Based on their grades over the recent years, Pro Football Focus clearly hasn’t been a big fan of Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Jordan Phillips. Having said that, the defender took another shot from the football analytics outlet recently.
PFF tabbed one “overrated” and one “underrated” free agent at every positional group. Among defensive tackles, Phillips was called the negative of the two.
Here’s why PFF says Phillips is an overrated free agent target:
Some will point to Phillips’ 9.5 sacks as evidence of solid pass-rush skills for a man of his size (341 pounds), but those sacks represent 10 of just 25 total pressures over the season. And frankly, if you run through Buffalo’s tape and look at them, you will be far from impressed by those sacks. Phillips has never earned an overall PFF grade north of 60.0 for a season, and he has yet to clear 30 total pressures over 16 games.
Overall, PFF’s final 2019 grade on Phillips was very harsh. His 51.8 grade via the analytics outlet named him the 104th best defensive tackle in the league last year.
While PFF’s thoughts do sort of back the Bills’ decision to let Phillips test the open market, that grade does seem too low. Phillips’ game did struggle with consistencies at times, but you can’t take away his 9.5 sacks and other career-best numbers while working in a rotation, not a full-time starter role. He earned those and could be in line for a bigger payday than the Bills want to give him.
On the flip side though, PFF named the most underrated defensive tackle as DJ Reader. Maybe that’s a good sign for the Bills since they reportedly have interest in adding him this offseason.
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