Recent grades
Since offensive lineman have no hard stats to reflect upon, Pro Football Focus is the go-to option for the considering the play of someone in the trenches. PFF’s grades can be considered subjective, but looking at Winters’ recent marks via the football analytics outlet, Buffalo might be getting a bit of a steal here.
Since Jets quarterback Sam Darnold joined New York in 2017, his offensive line play has been brutal. Winters was part of both of those units in front of Darnold in the first two years of his career. In 2019 in particular, it was rough for the Jets on the O-line. Poor play and injury plagued the group as PFF graded them the fourth-worst offensive line in the NFL.
Think Dion Dawkins in 2018.
After a promising rookie season, his play dropped, mostly due to the surprise losses of Richie Incognito and Eric Wood and the other terrible play around Dawkins.
So in terms of Winters specifically, not at all bad marks considering the terrible play around him. His overall mark of 62.4 is in PFF’s “average” grade territory. That mark was also the 37th best in the league last season, which takes both right and left guards into consideration. Winters also only allowed one sack last season. Over the course of his entire career, Winters has an overall 64.6 mark via PFF.
#Jaguars DT Taven Bryan had a nice bull-rush on Jets' RG Brian Winters on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/561KQ8edVJ
— Demetrius Harvey (@Demetrius82) October 29, 2019