Film Room: Is the Taylor Stallworth Breakout For Real?

26-year old defensive tackle Taylor Stallworth has been incredible the past two weeks for the Colts. Can he continue this momentum going forward?

The Indianapolis Colts' pass rush has been in a bad place this season. Coming into the week nine game against the New York Jets, the team ranked last in quarterback hits produced and ranked among the worst teams in terms of pressure percentage.

The past two weeks have been a completely different story though, as the team is cranking up the pressure on opposing quarterbacks. While this has come against two bottom-dwellers in the Jets and Jacksonville Jaguars, it is nice to finally see this pass rush step up.

The two main factors for this turnaround have been the emergence of rookie Kwity Paye and the sudden breakout of 26-year old Taylor Stallworth. Focusing just on Stallworth in this piece, his play has been remarkable of late.

In 840 career snaps prior to these past two weeks, he has totaled three sacks and two quarterback hits. In the 55 snaps that he has played since week nine, he has totaled three sacks and four quarterback hits. This sudden emergence has led to more playing time for the veteran.

Is this breakout actually happening? In today's film room, I dive into Stallworth's play and decipher if his play warrants all the praise he has been getting.

Jets Breakout Game

The Jets game is what began this madness with Stallworth. He was all over the field in this one and created so much havoc as a rusher.

He started the day with a sack in the first quarter. There isn't anything too special on this play, as it is a nice stunt call up front with the defensive line. Stallworth does a good job working up field on the rush and locating the quarterback for the sack.

While the first play wasn't super impressive, every other snap he played in this game was. His sack in the fourth quarter of the game may be the best rush of the year by a Colts' player.

He starts the play lined up in the 'A' gap in between the right guard and the center. He gets doubled to start the rep, but the right guard quickly peels off to help the right tackle. This leaves Stallaworth one on one with the center.

He hits a powerful two-hand swipe that sends the center to the ground. He then turns the corner up the field and gets a huge sack. Just an outstanding, eye-opening rush on the play.

The rest of the game was more of the same, but they came against a higher quality of player. In these next two clips, Stallworth was lined up against first round pick Alijah Vera-Tucker.

Vera-Tucker is having a strong season for the Jets, but you wouldn't know that based on these two clips. On the first play, Stalloworth beats Vera-Tucker with a nasty push-pull. He pushes forward on the bull rush before quickly pulling Vera-Tucker out of the way en route to another quarterback hit.

On the second clip, Stallworth gets Vera-Tucker with an impressive club-over move. He gives a slight head fake before swatting Vera-Tucker's hands away and turning up field. The wide array of moves from him in this game alone was really impressive considering how little he has rushed the passer in his career.

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Continued Play Against the Jaguars

Due to his standout play against the Jets, Stallworth saw some more snaps in passing down situations against the Jaguars. While he wasn't as dominant in this game, he did have a few more flashes of strong play.

Stallworth is, again, working on a stunt in this first clip. He quickly gets inside and then fights his way up the field. He doesn't give up on the rush despite being in traffic, and is able to free himself up late to get the hit on the quarterback.

This final clip isn't a pass rush snap, but it is a super impressive run stop where he beats his man cleanly off the snap.

The Jaguars are running a simple inside trap play and Stallworth blows it up right off the line. He quickly swims past his would-be blocker and meets the running back in the hole for a loss on the play. This is an insanely quick move that looked a lot like Grover Stewart on this snap.

Final Thoughts

Maybe I am just desperately hoping for it, but I am kind of buying into Stallworth breaking out. His rushes have been clean wins up front, and he is making a positive impact as a pass rusher. I'm not going to say that he's becoming a legit star or anything, but he appears to be emerging as a solid pass rushing player.

Here is what Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus had to say on the recent emergence of Stallworth:

I see him dance during stretch and stuff so I know he’s athletic and he’s light on his feet (laughing). So definitely knew he could do that. But no, he’s done good things in our one-on-one pass rush over the years we’ve had him during the course of practice. He’s certainly been a guy that has been able to do that during those drills. We’re excited where he is. He gives us another new element in there and we’re excited to keep him going. The more guys on deck in terms of all hands on deck in terms of the pass rush, and we’re excited where he is. He’s got some good pressures, a couple sacks and let’s keep it going.

Overall, I have been more impressed with Stallworth these past two weeks than I have of any other defensive lineman on this team this year (outside of Kwity Paye). Hopefully he keeps taking advantage of his chances and becomes a consistent pass rusher for this team.

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