Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr impressed early on in his Vikings career, but since then, he has fallen off in his level of play, at least according to one outlet: Pro Football Focus.
In 2015, Barr built off his rookie year and finished with a PFF grade of 89.6 out of 100. He was the second-best linebacker in terms of his score.
Then, in 2016, PFF gave him a grade of 50.5. That’s a pretty big drop off from PFF, which seemed to think highly of Barr early on.
The outlet has soured on him when it comes to his coverage grade as of late. Barr hasn’t earned a coverage grade of 60.0 from PFF since 2015. That’s also a bad sign considering his skillset. Barr isn’t the type of linebacker to get a high volume of sacks. He’s more like a linebacker who can make plays in the run game and drop back and cover.
Barr’s high rating in 2015, mixed with his low ones since, put him on Pro Football Focus’ one-year wonder team.
“Like Robert Quinn, Barr has had some decent seasons, but there is only one year that justifies the five-year, $67.5 million contract he’s currently playing on. That was 2015 — Barr’s second season in the NFL — when he joined Luke Kuechly as the only two linebackers in the league to record an overall grade of 90.0.”
However, there are some people out there who think Anthony Barr has played well for the Vikings as of late.
New England Sports Network listed the Vikings linebacker corps as the third best unit in the NFL, saying “Barr is another standout who can do just about everything for the Vikings, getting pressure with a pass rush or dropping in coverage.”
His stats have been better at times than in 2015, too. He had more combined tackles, tackles for loss and the same number of solo tackles in 2019 as he did in 2015. I get it; that doesn’t tell the whole story, but there are still some statistical areas where Barr has been better or the same in 2015.
According to Pro Football Reference, Barr’s approximate value in 2015 was a nine. The following year, he had a better approximate value at 10, then followed that up with an 11.
Pro Football Reference had his approximate value at a seven for this past season, but the year before that he earned a nine, just like he did in 2015.
There’s truth to many stats and Barr seems to have fallen off slightly since his early days with the Vikings, but sometimes I think people are too quick to judge a player that is still pretty good, and can still provide value for the Minnesota defense.
Personally, I like Pro Football Focus and I think it’s a good resource to determine players’ value when that value goes beyond basic stats. That said, it’s not perfect.
As Mike Zimmer once said about Pro Football Focus: “I would just ask everybody to take that with a grain of salt, including our fans. We as coaches get paid a whole bunch of money to do the jobs that we do, evaluate the players that we evaluate and grade them how we grade them and not based on someone else,” via Sports Illustrated.
In a year where the defense has had a lot of turnover, Barr will have to step up and be a veteran presence, especially in coverage, where the team will likely be playing young cornerbacks. Hopefully, he can prove some people wrong in 2020.