PFF: Grady Jarrett’s quick step best in league in 2017

The smart football nerds over at Pro Football Focus have thrown some nice stats at Atlanta Falcons DT Grady Jarrett.

The site tallied the number of times interior defensive linemen got the first piece of contact when going up against offenses in 2017. Guess where Grady ended up?

That’s right — that puts Jarrett in some stellar company with elite DTs like Kawann Short, Leonard Williams and Damon Harrison. Veteran DT Frostee Rucker is also listed, and is a free agent. Bring him home, TD!

Jarrett had 55 combined tackles and four sacks in 2017, and with 33 first points of contact going against offenses at or behind the line of scrimmage, that’s a heck of a season. Jarrett’s been one of the best defensive players on the team for the past two seasons, and he only seems to grow and become more fearsome as time wears on. What’s his ceiling?

He’s going to be getting paid by the Falcons at some point in the next year, and deservedly so. We’ll save talk what that number might look like in the months to come, because trust me, there’s going to be plenty of chatter about his deal getting done when people start getting Nervous Nellie about the cap and extending players. Jarrett’s deal will get done at some point, and he’ll deserve every dollar.

For now, let’s marvel at the fact that Jarrett has had the ascension he’s had since falling in the 2015 draft to the top of the fifth round, making him one of the big steals of recent years. It’s kind of cool Atlanta’s been able to find these latter round draft gems as of late, and it’s still remarkable the Falcons got Jarrett when seemingly everyone was commenting on how far he’d fallen.

Oh! And if you want your Georgian youngster to learn to football as well as Jarrett, his camp is coming up on Friday, June 8. I’ll let him fill you in with the deets.