It’s never too soon to take a pass rusher in the NFL Draft

For all those neutral third parties that watched the Broncos' front-seven dominate the Super Bowl, the first question that probably came quickly into everyone's mind was, "Where the hell can my team get some pass rushers like that?"

I guarantee you Von Miller's playoff clinic is still fresh in the minds of 32 general managers around the league, as well, and they're likely asking themselves the exact same question. Miller led an elite Broncos defense down the stretch and was the undisputed Super Bowl 50 MVP. He dominated the game, sacking Cam Newton two-and-a-half times and forcing two fumbles, one of which led to an early touchdown. There may not be a better example of how an elite pass rusher can take over a game. Miller, somehow, became more important in that game than either team's quarterback. Not just in that game even, but through the entire playoff run.

So, where does your team get the next Von Miller? Well, it probably helps if you're picking in the top-10, but even for teams in the latter part of the round, it's pretty imperative to not wait too long, Edge rushers -- 4-3 defensive ends and 3-4 outside linebackers alike -- go early in the draft every year. Still, in a year where quarterbacks and defensive tackles are getting most of the attention in the pre-draft run-up, it would not surprise me if most mock drafts get thrown out of windows as teams make a mad scramble to grab edge prospects with pass rush ability or upside.

That means that the likes of Kevin Dodd, Shaq Lawson, Leonard Floyd, Kyler Fackrell, Jonathan Bullard, Emmanuel Ogbah, Noah Spence, and Shilique Calhoun may go earlier than you expect. Recent history tells us that if you want a player that can get sacks, you better invest early because they don't grow on trees, and that could lead to runs on guys with any upside.

Where teams find their sack artists

I'm not going to say that if you don't get a pass rush prospect in the first two rounds that you may as well not even bother, but the number of edge players* with eight or more sacks in a season over the past five years is heavily skewed toward the first two rounds of the NFL Draft.

Check it out. Here's the full list, with the players listed next to the teams they played for and the years in which they got 8.0+ sacks.

*Note, there is no real official "edge player" position, so I tried to sort, as well as possible, pass rushing defensive ends and outside linebackers apart from interior linemen and off-ball linebackers.

In the last five seasons, dating back to 2010, there have been 71 players recording eight sacks or more in a season. Accounting for players that have achieved this feat more than once, we see 164 instances across the league where players have recorded at least eight sacks in a season. Averaged out, that's about 33 players a year (or about one per team) at the eight-sack threshold.

Here's how those players have shake out according to their original draft round:

As you can see, 41 of the 71 players who have registered eight or more sacks in a season since 2010 were first- or second-round picks. You can still find pass rushers in the third and fourth rounds if you get lucky, but at that point the inventory on those guys shrinks to just about zero. It's like trying to buy a place to live in San Francisco for less than $800 thousand.

Of course, not all of these sack artists passed the eight-sack threshold with their original teams. Some hit free agency and took their talents to other teams. Some blossomed only after finding a new home. Some were picked up on waivers. A few were traded.

Here's a breakdown of how teams' acquired the edge rushers outlined above.

As you can see, you're twice as likely to get your top-tier pass rusher through the draft than you are to sign him in free agency, and it's relatively rare to acquire one through waivers or a trade.

What does that mean for this year?

You may be wondering then, how many edge rushers will go in the first round this year? I counted four off the board last year -- Dante Fowler (3), Vic Beasley (8), Bud Dupree (22), and Shane Ray (24). Another seven went off the board in the second round -- Mario Edwards (35), Preston Smith (38), Hau'oli Kikaha (44), Nate Orchard (51), Markus Golden (58), Randy Gregory (60), and Frank Clark (63).

That's 11 total in two rounds. And the number of edge rushers that come off the board in the first two rounds is remarkably consistent:

It's invariably 10 or 11 edge guys off the board through two rounds going back to 2010. Are there 10 or 11 edge pressure players with first- and second-round grades this year? It seems to be a down year when it comes to the hype around some of these pass rushers, but I expect these numbers will hold true again in 2016.

After Rounds 1 and 2, the numbers of edge rushers drafted will trail off drastically. Here's the history:

During the first two rounds, edge pass rushers get snapped up, and then the market runs dry. You'll get a random two or three per round, but for the most part, if you have pass rush traits, you're going off the board early. Compare that to wide receivers where teams are drafting some of the most productive players in the middle rounds.

After we saw what Von Miller and the Broncos did in last year's playoffs, I wouldn't be surprised if these numbers skew even further toward the beginning of the draft. Keep that in mind next weekend.