2013 was a special year for the Saints defense and the principal person to thank for this has to be Rob Ryan. The addition of him at defensive coordinator goes down as one of the more brilliant moves in the Sean Payton era, and for the time being I might even put it ahead of Gregg Williams based on fit. Obviously the 2012 version of the Saints vs. the 2013 one underwent such a transformation it's almost impossible to talk about them in tandem. Certainly the sights for next season with respect to that unit are set much higher. Here's how they graded according to Pro Football Focus:
Best Graded Player: This comes as little surprise but Cameron Jordan was by far and away not only the highest graded player on defense, but the highest graded player on the team (+34.9). Akiem Hicks and Junior Galette were the next best but far behind in terms of the grade.
Worst Graded Player: This comes as an utter shock to me because I thought he had a fantastic season, but it's David Hawthorne (-9.4). I've always felt PFF graded linebackers unfairly, though.
Some other interesting notes:
- Jordan rated as the 4th best 3-4 end in the league of 45 graded players. His pass rush graded as #2. He was also #4 in batted passes.
- Junior Galette graded as the 10th best pass rusher of 3-4 OLBs out of 42 graded.
- David Hawthorne was graded 7th worst of 55 3-4 OLBs in coverage.
- Keenan Lewis graded 26th out of 110 corners overall. He was also 12th best in QB rating allowed (in terms of how low it was)
- Malcolm Jenkins graded 65th out of 86 safeties.
- Kenny Vaccaro and Roman Harper tied for the 5th worst blitzing safeties out of 86.
- Vaccaro graded as the 3rd best safety against the run in the league. He was also the 6th most penalized. He also defended the 2nd most passes.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
