an interview this past week, because in theory the mental clock in the QB starts ticking. He classified blitzing the QB as physical pressure.

I don’t think it’s that black and white at all. Physically pressuring the QB creates a ton of mental pressure. At minimum it forces him to speed up, and that usually creates more opportunities for mistakes. Either the QB doesn’t see a defender when he’s scrambling, or his throw is more inaccurate because he doesn’t have time to set his feet. Not to mention forcing a QB to move means you can cut off whichever side of the field he didn’t scramble to. Physically hitting a QB creates mental pressure if you do it enough times because it hurts and they start to think more about avoiding getting hit rather than reading the defense. And you also have more opportunities to push the offense back, force fumbles, draw penalties like holding, etc.

I think dropping 8 works well against certain schematic or personnel matchups. But I would think dropping 8 a lot turns the game into a 7-on-7 drill. Not to mention, being physically comfortable generally leads to being more mentally comfortably.