Five games into his second season as a full-time NFL starter, New York Jets offensive tackle Olu Fashanu has been an interesting study.
In some games, he has looked rock solid; in others, he has struggled. Overall, he still lacks the consistency needed to be a high-end left tackle in the NFL.
Beyond the tape, though, let’s take a look at his analytics and what they actually mean, as they paint a perplexing picture of the Penn State product.
The curious case of Fashanu
Let’s start with the obvious: Fashanu’s sack numbers are certainly alarming.
According to Pro Football Focus, he has allowed five sacks through five games, the most among tackles this season. This is despite playing just 182 pass-blocking snaps, which ranks 36th at the position.
For a player looking to take a leap this year, those numbers are far from encouraging, especially since he was renowned for his pass-protecting ability coming out of college. To put it in even more perspective, only five other tackles have surrendered four sacks this season.
So, the sack totals certainly don’t favor Fashanu by any measure. However, things get interesting once you look beyond that.
While Fashanu has been the league’s worst offensive lineman in terms of sacks allowed, his overall pressure numbers look much different. Per PFF, Fashanu has allowed 14 pressures across 171 pass-blocking snaps this year, equating to an 8.2% pressure rate. That mark isn’t impressive whatsoever, ranking 49th out of 64 qualified tackles, but 14 tackles have allowed more pressures than Fashanu.
He also isn’t allowing pressure quickly. FTN Fantasy tracks “time to pressure,” which measures how long it takes for a defender to generate pressure when a lineman allows it. That matters because it separates players who may get bailed out by a quick-throwing QB but consistently allow early pressure from those who consistently hold their own on their assignments.
Through five games, Fashanu’s average time to pressure is 2.86 seconds, per FTN, ranking 51st among 170 OL so far: comfortably above-average.
That raises the question on every Jets fan’s mind: Why have Fashanu’s pressures turned into sacks at such a high rate? Of his 14 pressures allowed, five have resulted in sacks, which is a 35.7% rate.
Enter Geno Smith.
According to PFF, Smith’s 25.4% pressure-to-sack rate is the second-highest mark among 37 quarterbacks this year (minimum 50 dropbacks). That plays a large role in why Fahsanu’s sack totals are misleading.
Other tackles who allow pressure more frequently than Fashanu have been protecting quarterbacks who avoid sacks at far better rates than Smith. For instance, Tyler Shough, whom Taliese Fuaga (league-high 21 pressures allowed) protects, has been sacked on just 14.6% of his pressured dropbacks. Yet, Fuaga has allowed just four sacks this season to Fashanu’s five, despite allowing seven more pressures.
That’s why the added context is crucial. It’s easy to look at the surface-level sack number and claim that Fashanu has been atrocious. While Smith does not completely excuse Fashanu’s up-and-down start to the year, his struggles to evade pressure and get the ball out quickly contribute to the lofty sack total.
Setting Smith aside, Fashanu’s game-to-game numbers show that his rough outing in Week 3 drags him down. Against Detroit that week, he allowed six pressures and three sacks. That accounts for over 40% of his pressures allowed and 60% of his sacks allowed.
Across his other four games, Fashanu has allowed eight pressures and two sacks on 133 pass-blocking snaps. His allowed pressure rate across those four games is 6.0%, which would rank 37th out of 64 qualifiers this season (as opposed to his season-long ranking of 49th).
Obviously, that’s not how the NFL works, but it’s worth keeping in mind.
At the end of the day, the tackle needs to be better. Even outside of the Detroit game, and even accounting for Smith’s sack woes, Fashanu still hasn’t been good enough. He shouldn’t be allowing as many pressures given his draft status and the expectations for him entering this year.
