I’m sure every team around the NFL has a player or two who was deserving of a Pro Bowl roster spot but was left off. For the Indianapolis Colts, that player is defensive tackle DeForest Buckner.
Whether looking at the numbers Buckner produced or at how this Colts’ defensive front performs when he’s not on the field, the impact from him is evident.
With Buckner having missed five games due to injury, his raw numbers aren’t going to stack up against the best, which perhaps played a role in him not making the final roster, but on per-game basis, he was among the most disruptive defensive tackles this season.
According to PFF’s pass-rush win rate metric, Buckner beat his blocker at the eighth-highest rate among defensive tackles who played at least 120 snaps this season. By pass-rush productivity, an efficiency metric, Buckner ranked 13th.
Against the run, even with that missed time, Buckner would still record the 10th most run-stops at his position group. In terms of the number of run-stops Buckner recorded relative to the number of snaps he played, he ranked fourth.
Buckner clearly has the ability to leave his mark on the game against both the run and the pass, but his impact goes beyond his column on the stat sheet.
When Buckner is on the field, his presence commands attention. That then opens up opportunities for other Colts’ defenders to take advantage of one-on-ones or advantageous matchups, allowing others to make plays.
It’s not a coincidence that after Buckner returned from injury in Week 8 that moving we forward we saw a much more productive Colts’ pass rush as a whole, which included more production from Grover Stewart who had less attention on him.
Although Buckner didn’t make the initial Pro Bowl roster, he was named an alternate. Cameron Heyward, Chris Jones, and Nnamdi Madubuike were the three defensive tackles who made the team.
(This article was updated to provide additional information.)
