Bud Dupree was on his way to a productive season in 2020 until he suffered a torn ACL in week 12 against the Ravens.
He had 43 pressures and 9 sacks through 11 games which put him on pace for 13 sacks and over 60 pressures on the year, which at face value looks great.
If he were to reach 63 pressures and 13 sacks he would have been tied for fourth in the league in sacks and seventh in the league in pressures. I am sure you have heard the phrase, “numbers don’t lie”, well that is just not true.
Bud Dupree is a freaky athletic edge rusher that does a better than average job at getting to the passer, but he is nowhere near as good as his numbers tell you.
He will probably get a big contract from a desperate organization because of his numbers and pure athleticism, but if he wants to continue to have success he should go to a team like Pittsburgh, that already has guys up front that can take the pressure off of him.
Dupree is a good NFL player, but he is overrated by the media and fans because they do not take into account how much attention Cam Heyward, TJ Watt, and Stephon Tuitt take away from him.
Here are the 3 best landing spots for Dupree in NFL free agency.
Los Angeles Chargers
Arguably the best fit for Dupree would be the Los Angeles Chargers, mainly for two reasons.
The first being that Joey Bosa is one of the best edge rushers in the league and Dupree would greatly benefit from all the one-on-one matchups that Bosa would create for him.
The other draw for the Chargers is Brandon Staley.
One of the best young defensive minds in all of football took the Rams from an average defense in 2019 to the league’s best in just one year of being defensive coordinator.
Dupree would be able to play a similar role that Leonard Floyd played in Staley’s defense last year.
Highest win % among pass-rushers since 2019:
🔹 Aaron Donald – 23.3
🔹 Joey Bosa – 23.1 pic.twitter.com/BAnJdAHlB8— PFF (@PFF) February 18, 2021
Indianapolis Colts
Even after trading for Carson Wentz, the Colts have over 40 million dollars in cap space but do not have any competent edge rushers.
Bud Dupree could come in and fill their only need on defense immediately and he would benefit greatly from playing next to Deforest Buckner as well as being in Matt Eberflus’s scheme.
The Colts have one of the best defenses in the league and they showed why in the wildcard round versus Buffalo.
The Bills had one of the best air attacks in the league last year, but the Colts gave them fits all day long.
With a speedy rusher off the edge like Dupree, they could take it up another notch which would be scary for the rest of the league.
Cleveland Browns
Most Sacks since 2018
🔹 Aaron Donald: 46.5
🔹 TJ Watt: 42.5
🔹 Myles Garrett: 35.5 pic.twitter.com/CfAHyo3QMv— RotoUnderworld (@rotounderworld) February 19, 2021
Do you see a pattern forming yet?
The Browns boast arguably the best edge rusher in the entire league, but he is forced to carry a lousy Browns defense.
Bud Dupree would be a great relief for Garrett who needs help turning around Cleveland’s pass defense.
The Browns have a solid 20 million in cap space and addressing their pass defense would be a very wise way to spend that money.
NEXT: Is D.K. Metcalf Overrated? (3 Reasons He Is Not)
