The Cleveland Browns have an important game in Week 8 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the past, after Week 8 would lead to a lot of “halfway” evaluations of where a team stands. Unfortunately, a 17 game schedule makes that math more complicated.
Fortunately, we can just make up the rules as we go in a 17 game schedule and gather information at different times. Including after Week 7.
Taking a look at the Browns Pro Football Focus grades can provide a lot of interesting information. PFF does a good job of trying to quantify what we see on the field beyond just the boxscore. They are by no means perfect but can provide interesting context.
Just this week, we covered that D’Ernest Johnson had PFF’s highest-graded performance by a running back this season. PFF also has Cleveland as the second-highest graded team overall for 2021 despite their 4 – 3 record.
Now we take a quick look at the top five offensive and defensive players in their grades so far this season. We will only credit the players who have had enough snaps to count in their league-wide rankings but note those who have high grades but don’t count due to low snap counts, so far.