…the 24th ranked tackle according to PFF. He was the #2OA bust picked by the Rams, who we took a flyer on a couple years ago. He was outta here in a few weeks and we chalked it up as a gamble worth taking which didn’t work out. Now it looks like he’s found a home as Cleveland’s LT. Go figure. Of course, he’s ahead of both of our tackles…but it looks like Decker is shaking off his horrendous start to the year. I have to admit, I don’t feel real bad about this, I hope the guy finally lives up to his potential (or even half of it), it just would have been better if he had done that with us!
I wonder what metric they are using for that. When I’m watching the Browns, if Baker doesn’t get rid of the ball immediately he ends up having to run for his life.
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It seems that way. Robinson is a slightly better run blocker (70) than pass blocker (66). Decker grades out as 72/60 run pass. But Decker’s pass grade was horrible in the AZ game - he’s done better in Philly and against the Chiefs. The PFF grades aren’t always accurate, they cannot know what a player was SUPPOSED to do for any given play. Still, they are probably as close to an objective measure as is available for us fan folks.
I must be in the minority, but I put less and less faith in PFF each time I read something of theirs. I think their grades never seem to meet the eye test. If half of our offensive line grades out as the best in the NFL at run blocking, then you would think we would be good at running the ball.
I think sometimes things are over evaluated. It’s like that WAR stat in baseball. Completely irrelevant and created strictly for nerds who don’t know the game.
You’re not in the minority. Their OL grades have always been suspect, but now their new focus is to produce content instead of record data.
There used to be valuable data there and there still might be some underneath all of the garbage. But, their target audience is the TJ WhoseYourMama crowd who isn’t really watching football with a discriminating eye to begin with. In fact, their target audience might not watch much football at all. You’d have to be in the dark to just accept their take on anything as being of value.
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According to Bevell we have done a good job run blocking, but there is apparently a bad or missed block that has been keeping the run game from excelling. If that’s true, I can see our guys being highly graded while also not being able to run the ball.
I’ll go along with that to a point, but again, KJ’s longest carry is 14 yards and his ypc is bad. Even bad RB’s with bad O-Lines have more success than this. I have a feeling our run blocking may be getting in the correct positions and engaging, but just not creating holes and KJ isn’t breaking a ton of tackles either. That’s why I think these grades are kind of hokey.
I see the same thing, Wes. And unsurprisingly Baker is flushed out right. Some of that of course is bc it’s his throwing arm side but GRob is still a pass blocking liability.
That’s unsurprising. What I have found surprising is that he hasn’t been a more dominant run blocker in the NFL. He was one of the most dominant run blockers that I’ve seen in college during his final year at Auburn.
I used to enjoy their recaps that had some thoughtful content. Maybe sometimes arguable but you could see time and thought went into it.
Now I’m not even sure they watched the games. Recaps are like:
“So these two teams played. It was good. So and so was good. So and so wasn’t. This team won. The end’
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I used to enjoy PFF as well, but about 2 years ago its clear they pretty much make stuff up as they go. I remember TJ Lang saying they were full of it. He said they charged him with a sack on a play when they didn’t even know who he was supposed to be blocking. He executed his assignment and they gave him a sack anyways.
I really like the premise of PFF, but its clear they have their preferred teams and pitch their own agendas. I dont know if thats Collinsworth influence, or if its just a matter of pandering to agents/clients now that they are bigger money
There’s no doubt the grades are hokey, and I’ve said that for years. There are many things that they don’t take into account. One example I’ve given in the past that is true is some random tight end could help on a double team and get scored higher on that play that Brandon Pettigrew blocking Julius Peppers one on one. They don’t really care much about assignment or situation.
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Interesting…i am skeptical it holds up. I am okay with Decker and Wagner over him. Jeff Risdon as you all know runs a browns site and also a lions site. He was saying last week on Big Drew and Jim that the browns tackles are porous and as Wes has pointed out Baker is running for his life alot.
The more annoying thing to me is the AFC defensive player of the week. What a waste. Especially having Patricia here now would’ve been the perfect fit. (Van Noy if you were wondering)
Yeah, their O-line is not good and Robinson didn’t look very good to me either…probably better than Decker but still not good.