{"id":88854,"date":"2026-07-04T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=88854"},"modified":"2026-07-04T09:16:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:16:50","slug":"jacob-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/07\/04\/jacob-lane\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington EDGE Jacob Lane Eyes Improvement"},"content":{"rendered":"
Washington EDGE rusher <\/span>Jacob Lane<\/a><\/span> was the team leader in quarterback pressures (35), tackles for loss (8.5), and sacks (four) last season. It was only his first year as a starter, and his production stood out along the defensive front. But the rising senior has identified that he is looking to improve on those numbers in 2026. \u201cOverall, I’d say my pass rush,\u201d Lane said this Spring, when asked where he\u2019s looking to get better. \u201cI just want to maybe get a few more sacks this year and contribute a little more to the team.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

Jacob Lane Eyes Improvement<\/span><\/h2>\n

Identifying The Numbers<\/span><\/h3>\n
Turning quarterback pressures into tackles behind the line of scrimmage, whether it be sacks or tackles for loss, can separate him as a top pass rusher in the league this Fall. Looking at last season, Lane created those 35 quarterback pressures on 271 pass rush attempts. That\u2019s a 13% rate, which was right in the upper echelon of EDGE rushers. In the Big Ten last year, a pressure rate between 14% and 16% was where the top EDGE rushers fell. Penn State\u2019s Dani Dennis-Sutton and Ohio State\u2019s Caden Curry had a 15.9% pressure rate and a 15.3% pressure rate, respectively. The two were All-Conference selections after the season.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Lane\u2019s pressure rate was slightly lower but right outside of that range. The difference was that Dennis-Sutton and Curry produced far more tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Dennis Sutton had 12 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks on the year. For Curry, his numbers were even better with 16.5 tackles for loss and 11 sacks. Lane didn\u2019t reach double digits in either category, despite the quality pressure rate. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Last season was the first year as an everyday starter for Lane as a Husky. The Puyallup, Washington, native had just under 600 total defensive snaps on the year, and his pass rush grade was the second-best on the team with a 76.3, according to Pro Football Focus. But in addition to his numbers on the field, Lane is taking a step forward in his leadership.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Veteran Returner<\/span><\/h3>\n
“I’d say like overall, just my leadership skills,” Lane said during the Spring, identifying an area he is working to strengthen. “I feel like I’ve stepped up a lot in that way so far this year, just throughout Winter workouts and then on the field.” For him, it begins with serving as a sounding board for some of the younger players. “It starts with just being a voice,” Lane continued. “Like being a guy that guys can go to about anything, really. Whether it’s a playbook or just like, ‘How can I fix this?’ ‘How can I improve on this?’ I like helping young guys a lot. I mean, I was a young guy not too long ago, so I feel like just having an older guy there to help lift me up and help show me the way, I think that was really important for me. I just want to spread that to the rest of the team for sure.”<\/span><\/div>\n
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He’ll be a true senior this Fall, and he reflected on how quickly his career has progressed during Spring practice. “As you look back on the time and as it passes, it goes by pretty quickly,” Lane said. “So [I’m] trying to make the most of each day now; I have about one year left.” Without a redshirt season, his career has moved quickly. And in terms of on-field reps, it took a significant leap forward during 2025.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Outside of <\/span>Isaiah Ward<\/a><\/span>, who played 500-plus snaps during his time at Arizona, Lane actually returns the most experience among the EDGE rushers as a Husky. He started all 13 games a year ago after playing just 88 total defensive snaps in 2024 as a true sophomore. Lane\u2019s ability to step into the starting role was seamless. Right away, the 6\u2019-5\u201d and 256-pound EDGE proved he can create pressure at a rate among the top in the conference.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Lane ended his junior season with a career-high seven pressures in the <\/span>LA Bowl against Boise State<\/a><\/span>. His pass rush grade in that game was also a career-high 86.8, according to Pro Football Focus. The momentum he created at the end of the year, paired with a healthy Ward on the opposite side and a <\/span>powerful group of interior linemen,<\/a><\/span> will help create more opportunities for the senior in 2026.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Main Photo: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington EDGE rusher Jacob Lane was the team leader in quarterback pressures (35), tackles for loss (8.5), and sacks (four) last season. It was only his first year as a starter, and his production stood out along the defensive front. But the rising senior has identified that he is looking to improve on those numbers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":88871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,35612],"tags":[10527,34713],"class_list":["post-88854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-washington-huskies","tag-caden-curry","tag-dani-dennis-sutton"],"modified_by":"Kate Pearson Halyburton, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88854"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88873,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88854\/revisions\/88873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}