After sharing the midseason grades from yours truly I figured I'd also share the information from the Pro Football Focus site since I'm assuming most of you don't pay for the subscription. If you're a numbers geek like me there's some interesting info on the Saints specifically about how they stack up against the rest of the league. Here's the most notable:
Drew Brees is 7th overall among quarterbacks, which is low for him. Normally he's routinely in the top three. He's behind Peyton Manning, Rivers, Rodgers, Luck, Stafford and Russell Wilson. Brees is also tied for 2nd in the NFL, interestingly enough, with 7 penalties by a quarterback.
Robert Meachem was the 13th best ranked blocking receiver in the league through 9 weeks. He was also the best rated Saints receiver at 41st overall (what?). That's more of an indictment on the state of affairs with Saints receivers than anything else. Nick Toon was 109th out of 110 graded receivers in catch percentage. Ouch!
PFF agrees with me that Zach Strief has been the best offensive lineman for the Saints through 8 games. In fact, PFF has Strief graded as highest on the Saints' offense (higher than Graham!). It also has Strief grading at 11th overall of all NFL tackles and 3rd overall in the entire league in pass blocking. Impressive. Charles Brown graded 58th out of 76.
Ben Grubbs came in as the 11th overall guard out of 72 which is shocking to me, I thought he's played poorly. Jahri Evans came in 40th. Both graded well in pass protection and poorly in run blocking. BDLP graded 23rd out of 33 centers.
Jimmy Graham graded 4th out of all tight ends, 55 overall, and Ben Watson came in 5th! Wow. Graham is down to 4th because of really poor blocking grades, but he is rated as the #1 receiving tight end. Watson has had positive grades across the board, inflating his overall value.
Darren Sproles is the #1 rated receiving back in the NFL. He's also 7th overall thanks to that huge grade. Pierre Thomas comes in at 14th out of 51. Jed Collins, who usually grades awesome on this site, is only 10th out of 23 fullbacks.
Cameron Jordan was rated the 3rd best 3-4 DE in the NFL and Akiem Hicks was 23rd out of 41. Jordan was also the highest rated defensive player on the team. Jordan is second in "QB hurries" with 26. Akiem Hicks was the third worst, or 38th, in pass rushing.
Junior Galette graded 7th of 40 3-4 OLBs. Parys Haralson grades favorably as well, particularly against the run. Curtis Lofton is rated 34th of 51 ILBs, which I think is stupid. David Hawthorne is 18th.
Keenan Lewis is 20th out of 107 CBs. When QBs throw at Lewis they have a 44.5 rating, which is 4th best of 107 rated cornerbacks. I think it's fair to say that was a terrific free agent pickup.
Kenny Vaccaro was 60 and Malcolm Jenkins was 63 out of 85 safeties. Jenkins was 6th best rushing the passer, but 10th worst playing the run.
Thomas Morstead is the 4th rated punter of 36.
The top 5 overall graded Saints are Thomas Morstead (+29.2), Cameron Jordan (+17.2), Zach Strief (+13.5), Junior Galette (+11.3) and Drew Brees (+11.0).
The top 5 worst graded Saints are Tim Lelito (-8.0), Curtis Lofton (-5.6), Charles Brown (-5.2), Jabari Greer/Malcolm Jenkins/Nick Toon (all -3.2).
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