Hey there football fans! Here are five things from yesterday that you need to know to start off your Wednesdays:
Kirk Cousins wants to stay in Washington for his entire career. Cousins is going to play his second straight season under the franchise tag.
Cousins played all but one of the Redskins 1061 offensive snaps in 2016, and ended the season as the ninth highest graded quarterback in the league, with a PFF overall grade of 85.4.
Cousins was especially effective going deep last season, and gained a total of 1,359 yards on passes that traveled at least 20 yards in the air, the highest mark among the league’s quarterbacks. His passer rating of 118.1on such passes ranked fourth.
Heading into a pivotal contract year, Cousins will look to improve his performance in the red zone. Outside of the Red zone, Cousins posted an adjusted completion percentage of 77.4%, which ranked sixth among 30 quarterbacks with at least 300 pass attempts. However, that figure dropped to 54.3% in the red zone, which ranked 26th of 29 quarterbacks with at least 40 attempts. The drop off of 23.1% was the second highest among quarterbacks in the league.
Thomas Davis got a one-year extension. Davis asked for an extension and received one from the team, he's now under contract through 2018.
Davis may not be coming off of his best year in 2016 (72.7 overall grade, powered by PFF Edge), however he’s ranked in the top 11 at his position five of the last eight years, with 2014 being his most outstanding season to date (90.3).
Davis’ coverage skills have been incredibly impressive, keeping him on the field for all three downs. This past season even at 34 years old he was one of just six linebackers to play over 1000 snaps in the NFL.
The Eagles want to give Darren Sproles more space to work with. The running back was quoted as saying the offense is designed to get him the ball in space more often.
Sproles has continued to be a difference-maker well into his 30s (now 34 years old), and his performance has actually been trending up the last three seasons (66.0 overall grade in 2014, 71.9 in 2015, 73.9 in 2016).
Sproles was targeted in the passing game 63 times in 2016 (sixth-most of all running backs). His total of 53 receptions was good for ninth while his 427 yards after the catch were fifth-best.
Takk McKinley could make his preseason debut on Sunday. The first-round pick might get his first NFL action against the Steelers.
McKinley finished the 2016 college season with an overall PFF grade of 89.0, which ranked seventh among edge defenders. He impressed rushing the passer with a pass-rush grade of 88.2 which ranked ninth among FBS edge defenders as well as impressing in run defense ranking 15th with a run defense grade of 83.2.
His pass-rush productivity (PRP) of 14.4 ranked tenth in the nation last season and also led all Pac-12 3-4 outside linebackers with a minimum of 200 pass-rush snaps (PRP measures pressure created on a per snap basis with weighting towards sacks).
Corey Davis continues to progress through his injury. Although he is progressing through his hamstring injury, he's unlikely to play this week.
Davis ranked fourth in the 2017 draft class with 3.55 yards per route runand was exceptional in the open field at Western Michigan (701 YAC and 11 forced missed tackles).
When lined up in the slot, Davis was even more deadly. On 45 catches out of the slot he led the entire draft class with 4.99 yards per route run.
Davis’ drops did increase each year of his college career (11 in 2016) as his drop rate (10.09) ranked 95th in the class.
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