{"id":50808,"date":"2025-05-24T07:33:42","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T07:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=50808"},"modified":"2025-05-24T07:33:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T07:33:42","slug":"furious-george-%f0%9f%98%a4-espn-named-karlaftis-the-most-underrated-defensive-end-headed-into-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=50808","title":{"rendered":"Furious George \ud83d\ude24 ESPN named Karlaftis the most underrated defensive end headed into this season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ESPN NFL analyst Aaron Schatz identified one player at every position who he considers to be underrated heading into the 2025 campaign, and at edge rusher, that player was Kansas City Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Karlaftis, who is entering his fourth season with Kansas City, led the Chiefs with eight sacks in 2024. He also racked up 61 total pressures (according to Pro Football Focus’ metrics), which ranked 15th in the NFL and served as the basis of Schatz’s argument:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“If you want to find an underrated edge rusher, there’s a general rule to follow: Look for someone who ranks a lot higher in pressures than sacks. That means he’s getting to the quarterback and causing negative plays for the opponent, even if he isn’t getting the press.<\/em>\u00a0In 2024, Karlaftis was that guy. He followed up a 10.5-sack season in 2023 with eight sacks last season, but his pressure total was far more impressive. Karlaftis was tied for 14th in the NFL with 44 pressures (based on ESPN’s metrics). He added 11 more pressures in three playoff games and had three sacks against the Texans in the AFC divisional round.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Kansas<\/picture>\n
Andrew Mather<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Indeed, Karlaftis has been nothing but productive since joining the Chiefs as a first-round pick in 2022. He has 32.5 sacks in that time (including the postseason) in addition to 208 total pressures, and now entering his fourth year as a professional, he’ll have an opportunity to build on that success in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ESPN NFL analyst Aaron Schatz identified one player at every position who he considers to be underrated heading into the 2025 campaign, and at edge rusher, that… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\nFurious George \ud83d\ude24 ESPN named Karlaftis the most underrated defensive end headed into this season - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=50808\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Furious George \ud83d\ude24 ESPN named Karlaftis the most underrated defensive end headed into this season - 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