Pro Football Focus' Rankings of the 2009 Patriots Defense

I came upon a website today that breaks down every play of the NFL season and awards grades to each player accordingly: www.profootballfocus.com. What you get is an expansive database, with hard numerical data ranking player performance. While fans never get to break down the game film or know exactly how the coaches are grading out the players, this is a good resource with some really interesting stuff. I won't challenge their method or their football credentials, rather I looked at each player on the 2009 Patriots defense and found their season rankings. Here's the list from best to worst:

1. Tully Banta Cain: 21.8
2. Vince Wilfork: 9.6
3. Leigh Bodden: 6.8
4. Brandon Meriweather: 5.0
5. Ty Warren: 3.9
6. Rob Ninkovich: 3.4
7. Patrick Chung: 1.8
8. Shawn Springs: 1.7
9. Junior Seau: .8
10. James Sanders: -1.4
11. Myron Pryor: -1.7
12. Terrence Wheatley: -1.9
13. Derrick Burgess: -2.2
14. Gary Guyton: -2.2
15. Mike Wright: -3.8
16. Jerod Mayo: -3.5
17. Ron Brace: -4.2
18. Brandon McGowan: -4.4
19. Darius Butler: -5.1
20. Adalius Thomas: -8.5
21. Jonathan Wilhite: -9.6
22. Jarvis Green: -14.1

So what can we take from this? As a Patriots fan much of how the rankings played out rang true to me. The following ideas were reinforced by the data:

• Jarvis Green was out of position as a starting 5-technique in the 3-4 base desfense.
• Jonathan Wilhite was consistently attacked and exploited.
• Adalius Thomas was ineffective, even when used as a pass rusher as he was against Indy.

Other thoughts and observations:

• Tully Banta-Cain was actually pretty solid in run defense, making a case that maybe he could be a 3 down OLB.
• Meriweather was just as inconsistent statisitically as you'd think he was.
• Thank Hoodie we re-signed Bodden.
• Ninkovich didn't get a ton of playing time but he was generally solid, and was never horrible at anything.
• Chung was generally solid as well, never did anything really bad... or really good.

Offense coming when I can get to it. But some interesting stuff to digest. I highly recommend checking out the site.