NFL Week 8: Sunday Standouts on Defense and Team Rankings

Sunday had it all in the NFL, including an incredible game between the Seattle Seahawks and Houston Texans, where even with the high-scoring offenses putting up ridiculous numbers, still saw some outstanding individual defensive performances. Despite some terrible conditions around the league, we still saw plenty of impressive days on the defensive side of the ball, so with that in mind, here are the Sunday Standouts on defense in Week 8.

Individual Defensive Standouts

DI Geno Atkins, Cincinnati Bengals, 94.4 overall grade. Geno Atkins was a man on a mission for the Cincinnati Bengals yesterday, and made some big plays against the run. Playing just 17 snaps in run defense, Atkins registered four tackles, all resulting in defensive stops, giving him a 23.5 run stop percentage.

Edge Frank Clark, Seattle Seahawks, 87.0 overall grade. The only time the Seattle Seahawks were able to have any success against Deshaun Watson was when they put him under pressure, and edge defender Frank Clark was key to that. With two sacks and seven hurries from 27 snaps as a pass-rusher, his 26.9 pass-rushing productivity rating was the highest among edge defenders.

Edge Jadeveon Clowney, Houston Texans, 96.6 overall grade. With all the points scored in Seattle yesterday, it might be surprising to see edge defender Jadeveon Clowney as the Houston Texans highest graded player, but such was his dominance against the Seattle Seahawks offensive line. Clowney rushed the passer 44 times, registering a sack, a hit and seven hurries, good for a pass-rushing productivity rating of 16.3.

CB Vernon Hargreaves, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 88.0 overall grade. While they didn't get the win, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have been encouraged by another impressive performance from former first-round draft Vernon Hargreaves. From 34 snaps in coverage, Hargreaves allowed just two receptions for 13 yards, surrendering an NFL passer rating of just 39.6 on throws into his coverage.

S Micah Hyde, Buffalo Bills, 88.9 overall grade. The Buffalo Bills made one of the best under-the-radar signings this offseason when they added safety Micah Hyde, as the former Green Bay Packers player leads the NFL in interceptions so far this year. Yesterday, Hyde saw five passes where he was the primary coverage defender, giving up just seven yards and coming away with another interception.

LB Luke Kuechly, Carolina Panthers, 86.8 overall grade. Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly impressed in their win on Sunday, shining against the run and in coverage. Against the run, he registered four tackles, with two of those tackles resulting in a defensive stop. Coming on 19 snaps against the run, that gave him a run stop percentage of 10.5.

DI T.Y. McGill, Cleveland Browns, 87.2 overall grade. T.Y. McGill played just 26 snaps for the Cleveland Browns in the loss to the Minnesota Vikings, but stood out both against the run and as a pass rusher. Seeing just nine pass-rushing snaps, he registered a hit and two hurries, good for a 32.1 pass-rushing productivity rating.

Edge Melvin Ingram, Los Angeles Chargers, 87.8 overall grade. Rushing the passer 42 times, Ingram may not have registered a sack, but with two hits and eight hurries his 17.9 pass-rushing productivity rating was the third-highest from an edge defender this week.

CB Richard Sherman, Seattle Seahawks, 88.8 overall grade. Another Seahawks defender who stood out, Richard Sherman had two huge interceptions, including one on the Texans final offensive play to seal the victory. On the day, Sherman allowed a reception just once every 9.8 snaps in coverage.

CB Ahkello Witherspoon, San Francisco 49ers, 88.1 overall grade. Targeted eight times in coverage, he allowed three catches for 66 yards, including a touchdown, but also had an interception.

Top Defensive Unit Analytics and Rankings

Wins, losses and box score numbers can only tell you so much about how units are performing, but here PFF is going to offer some defensive rankings based on the data. Effectively these rankings aggregate the play-by-play grading for every player on defense by facet of play (run defense, pass-rush, coverage, etc.), weights them by how much each area correlates to wins and losses through our research, and then adjusts for strength of opponent to create the final numbers. Let’s take a look at what the analytics says about the top defenses through six weeks of the season:

1. Minnesota Vikings: BEST-GRADED STARTER: Harrison Smith, S, 93.9. The Vikings under Mike Zimmer have always had a strong defense, but they have been particularly suffocating this season, with Linval Joseph leading their run defense up the middle and Harrison Smith patrolling the back end.
2. Jacksonville Jaguars: BEST-GRADED STARTER: Jalen Ramsey, CB, 90.5. Few teams have been able to play the pass as well as Jacksonville, who have been getting crazy amounts of pass-rush up front and may have the league’s best cornerback duo on the back end.
3. Chicago Bears: BEST-GRADED STARTER: Adrian Amos, S, 87.7. No unit has improved like the Chicago Bears have on defense. They have some impressive grades in coverage across the entire back seven, while the defensive front has been very stout against the run.
4. Buffalo Bills: BEST-GRADED STARTER: Tre'Davious White, CB, 89.7. Buffalo’s defense has been a revelation in 2017. On paper this entire franchise looked to be rebuilding heading into the season, but the defense has been a force.
5. Miami Dolphins: BEST-GRADED STARTER: Ndamukong Suh, DI, 88.5. Miami’s defense has held some potent offenses to minimal points this season, with the Falcons being the latest team to fail to top 20 points in the game.
6. Denver Broncos: BEST-GRADED STARTER: Von Miller, Edge, 88.4. Denver’s defense has changed scheme but has still performed at an extremely high level, and been far better than it looked on paper heading into the year.
7. Seattle Seahawks: BEST-GRADED STARTER: Bobby Wagner, LB, 92.0. The Seattle defense is never likely to be far from the top of any defensive rankings, and they have achieved that this season despite a huge drop in pass-rush as a group.
8. New York Giants: BEST-GRADED STARTER: Damon Harrison, DI, 89.6. Their performance this week against Denver on the road was the unit back at its best, with lock down coverage, top end pass-rush on the edge and Damon Harrison acting like a one-man run stuffing unit in the middle.
9. Oakland Raiders: BEST-GRADED STARTER: Khalil Mack, Edge, 90.1.