If you really tallied the pressures and hurries and the TFLs (which are actually tallied) there's still a lack of production issue in Olivier Vernon's game.
Something Jeff Ireland said about him caught my attention because I knew exactly what he was talking about. He said about Vernon that "we have to trust our eyes". The bottom line is even if you expand the definitions of "production" out to include TFLs, hurries, hits, etc...there's still a lack of production issue with Olivier Vernon. But you use your eyes to see what core skills he's putting on display, because you know that college production and NFL production are two different things due to different sets of circumstances and different coaching.
From a core skills standpoint, Olivier Vernon is hellishly strong for his size, knocks a lot of players backward, and consistently gets off his blocks to make a play on the ball. He does not have have Cameron Wake's nuclear take-off. In fact too often he had a hitch of lost balance in his take-off that slowed him down, and he needs to work on this until he's perfected it. He has about the same take-off that Quinton Coples does, except Coples does it at 6'6" and 280 lbs. I'm not trying to knock Vernon by comparing him to Coples, I was one of the few that actually liked the way Coples got off the ball and liked his speed for getting the outside shoulder in his edge rush. What Vernon does have that Coples lacked and that most guys in this Draft lacked, is the ability to consistently get narrow, get under the outside shoulder of the blocker, dig in and come back to the quarterback. Not a common skill. I think Nick Perry showed it against Jon Martin, Bruce Irvin could do it, and then there's Olivier Vernon. A year ago, Chris Carter was a guy I felt that was very underrated, and he could also do this, but he hasn't made an impact yet in the NFL so it's not always an indicator of pro success. But if you're a smaller player, then in order to be a pass rusher I think you really must have this skill. Jason Worilds, another guy I felt was underrated, he had that ability and he's been much more successful.
Comparing Vernon with a guy like Worilds, I would say he's got a lot more core strength. He should be a better run defender. They have similar resilience and motor, but because Vernon is stronger he's in more position to recover and make plays. Vernon has the same ability to dip his shoulders and come back to the quarterback as Worilds. But he's not as explosive, either in his hand strength/punch or in his movements. I think there's a different mentality between the two, where Vernon is more comfortable with brute force while Worilds is more focused on speed and explosiveness, getting the jump on a blocker and forcing that blocker to labor to try and catch up. Vernon is more of hands guy, always wanting to make contact with his hands so that he can shed blockers that way. He needs to learn to use his feet better as weapons in pass rush.