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:
15
RB Dwayne Washington
Grade: 64.2
Snaps played: 41 (10 games)
14
LT James Hurst
Grade: 64.9
Snaps played: 678 (11 games)
13
QB Jameis Winston
Grade: 65.3
Snaps played: 196 (3 games)
12
RB Alvin Kamara
Grade: 66.1
Snaps played: 450 (10 games)
11
C Erik McCoy
Grade: 67.1
Snaps played: 561 (9 games)
10
WR Jarvis Landry
Grade: 69.1
Snaps played: 250 (7 games)
9
TE Adam Trautman
Grade: 69.3
Snaps played: 319 (10 games)
8
WR Tre'Quan Smith
Grade: 72.7
Snaps played: 309 (10 games)
7
TE Taysom Hill
Grade: 73.5
Snaps played: 201 (11 games)
6
WR Michael Thomas
Grade: 77.3
Snaps played: 136 (3 games)
5
RT Ryan Ramczyk
Grade: 77.4
Snaps played: 753 (12 games)
4
WR Rashid Shaheed
Grade: 78.1
Snaps played: 103 (7 games)
3
RB Latavius Murray
Grade: 82.7
Snaps played: 26 (1 game)
2
WR Chris Olave
Grade: 83.6
Snaps played: 461 (11 games)
1
QB Andy Dalton
Grade: 83.9
Snaps played: 491 (9 games)
