CARDINALS

Dwight Freeney bolstering Arizona Cardinals pass rush

Zach Buchanan
azcentral sports
Arizona Cardinals LB Dwight Freeney celebrates after sacking Cincinnati Bengals QB Andy Dalton during the third quarter of NFL action November 22, 2015 in Glendale, Ariz.

It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that the team that acquired its top-flight quarterback for a sixth-round and seventh-round draft pick and signed its top rusher in training camp has found yet another bargain to boost its playoff chances.

But there are the Arizona Cardinals, boasting a sack leader that was signed in October. Outside linebacker Dwight Freeney doesn’t have a wide lead – in fact, he was surprised he led the team at all – but his three sacks in four games outpace four other Cardinals with two.

“He’s obviously got a couple sacks, but he puts pressure on them too,” said head coach Bruce Arians. “We’re trying to find more ways to use him.”

The Cardinals have struggled to get pressure on the quarterback all year, leading to the team signing Freeney on Oct. 12. The 35-year-old is sixth on the NFL’s list of active sack leaders with 114.5, most of those coming in his 11 years with the Indianapolis Colts.

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Then came two years with the San Diego Chargers in which he seemed to show his age. An injury limited him to four games and just half a sack in 2013, and a year later he had just 3.5 sacks while playing more than half the defensive snaps the entire year.

But for a guy who’s made his career on sacks, Freeney is a bit dismissive of them. Last season he was tied for sixth in the NFL in quarterback hurries, although he had only seven quarterback hits.

“A sack is a misleading stat sometimes,” Freeney said. “Sometimes it isn’t, but sometimes it is. You can get a sack if you got pancaked and the quarterback tripped over your head. You can be the closest guy to the quarterback if he ran out of bounds. Guess what, you get the sack.”

Freeney prefers to measure himself by how much he affects the quarterback, and he certainly stacks up well in that area in 2015. In just four games, he’s already tied for third on the team in hurries and tied for fifth in quarterback hits.

All three of his sacks have come off his trademark spin move, but opposing offensive linemen would be cautioned against expecting it in the future.

“It looks like he’s just spinning all the time, but he has it so set up where he can go right underneath you can dip the shoulder, or spin, or power you,” said defensive lineman Calais Campbell. “Everything all looks the same. You can tell he’s practiced it over and over again. He knows how to set you up, he knows how to make you uncomfortable and where to attack you.”

Freeney dips into the vernacular of a different sport to explain his strategy.

“It’s like you’re a pitcher,” Freeney said. “You’re throwing a fastball and you see how he reacts to the fastball. Fastball, fastball, fastball, and then I’m going to throw you a circle change. That’s kind of how it is. If you can’t block the fastball, you’re in trouble.”

Despite the positive effect he’s had on Arizona’s pass rush, Freeney has played only 35.5 percent of defensive snaps in the four games he’s been active. (He sat out the Cardinals’ loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers the weekend after he signed.)

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Arians said he thinks Freeney is effective precisely because his snaps are limited, and said he doesn’t envision the veteran seeing more than 30 snaps a game. The emergence of rookie Markus Golden and the return to health of Alex Okafor also give the Cardinals other pass-rushing mouths that need to be fed.

“I love the rotation that we have going," said defensive coordinator James Bettcher. "I think he’s fresh. Having coached rushers before, one thing those guys always want is they want enough to get the feel of the game, get the feel or how the tackle is (pass) setting, get the feel of protections. So you’ve got to balance making sure he’s getting enough that he can get that feel but also the rotation that we’re trying to keep with the other guys."

Freeney, like any player, would welcome more playing time. But he’s not clamoring for it either.

“Whatever they need me to do,” he said. “If that’s 33 percent of the plays, then that’s 33 percent of the plays. They have a game plan. I’ll fit into their situation. It’s not like this is Indianapolis and I’ve been here the whole time. You’ve got to get in where you fit in.”

azcentral sports' Kent Somers contributed to this report.