Browns’ defensive snap counts, stats, and notes: Week 9 – The amount of good PFF grades is insane

Every Browns defender was able to feast on Clayton Tune and the Cardinals.

Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on defense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 9 game against the Arizona Cardinals.

• DL: The Cardinals are as bad as I’ve ever seen a team offensively, and I was as sure as ever that this style of Browns defense would feast on them in a major way. All of the Browns’ starting defensive linemen registered sacks, with Dalvin Tomlinson getting 2.5 sacks. Shelby Harris forced a fumble that Myles Garrett recovered, and Jordan Elliott continues to have a few bursts for losses. For players with 25+ snaps, Garrett received the second-highest grade from PFF (89.6), Za’Darius Smith had the third-highest (87.9), and Tomlinson was the fifth-highest (85.4). If you throw out snap count qualifiers, Harris (91.8) and Ogbo Okoronkwo (83.0) also had big days.
• LB: There wasn’t much to do for the Browns’ linebackers because the defensive linemen and cornerbacks were cleaning everything up. When Clayton Tune tried to be aggressive, that allowed the linebackers to have the fun job of trying to drop back and cut off passing lanes. It worked for Sione Takitaki, who notched an interception, and it almost worked for Anthony Walker too. Takitaki only had 21 snaps, but was the highest-graded player by PFF (93.0).
• CB: Among players with 25+ snaps, rookie Cameron Mitchell (91.3) received the highest grade from PFF as he stepped up in the absence of Greg Newsome. Denzel Ward was the fourth-highest graded player, scoring an 86.1. Ward had an interception, and Mitchell made a few nice tackles and also defended a pass. Not factoring in snap counts, M.J. Emerson was the 13th-highest graded player on defense, grading out to a 72.4. Do you know how crazy that is? There are some weeks in which a 72.4 might be the second- or third-highest grade for a defense. I don’t think the Cardinals really even threw in Emerson’s direction. You’ll see snap counts for guys like Mike Ford and Kahlef Hailassie, as well as snaps for players at other positions who usually don’t see action, but those came at the end of the game.
• S: I hit on at least one of my prop bets this week, which was that Grant Delpit would register 5 solo tackles in the game. He had 6 solo tackles by halftime. Delpit is the type of player who really can thrive and use his aggressiveness when he knows the other team struggles to get going.