Hey there football fans! Here are five things from yesterday that you need to know to start off your weeks:
Jamaal Charles has made the Broncos' 53 man roster. Charles was not guaranteed a spot after two years of injuries.
Prior to his 2015 ACL injury, Charles was arguably one of the best backs in football. In the 2014 season, Charles ranked sixth among the league’s running backs with an elusive rating (the PFF metric that assesses runner’s success beyond the point of being helped by his blockers) of 55.8 and his PFF overall grade of 82.3 ranked 10th among qualifying backs.
Charles was never guaranteed to make the team, after two separate knee injuries have limited him to just 290 snaps in the last two years, however he showed enough in his team’s third preseason game against the Green Bay Packers to warrant a roster spot. Charles logged four rush attempts, forced a missed tackle and averaged 3.25 yards after contact per attempt – the highest mark among Denver’s running backs.
Charles also added two receptions for 15 yards, and kept a clean slate on all four of his pass blocking snaps. He ended the game with a PFF overall grade of 71.4, the highest grade among Denver’s running backs.
John Harbaugh believes that Joe Flacco will play the Ravens' season opener. Flacco has missed the preseason thus far with an injury.
Flacco ended 2016 with an overall grade of 75.4, good for 23rd among 34 qualifying quarterbacks. Flacco struggled throwing the deep ball, tying with Carson Palmer for the sixth-most thrown interceptions on deep passes (passing attempts targeted 20 yards or more downfield) with five. His accuracy percentage of 30.3 on deep passes was 31st among 34 qualifying quarterbacks, only beating out Bryce Petty, Brock Osweiler, and Blake Bortles.
The veteran has graded below 80.0 in each of the past two seasons, and has only graded above 80.0 in three of his nine seasons in the league. His highest graded year came in 2009, where he ended the season with an overall grade of 84.1.
The Vikings defeated the 49ers on a last-second 2-point conversion 32-31. Elvis Dumervil was in the Vikings backfield all night, and he earned PFF's game ball for the contest.
Dumervil played just 14 snaps, with 13 of them coming on the rush. However, he was nearly unstoppable off the edge, as he racked up a sack and four pressures. His pass-rush productivity score of 33.3 was third-best among 4-3 defensive ends this week.
Washington defeated Cincinnati 23-17. Vontaze Burfict walked away with the PFF Game Ball after a big performance, including an interception return for a touchdown. He does face a suspension for a hit from a previous game however.
Vontaze had himself quite a Sunday afternoon facing the Redskins, highlighted by a 62-yard interception returned for a touchdown out of the hand of QB Kirk Cousins to put Cincinatti ahead 14-3 early in the second quarter. Burfict recorded three solo tackles, one assist, and a defensive stop on 11 snaps in pass defense. While he allowed two-of-three responsible targets to be completed, he prevented either reception from gaining a single yard after the catch – 2.0 yards per coverage snap. Impressively, the linebacker out of Arizona State topped all defenders in the contest with an 88.0 coverage grade.
The Bears defeated the Titans 19 to 7. Lamarr Houston had a big game, and Eddie Goldman earned the PFF Game Ball.
On the surface, the grade of Houston is incredibly encouraging. It’s a good day at the office when you can turn 24 pass-rushes into a sack, hit, hurry and forced fumble and nobody would say otherwise. But coming off a couple of torn ACLs, never being healthy enough to live up to his contract, and now owed no money on his deal, Houston is very much fighting for his future in the league and for a one-time highly sought after free agent, it was striking to see him on the field for the Bears’ last defensive snap. Whether this was a reminder of what he can do to the Bears’ staff or an audition elsewhere, Houston showed he still has some gas left in the tank.
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