Last Sunday against the Jets, Clelin Ferrell broke out with his first and second sacks of the season. Both of those sacks resulted in strips which the Raiders recovered. It was a big game to be certain, but it was just one game.
Sacks aren’t everything, but they are something. And you don’t expect your second-year fourth overall pick to take until Week 13 to get his first of the season.
Consistency has been the issue for Ferrell since he first stepped on the field. He showed improvement last season and has had some good games this season as well, but he’s hot and cold.
His head coach Jon Gruden was asked if Ferrell’s big game Sunday was a sign he had turned the corner. Gruden essentially said not so fast.
“To say [he’s turned the corner] you’d have to have strung some games together,” Gruden said of Ferrell. “You just can’t have a couple plays and say everything’s all great. We’re not just counting sacks here, we’re counting pressures and production and factor grade plays. But yeah, we think he’s on his way. He’s still a young player, he’s missed some time, but he’s got to string two or three of four or five in a row. And I think that’s his goal and his expectation. I know that’s ours.”
To be fair, Sunday wasn’t Ferrell’s first good game this season, even without the finishing with sacks in previous games.
Gruden spoke of factor grade plays. Obviously Ferrell showed up big last week in New York. Prior to that he had made strong positive impacts in three games and I named him a Baller in those games (Weeks 1, 5, and 9). Three other times, he was either non-factor or liability and I named him a Buster in those games (2, 4, 8).
In terms of Ferrell’s stats outside of sacks, he is tied with Maxx Crosby with 10 quarterback hits this season and his 15 run stops are second among Raiders’ defensive linemen behind Johnathan Hankins (18). Ferrell has 30 pressures and three passes batted down at the line.
It’s easy to look at the highlights and say Ferrell has arrived. But the great ones do it consistently. That’s the challenge Gruden is putting out to his 2019 top pick as the Raiders try to make their final playoff push.
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