For years, one of the most frequent debates in the AFC North revolved around who was the better pass rusher: Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt or Cleveland’s Myles Garrett? Since entering the league together in 2017, the two players have served as an interesting Rorschach test for the league, as the two have had eerily similar production, despite having wildly different playstyles, body types, and paths to the NFL.
Upon being drafted, Garrett immediately stepped into the role of media darling as that year’s
first overall pick. Garrett looks like a prototypical defensive end, the type of player some football-obsessed scientist might concoct in a lab. Garrett has rare size paired with even rarer athleticism — he scored a 9.99 RAS during his NFL Combine workouts — and he is able to use his athletic gifts to win with both speed and power.
Watt, on the other hand, was more of an afterthought to national media, at least initially. He is no slouch athletically — he scored a 9.92 RAS, for what it’s worth — but he was the 30th overall selection, which naturally draws less fanfare than the top pick. He also entered the league in the shadow of his older brother, three-time Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt, a challenge long-time readers might remember being discussed here on BTSC at the time. While T.J. Watt is not a small man (6’4, 252 pounds) by normal standards, he isn’t as big as his brother (6’5, 290 pounds) nor Garrett (6’4, 272 pounds), instead winning much more with speed.
Both Watt and Garrett met their different pressures and challenges, quickly becoming two of the most productive players in the league. Watt tied the single-season sack record in 2021 at 27 years old, on his way to DPOY honors. The debate reached new heights in 2023 after Watt was robbed of the award in favor of Garrett despite leading Garrett in every important stat, including sacks, quarterback hits, tackles for loss, and turnovers generated. In the two seasons since, Garrett has gone on to win his second DPOY, broken the single-season sack record, and overtaken Watt in career sacks totals for the first time since 2019.
But now Garrett is gone, traded to the Rams. With him now across the country, and Watt coming off two lean years of production — at least by his standards — the Garrett-Watt debate has lost some of its fervor. I know some of our readership might grouse at discussions that focus on individual player accomplishments, but I, for one, will miss the debates. In a league built to ensure parity, the “My guy is better than your guy” debates are the lifeblood of fan discourse most years. Why shouldn’t we enjoy some of the little things along the way to that elusive seventh Lombardi, whenever it may come?
With that in mind, the Garrett trade and the Nick Herbig extension have prompted new discussions about the state of pass rushers in the AFC North. And if a tweet from BTSC’s Editor in Chief — and my immediate reaction to reading said tweet — is any indication, there isn’t even agreement right now among members of the same fanbase.
So let’s pop the hood on the best pass rushers in the division — limited to EDGE rushers, apologies to the many talented defensive tackles in the North — and vote to decide who is currently the best at the bottom of this article.
The candidates
The AFC North has a bevvy of top pass rushers, even after the departure of the reigning DPOY. In this exercise, we will examine the past two seasons of production, as that is how long the youngest member of this debate — new Brown, Jared Verse — has been in the league. Expanding the sample size further would make the case for some of our more veteran candidates look a little better in the counting stats, but the NFL is a “What have you done for me lately?” league, and it doesn’t seem fair to compare younger players’ production to stats accumulated while they were still in college. While two years is still a relatively small sample size, it does give more context than just examining last season, and it does offer some insight into developing trajectories for these players.
T.J. Watt, Steelers
2024 stats: 529 pass rush snaps, 11.5 sacks, 49 pressures, 27 QB hits, 9.3% pressure rate, 6 forced fumbles
2025 stats: 435 pass rush snaps, 7.0 sacks, 44 pressures, 19 QB hits, 10.1% pressure rate, 3 forced fumbles
2-Year totals: 964 pass rush snaps, 18.5 sacks, 93 pressures, 46 QB hits, 9.6% pressure rate, 9 forced fumbles
Watt has been the standard in the AFC since 2019, his third year in the league. However, over the past two seasons, Watt has played through a litany of nagging injuries, and opposing offenses seem to have found a winning strategy to slow him down, whether that’s chipping him with a second blocker or utilizing RPOs and quick-passing game concepts to reduce his impact.
The argument for Watt as the best current pass rusher in the division relies heavily on his past achievements and the belief that a healthy season —and perhaps some new schemes and deployments under the new coaching staff — will spark a bounce-back year. Watt’s counting stats (sacks, QB hits, pressures) are each top three in this group, but his efficiency numbers are unquestionably the worst. Watt has at least 300 more snaps than all but Verse, and his pressure rate ranks dead last in this collection of pass rushers. If there is one superpower that Watt still has working up to his usual standard, it’s his ability to create fumbles. His nine created fumbles over the past two seasons easily lead this group, though one player is on his heels with significantly fewer opportunities.
Trey Hendrickson, Ravens
2024 stats:487 pass rush snaps, 17.5 sacks, 92 pressures, 36 QB hits, 18.9% pressure rate, 2 forced fumbles
2025 stats: 169 pass rush snaps, 4.0 sacks, 24 pressures, 8 QB hits, 14.2% pressure rate, 1 forced fumble
2-Year totals: 656 pass rush snaps, 21.5 sacks, 116 pressures, 44 QB hits, 17.6% pressure rate, 3 forced fumbles
Hendrickson isn’t much of a run defender, but since we are looking purely at passing rushing, it’s hard to deny he has a strong case for the top spot here. An injury-shortened 2025 hurts his counting stats, but he posted 17.5 sacks in both 2023 and 2024. And while his counting stats were down last year due to injury, his efficiency was still top-notch.
