Will Anthony Barr start improving?
Barr was picked by the Vikings in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft, and he lived up to the hype in his first season.
Barr had four sacks, three pass deflections, two forced fumbles, a defensive touchdown, 55 solo tackles and six tackles for loss. He also only played in just 12 games.
Barr plays a role where he’s oftentimes dropping back into coverage or he’s stopping the run. He’s not really a Khalil Mack type linebacker who’s going to get a lot of sacks. So in this case, I think it helps to look at Pro Football Focus to see how he has graded out recently.
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.
He came back in 2016 and Pro Football Focus gave him a grade of 50.5. That’s a pretty big drop off from an outlet that seemed to think highly of Barr. It also showed in the stat sheet. Barr had two sacks, 37 solo tackles and three tackles for a loss that year. Granted he did have more pass deflections with four, but PFF did not think highly of his overall play.
In 2017, he earned a grade of 63.7. Then, the following year, he earned a 71.4, slowly making his way back to his production earlier on. In 2019, he took a step back, earning a 60.6.
To be fair, Pro Football Focus’ grade system isn’t perfect. And Barr’s 2019 stats were better than his 2018 totals in certain areas: quarterback hits, tackles and pass deflections most notably.
But it’s safe to say that many people expected Barr to be better than he has been this past season.
It’s hard to say who the Vikings will be getting in 2020, the Barr they drafted or the player he’s slowly become.