{"id":814317,"date":"2026-07-21T12:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814317\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T12:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:11:18","slug":"7-edge-rushers-on-the-verge-of-a-breakout-2026-nfl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814317\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Edge-Rushers on the Verge of a Breakout 2026 NFL Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">If not for injuries, Jaelan Phillips may have had his breakout season years ago. As a rookie, he showed immediate promise, logging 42 tackles (nine for loss), 8.5 sacks and <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/P\/PhilJa02.htm#all_adv_defense\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">26 pressures<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">After a solid 2022 campaign, Phillips missed 22 games between 2023 and 2024 because of injuries, though he bounced back last year, despite some instability. The Miami Dolphins traded him to the Philadelphia Eagles. He finished the campaign with 53 tackles (seven for loss), five sacks and 35 pressures, one short of his single-season career high.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Based on <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/nfl\/free-agents\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">total contract value<\/a>, the Carolina Panthers signed Phillips to the biggest deal in free agency, a four-year, $120 million contract. He cashed in on a productive five-year resume and should be the lead edge-rusher in defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero&#8217;s defense.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">If Phillips stays healthy, he&#8217;ll be able to make plays with Derrick Brown and Bobby Brown III eating up space and taking on initial blocks on the interior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If not for injuries, Jaelan Phillips may have had his breakout season years ago. As a rookie, he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-814317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}