Hendrickson is changing teams in the division this season, and at 32 years old, bouncing back from a serious hip injury is no guarantee. If he’s healthy, though, the Ravens may have finally found the type of pass rusher they’ve lacked since the prime Terrell Suggs days.
Alex Highsmith, Steelers
2024 stats: 275 pass rush snaps, 6.0 sacks, 44 pressures, 13 QB hits, 16.0% pressure rate, 1 forced fumble
2025 stats: 310 pass rush snaps, 9.5 sacks, 45 pressures, 19 QB hits, 14.5% pressure rate, 1 forced fumble
2-Year totals: 585 pass rush snaps, 15.5 sacks, 89 pressures, 32 QB hits, 15.2% pressure rate, 2 forced fumbles
Highsmith is perennially one of the most underrated players in the league, and since the emergence of Herbig, some portions of the Steelers fanbase act as if he’s the ugly stepchild of the team’s pass-rushing trio. He’s never reached the elite ceiling that Watt has at his best, but Highsmith has also been more dependable over the past two seasons. Sure, some of that could be due to the attention teams pay to Watt. But among our six candidates, Highsmith finishes no worse than fourth in every stat except for snaps and forced fumbles. His pressure rate over the past two seasons is tied for the second-best. And while this discussion is about pass rushing, it’s a two-man race between Highsmith and Verse for best run defender among this bunch.
Boye Mafe, Bengals
2024 stats: 322 pass rush snaps, 6.0 sacks, 41 pressures, 12 QB hits, 12.7% pressure rate, 1 forced fumble
2025 stats: 311 pass rush snaps, 2.0 sacks, 41 pressures, 4 QB hits, 13.2% pressure rate, 1 forced fumble
2-Year totals: 633 pass rush snaps, 8.0 sacks, 82 pressures, 16 QB hits, 12.9% pressure rate, 2 forced fumbles
Mafe got big money to join the Bengals this offseason, but there are certainly questions about his production profile. Mafe was part of a heavy rotation on a Seahawks team that gave 500 or more snaps to four defensive ends. Mafe got the third most snaps among that group. Thus far in his career, Mafe has specialized in creating pressure, but he hasn’t finished as much as you would like, with just two sacks in 2025. Drafted in 2022, Mafe’s best sack total came in 2023 when he had nine sacks.
Jared Verse, Browns
2024 stats: 453 pass rush snaps, 4.5 sacks, 76 pressures, 18 QB hits, 16.8% pressure rate, 2 forced fumbles
2025 stats: 483 pass rush snaps, 7.5 sacks, 67 pressures, 27 QB hits, 13.9% pressure rate, 3 forced fumbles
2-Year totals: 936 pass rush snaps, 12.0 sacks, 143 pressures, 45 QB hits, 15.2% pressure rate, 5 forced fumbles
If we were accumulating a ranking of the best pass rushers age 25 and younger, Verse would be in the running for the second or third spot, with only Houston’s Will Anderson Jr. definitively ahead of him. There’s a good chance that the Watt-Garrett debate will evolve into Herbig-Verse debates in the years to come. Similar to their predecessors, Herbig and Verse are completely different styles of players, with Verse profiling more as a power rusher. In his short career, he’s created a ton of pressure, but is still looking for a breakout season in terms of sacks.
I’m not quite ready to crown him the division’s best pass rusher right now — sorry Jarrett! — but he has a better case than you might expect, and I anticipate him to only get better as he enters his prime.
Nick Herbig, Steelers
2024 stats: 204 pass rush snaps, 5.5 sacks, 36 pressures, 11 QB hits, 17.6% pressure rate, 4 forced fumbles
2025 stats: 328 pass rush snaps, 7.5 sacks, 45 pressures, 18 QB hits, 13.7% pressure rate, 3 forced fumbles
2-Year totals: 532 pass rush snaps, 13 sacks, 81 pressures, 29 QB hits, 15.2% pressure rate, 7 forced fumbles
No player has done more with less opportunites than Herbig. Despite receiving the fewest snaps among this group of pass rushers, Herbig has more sacks than Verse and Mafe, and appears to have studied well at Watt’s knee, generating the second-most forced fumbles. His efficiency numbers decreased slightly with more opportunities in 2025 — not to be totally unexpected — but he still is tied for the second-best pressure rate among this group of six pass rushers.
Like Verse, Herbig is just entering his physical prime. While Verse is more of a power rusher, Herbig relies on his quick-twitch athleticism and his ever-expanding bag of moves to win his reps. Much like Watt v. Garrett, his game might not age as well as Verse’s after 30, but he has the potential to reach some dizzying heights if he can remain healthy over the course of his second contract.
One final look at the numbers
So, who do you think the best pass rusher in the division is? We’ve laid out the data and made the case for each. Now that’s all that’s left is for you to vote!
Vote in the poll and let us know what you think in the comments. Be sure to bookmark Behind the Steel Curtain for all the latest news, breakdowns, and more!
