Hey there football fans! Here are five key pieces of news from yesterday that you need to know to start off your Tuesdays:
Vince Wilfork announced his retirement. One of the preeminent run defenders of the PFF era decided to hang up his cleats.
Wilfork arguably laid the template for the prototypical run stuffing nose tackle. In fact, no defensive interior player was better from 2006 to 2010. During those years Wilfork dominated against the run, leading all defensive interior players in run stops with 137, and in run stop percentage at 11.3 percent (min 850 run defense snaps).
Wilfork graded in the top five of his position in four of those five seasons, including ranking first overall twice. His 2006 top-ranked overall grade of 86.8 was the highest mark of his career.
Even as Wilfork aged well into his 30s, he thrived as a run stopping nose tackle, routinely grading above average and in the top-50 overall of his position. Wilfork finishes his career as the all-time leader in run-stops during the PFF era (2006-2016).
Anquan Boldin signed with the Buffalo Bills! The veteran wide receiver signed a one-year deal with the team.
Despite his advancing years, Boldin’s style of play makes him an excellent red zone threat from the slot. His seven touchdowns when lined up in the slot in 2016 were tied for second most in the league, despite his yards per route run average from the slot of 1.05 ranking just 37th among the 54 receivers to run at least 130 routes from the slot.
Boldin has seen his PFF grade drop every season since 2013, going from 86.9, to 83.1, to 76.8, and finally to 70.3 in 2016. While he still has the ability to make plays in the red zone, the Bills are getting a wide receiver who is definitely on the down slope of his career at this point.
Tom Savage is “clearly” the Texans' best quarterback. Savage and rookie Deshaun Watson have been battling for the starting position but reports are Savage is clearly the guy right now.
Savage has hardly any in-game experience since entering the league as a fourth-round pick in 2014. In limited snaps last year, he played just below average, earning a 68.8 overall grade over 143 snaps.
Savage played all his snaps from Week 15 to Week 17 and during that span he lead the league in adjusted completion percentage at 83.3 percent.
Deshaun Watson, Savage’s biggest competitor, is entering the league after earning the highest grade among drafted quarterbacks in this year’s draft at 91.1. Watson, known for his accuracy, lead all Power-5 quarterbacks in adjusted completion percentage in 2016 at 76.1 percent.
The Steelers expect that suspended wide receiver Martavis Bryant will be reinstated this week. After missing the entire 2016 season due to violations of the NFL's substance abuse policy, the Steelers expect to get Bryant back soon.
In 2014, his rookie year, Bryant recorded a PFF WR Rating (passer rating when targeted) of 125.8, which ranked the fifth-highest out of 90 eligible wide receivers.
Bryant has previously been utilized by the Steelers as an alternative deep threat passing target (passes of 20 or more yards) to Antonio Brown, with his 369 yards, from 20 targets, leading the team in 2014.
Falcons CB Jalen Collins was suspended for 10 games. Collins was suspended for violating the NFL policy against performance-enhancing substances.
After earning a grade of just 40.6 in 2015, Collins’ grade improved to 81.5 last season, ranking 22nd out of 109 qualifying cornerbacks. He allowed a passer rating of just 77.1 when targeted in the regular season, which ranked 23rd at his position.
Despite his success in the regular season, Collins struggled in the 2016 playoffs.He allowed a passer rating of 133.0, 4th worst out of cornerbacks to play at least 100 snaps.He allowed three touchdowns, second most among playoff cornerbacks, after allowing just two over his eight games played last season.
© 2024 PFF - all rights reserved.