Passes Defended PD

PD stands for passes defended in football. Passes a defender broke up or deflected, keeping them from being completed. Also called pass breakups, pass deflections, or passes defensed. Other sites write it PBU.

How PD is calculated

Counted by the stadium’s statisticians, not derived from other stats.

Like tackles, passes defended are logged by the home team’s statisticians, so a borderline deflection can count in one stadium and not in another.

What counts as a good PD?

Half of the 163 qualified NFL players in 2026 were at or below 2. Clearing 6 put a season in the top tenth of the league.

Median
2
Top 10%
6
Leader
11

By position, the median was 5 for CB, 2 for LB, 2 for S, 1 for DE and 1 for DT.

Qualified: 8+ games, non-zero, 2026 regular season.

Passes Defended questions