The Las Vegas Raiders are looking for a defensive tackle to step up after the Christian Wilkins saga. So far, rookie JJ Pegues has answered the call during the Raiders’ first two preseason games.
Pegues had a handful of quality reps as a run defender against the Seattle Seahawks and managed to record four pressures as a pass-rusher versus the San Francisco 49ers, tied for the second-most among interior defenders according to Pro Football Focus. Additionally, the Ole Miss product continued to stand
out against the run last weekend.
That likely secured his spot on Las Vegas’ 53-man roster, and also should help him gain some traction on the team’s depth chart. So, let’s flip on the tape and break down his performance on Saturday.
Let’s start with a good example of the former Rebel’s knockback power as a run defender.
The 49ers run lead zone to the weakside of the formation, putting the center one-on-one with Pegues, who appears to be two-gapping, meaning he’s responsible for both A-gaps. Pegues uses good pad level and his impressive upper body strength at the point of attack to push the center into the backfield and reset the line of scrimmage.
From there, the defender makes sure the strong side A-gap is protected by shading to that side of the center while peeking into the backfield. Because he won at the point of attack, once Pegues sees the running back cut into the weakside A-gap, he’s able to cross the center’s face and get involved in the tackle while the offensive lineman is still hanging onto him.
Considering Las Vegas could use help at nose tackle, this is a pretty encouraging rep from the rookie.
This next rep is almost identical to the last one, where Pegues is physically dominant at the point of attack to reset the line of scrimmage.
Again, he knocks the center into the backfield, which helps cut the field in half by forcing the running back to cut up the field. Also, Pegues manages to get involved in another tackle while the center is still hanging onto him.
Another strong rep against the run while lined up as a shade nose tackle.
Unfortunately, Las Vegas has issues on the back end covering San Francisco’s play-action pass here. So the ball is out of the quarterback’s hands too quickly for the defensive tackle to get a sack, but he does manage to record a win as a pass-rusher.
Post-snap, Pegues quickly recognizes it’s a play-action fake and not a run play, transitioning from run to pass defense and abandoning his run responsibilities (the A-gap). Then, Pegues does a great job of using the left guard’s momentum against him, winning with a hump move to get pressure.
Again, the ball is out too quickly for the defensive lineman to hit home, but reps like these can pay off later with better coverage.
The 49ers had a lot of quick passes to attack the Raiders’ soft zones on Saturday. So the play above is another rep where Pegues gets a win without anything to show for it, since the quarterback gets rid of the ball almost immediately after his back foot hits the ground.
Regardless, the defensive tackle does a good job of recognizing the quick set from the guard, adjusting his path to win around the outside by defeating the guard’s hands. Again, plays like this one will pay off later when the offense runs a longer developing pass play or the quarterback is forced to work through his reads.
Later in the game, the Raiders found success by having Pegues slant inside or running line games with him.
Here, they run Cover 0, where both linebackers and the nickelback blitz while the defensive tackle lines up as a 3-technique in the B-gap pre-snap before slanting into the A-gap post-snap. He manages to capture the guard’s attention by squaring up the guard before going inside, which allows the nickel to be a free rusher on the blitz.
Granted, the running back does a good job of coming off the linebacker and picking up the defensive back in the protection scheme. However, Pegues keeps his feet moving and goes from attacking the center to bull rushing the guard, freeing up the linebacker (No. 43, Michael Barrett) to get the clean-up sack.
So, the rookie managed to help two teammates get pressure on the quarterback while collapsing the pocket himself.
This time, the Raiders run a T/E stunt where Pegues is the penetrator.
Initially, he disguises the line game well by working up the field with his first two steps before pivoting to the outside and attacking the right tackle. As a result, he catches the right tackle off guard and is physical at the point of attack to win the rep and get pressure. Unfortunately, the ball is out quickly again, but this is still another quality rush from the rookie.
