Grading Clemson by position through eight games

Phil Mafah and Will Shipley have been a dynamic duo in the backfield.

by Ryan Kantor - Contributor - Sun Oct 30 07:00:05 GMT-04:00 2022

We’re through eight games of what will hopefully be a 15-game season. I’ve shared my team superlatives and would like to dive a little deeper into the Pro Football Focus grades to see where Clemson is excelling and where they aren’t.

As background, here’s how PFF grades work. “On every play, a PFF analyst will grade each player on a scale of -2 to +2 according to what he did on the play. From there, the grades are normalized to better account for game situation and are finally converted to a 0-100 scale.” That means they watch every single play for every single Clemson player and analyze the film.

We’ve already celebrated specific players, but it is worth mentioning again. Five players have PFF grades of 80 or better: KJ Henry, Tyler Davis, DJ Uiagalelei, Myles Murphy, and Will Shipley. They’ve been excellent. Now, we’ll look at position groups. Using the 33 Clemson players who have enough snaps to qualify for a PFF grade, I’ve taken the average (weighted by snap count) for each position group. Here’s how it looks:

1. Quarterback: 82.0

While DJ Uiagalelei had a very poor performance against Syracuse, he hadn’t really struggled much before that since the first half of game one against Georgia Tech.

2. Defensive End: 79.4

Henry has been consistent all year and has the highest PFF grade on the team. Murphy got off to a bit of a slow start with just 1.5 sacks through his first four games, but has four sacks in his last four games. This group could get better as the year progresses if Murphy keeps trending upward and Xavier Thomas starts making more noise as he gets healthy.

3. Running Back: 79.2

Shipley and Phil Mafah have been solid all season, but really have come on the past two weeks. They combined to run for 148 rush yards at Florida State and 266 against Syracuse. Kobe Pace has been out with a high ankle sprain but should be back for Notre Dame or Louisville.

4. Defensive Tackle: 75.8

Davis has had a quietly superb season. The defense just looks different when he is in there. Ruke Orhorhoro has also become a starter-quality player who can be relied upon in any situation. Bryan Bresee has been limited to 178 snaps. He has played well, but not quite up to the lofty expectations most had for him. Obviously, he has had a ton of challenges this year as he was recovering from shoulder and knee injuries, had a kidney infection, and most notably experienced the passing of his little sister. As he recovers, he could make this position an even bigger strength for the Tigers down the stretch.

5. Linebacker: 72.7

You might have expected to see this group a bit higher, but Trenton Simpson has slumped the past two games and Barrett Carter missed the last one. Jeremiah Trotter has been very good over 339 snaps after coming into the season with many expecting him to be a reserve.

6. Offensive Tackle: 72.6

Jordan McFadden is the Tigers’ best offensive lineman. Opposite him is true freshman Blake Miller, who has had his freshman moments but has been serviceable.

7. Tight End: 70.0

Davis Allen and Jake Briningstool finally have Clemson passing to the tight ends again. Briningstool is just a sophomore and has some low marks in blocking that drag their score down, but they’ve both been valuable pass catchers.

8. Cornerback: 66.4

Injuries have limited Sheridan Jones to 221 snaps. Nate Wiggins had a rocky start to the season, but his four best PFF grades have come in his last four games. If they can remain healthy, that duo gives the Tigers a good pair of cornerbacks. True freshman Toriano Pride will only continue to get better. This group has not had a great season overall, but is trending strongly in the right direction.

9. Wide Receiver: 65.4

While better than last season, wide receiver continues to be a weak spot for Clemson. Antonio Williams has been a revelation and has helped the passing offense a great deal, but he receives low grades for his run blocking. Ngata is the group’s best blocker, but he doesn’t have the speed to create a ton of separation. Brannon Spector and Beaux Collins receive middling grades in both blocking and receiving.

10. Safety: 63.7

RJ Mickens has the highest PFF grade of the group, just as he did last season. Andrew Mukuba has been limited by an elbow injury which has limited his snaps and impacted his play. If he gets healthy and gets back to playing like he did last year, the issues at safety will go away rather quickly.

11. Interior O-Line: 62.8

Walker Parks was very good at tackle last season, but he’s been going through an adjustment period at guard. The same can be said for Will Putnam who shifted from guard to center. Marcus Tate looks much better this season than he did when he was thrust into action last year as a true freshman. The good news is they created big time running lanes against Syracuse and were a big part of the comeback win. Hopefully, that’s a sign of things to come.