Charles Omenihu has been one of the best values in the NFL this season

Less than one year after the 49ers acquired him in exchange for a sixth-round pick, Charles Omenihu now finds himself among the most valuable and productive players on a roster that is littered with All-Pro caliber talent and superstar players.

Omenihu’s play this season has not only been on par with some of the best players on the 49ers roster, but it has also kept pace and exceeded the production of some of the most talented pass rushers in the entire NFL.

What makes Omenihu so valuable isn’t just the production itself but also the disproportionately low cost to the 49ers relative to the other pass rushers around the league that are producing at or near the rate Omenihu is.

The 49ers are getting this high level of production from Omenihu while he is making just $2,540,000 this season. Two and a half million dollars is an absolute steal when you compare it to the amount of money being made by players who aren’t producing at the same rate Omenihu is.

Omenihu currently has a pressure rate of 13.6%, which ranks in the top 15 among players with at least 100 pass-rushing snaps this season. Here are some well-known pass rushers and how their 2022 cap hit compares to Omenihu’s.

Robert Quinn - $17,137,500

Yannick Ngakoue - $13,000,000

Bradley Chubb - $12,716,000

Khalil Mack - $8,750,000

Leonard Floyd - $8,000,00

Chandler Jones - $7,812,000

Charles Omenihu - 2,540,000

Now, of course, there is more to playing along the defensive line beyond just the ability to get after opposing quarterbacks, but for the sake of this exercise, I’m focusing on how much pass-rushing production from each of these players is costing their teams this season.

This is the cost of each pressure generated based on the salary cap hits for each of these players prorated through the first seven weeks of the NFL season:

Robert Quinn - $476,041

Yannick Ngakoue - $252,777

Bradley Chubb - $206,046

Khalil Mack - $147,946

Leonard Floyd - $345,679

Chandler Jones - $202,533

Charles Omenihu - $44,898

The closest player listed above to Omenihu in terms of value was Mack, who still is costing the Chargers over triple what Omenihu is costing the 49ers for each pressure generated thus far this season. Mack has 23 pressures this season which is one more than Omenihu but on 61 more pass-rushing snaps. Mack’s pressure rate is 10.3 percent, while Omenihu's is north of 13 percent at a fraction of the cost.

Based on the production and the low cost relative to the majority of his peers, a strong case could be made that Omenihu is the best value in the entire NFL based on money spent and production accrued as we approach the halfway point of the 2022 NFL season.