Somehow, Andy Dalton is PFF’s highest-graded Saints player on offense through Week 12
Somehow, Andy Dalton is the highest-graded New Orleans Saints player on offense through Week 12 at Pro Football Focus. He’s also posted their fifth-highest passing grade (82.8) out of every quarterback across the NFL, which is bananas.
The analytics service grades every snap in every game and rewards passers who avoid turnover-worthy throws and sacks, which is what the Saints have asked of Dalton since he took over for Jameis Winston, but still. New Orleans’ own in-house grading probably doesn’t view Dalton anywhere near this favorably. Dalton himself likely wouldn’t agree with such a rosy review on his performance.
You’d think they would need to see more positive plays out of him to warrant such a positive grade. If you got results like this in a laboratory they’d quietly mothball the whole operation.
But we kept digging out of a sick sense of curiosity. Here are the top 15 Saints player grades from PFF on the season so far:
RB Dwayne Washington
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
Grade: 64.2
Snaps played: 41 (10 games)
LT James Hurst
AP Photo/Tyler Kaufman
Grade: 64.9
Snaps played: 678 (11 games)
QB Jameis Winston
AP Photo/John Bazemore
Grade: 65.3
Snaps played: 196 (3 games)
RB Alvin Kamara
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Grade: 66.1
Snaps played: 450 (10 games)
C Erik McCoy
AP Photo/Danny Karnik
Grade: 67.1
Snaps played: 561 (9 games)
WR Jarvis Landry
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Grade: 69.1
Snaps played: 250 (7 games)
TE Adam Trautman
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Grade: 69.3
Snaps played: 319 (10 games)
WR Tre'Quan Smith
AP Photo/Brynn Anderson
Grade: 72.7
Snaps played: 309 (10 games)
TE Taysom Hill
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Grade: 73.5
Snaps played: 201 (11 games)
WR Michael Thomas
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
Grade: 77.3
Snaps played: 136 (3 games)
RT Ryan Ramczyk
AP Photo/Brynn Anderson
Grade: 77.4
Snaps played: 753 (12 games)
WR Rashid Shaheed
Patrick Breen-Arizona Republic
Grade: 78.1
Snaps played: 103 (7 games)
RB Latavius Murray
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Grade: 82.7
Snaps played: 26 (1 game)
WR Chris Olave
Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
Grade: 83.6
Snaps played: 461 (11 games)
QB Andy Dalton
Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Grade: 83.9
Snaps played: 491 (9 games)
