to be made this off-season with regards to retaining its own personnel. Haloti Ngata is the big name everyone has an opinion on, but one of the under the radar guys is Pernell McPhee. The versatile McPhee is quietly having a very strong season and is out of contract in the off-season. The Ravens already have two strong outside linebackers in Terrell Suggs and Elvis Dumervil, but McPhee has proven a nice compliment to them, moving all over the defense and rushing from different spots.
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Pro Football Focus actually grades McPhee as their third overall 3-4 outside linebacker, above both Suggs (fourth) and Dumervil (fifth). While McPhee only has six sacks to his name, with Dumervil on 19 and Suggs on 13, PFF has McPhee leading the Ravens in hurries and quarterback hits (33 and 20, respectively).
Most of McPhee’s snaps have come as a third rusher in obvious passing situations. He has great size and athleticism, allowing him to shift inside and give Dumervil and Suggs the edges. He’s been very effective pushing the pocket from the inside.
Here, McPhee hovers over the center and right guard, trying not to tip his intentions.
Fron the snap, McPhee sells a hard rush towards the center, getting the right guard to commit inside to help out the center.
After getting the guard to commit inside, McPhee shifts outside and uses an excellent swim move to elude the guard.
The guard falls to his knees, desperately trying to grab on to McPhee to slow down the rush.
But McPhee is too quick and strong. He breaks free off the guard and charges down quarterback Andrew Luck in the pocket for a sack.
But McPhee is also plenty capable on the outside. When Dumervil or Suggs needs a breather, the Ravens can and have trusted McPhee to go in and still get after the quarterback off the edge.
This time McPhee lines up on the edge against the Falcons left tackle.
He takes a strong step up the field on his edge rush, but notices that left tackle Jake Matthews over-sets to the outside.
McPhee quickly moves inside and makes the most of Matthews’ mistake.
The left guard is forced to come across and help out his left tackle, but McPhee keeps his pad level low and uses his momentum to help drive the guard back.
McPhee then sets his sights on quarterback Matt Ryan.
McPhee disengages with the guard and quickly closes the gap to Ryan, registering his second sack of that game.
While McPhee has just six sacks, he has been a consistent pass-rushing threat, generating pressure and working well in tandem with Suggs and Dumervil to rush the passer.
Here, McPhee lines up inside again. He stunts inside across the face of the center.
McPhee uses a quick club and rip move to get the better of the Texans center.
He arrives immediately at the quarterback and forces a hurried throw that falls incomplete. While he couldn’t get the sack, he got the next best result, an incomplete pass.
Clearly then, McPhee brings a lot to the table for the Ravens pass-rush. But being a free agent and coming off a strong season, McPhee will want a much bigger contract than his rookie deal that paid him just $681,140 this year. The Ravens already have large cap commitments at the outside linebacker position, with Dumervil and Suggs set to take up over $12.5 million combined. Ideally, Baltimore find a way to bring McPhee back, but a pass-rusher with the versatile skill-set that McPhee offers could command a bigger contract on the open market than the Ravens can afford to match.
Mark is an NFL follower from across the pond. He began analyzing Redskins football for SBNation’s HogsHaven.com, before moving on to The Washington Post. He also helps with NFL Draft coverage on FanSpeak.com. Mark was born and still lives in England, often battling the time difference to watch every minute of football he can.