Defenses in the NFL used zone coverage about 68% of the time in 2025 and man coverage 32% of the time according to match quarters.
When running zone, cover 3 was the most prominent at 27.6%. Of course they get their data from FTN. FTN appears to give out pressures like SIS does, which is much more easily than PFR does. FTN and SIS both show that pressures occurred on roughly 30% of all dropbacks in 2025. PFR shows a pressure rate of 22.7% which is 7% lower than FTN and SIS. PFR shows 4504 pressures on 19818
dropbacks.
So according to PFR, Bo nix was pressured on 19.1% of his dropbacks, which was 8th best in the league among starters. Baker Mayfield was pressured at the lowest rate of 14.8% while Justin Herbert was pressured the most often at 29.8%.
Sumersports shows that the QB who was pressured the least among starters was Aaron Rodgers at 25% in 2025. They show Bo Nix was pressured on 245 of his 717 dropbacks or 34%. They show his rate of being blitzed was farily low, at only 19.1%. However, he was pressured 108 more times than he was blitzed. Only one QB had a negative value if you subtract times blitzed from times pressured and that was Matthew Stafford.
There were only a few QBs who saw man coverage as infrequently as Bo Nix did in 2025 at only 18% (league average was 32%). Nix was also one of the few QBs who were significantly better against man than zone coverage. This was gauged by using success rate. A success rate here is a play that has a positive EPA. Bo’s success rate was 49% against man coverage and only 45% against zone coverage. His man success rate was 9th, while his zone success rate was 33rd of 45 qualifiers. Sam Darnold had the best success rate against man coverage at 56%, while Drake Maye had the best success rate against zone at 56%. Brady Cook was by far the worst against man at 26% while Dillon Gabriel was worst against zone at 29%. Neither QB projects to start any games in 2026. Despite being terrible against man coverage, Brady Cook actually faced it the least of any starter in 2025 at 15%.
Michael Penix was the QB who had the biggest difference between his man and zone success rate. He was 18% better against zone than man. Only 6 QBs faced man coverage more than 34% of the time:
- Dillon Gabriel 39%
- Lamar Jackson 36%
- Josh Allen 36%
- Patrick Mahomes 35%
- Justin Herbert 35%
- Joe Flacco 35%
I find it interesting that three NFL MVPs are in that top 6. All three faced zone twice as much as Bo Nix did in 2025.
Bo Nix as a rookie had a success rate of only 38.6% against man and 45.0% against zone. So it would appear that opposing DCs stifled him with man as a rookie, but he adjusted for that and forced them to use more zone against him in his second season.
His success rate would have probably gone up more without all the drops. Notice that his overall completion % went down relative to his rookie season. His time to throw was almost exactly the same according to Sumersports. I like the fact that his scramble rate dropped significantly from 7.8% down to 5.4%. It should also be noted that he relied much more on his arm than his legs in 2025.
I find it interesting that Caleb Williams took way longer to throw the ball on average in 2025 relative to 2024, as did Drake Maye. Jayden Daniels went up a little in his second season, while Bo stayed the same.
Bo was pressured on 34.6% of his dropbacks in 2024 so his pressure rate was almost identical from year one to year two.
I find it interesting that the Patriots invested heavily in their OL for 2025, and yet Drake Maye was still pressured about as often in his second season as he was in his rookie year. 42.1% in 2025 and 43.2% in 2024.
It appears that the vaunted class of 2024 QBs all improved in their second season, but that improvement was greater in some than in others. If there is interest in this comparison, I could do another article on that specifically, since this one focused mainly on Bo Nix.
