Inside the trenches: How Sheldon Rankins is adding value to the Saints defensive line [Film Study]

The DT position can be hard to get a feel for failure/success by just looking at the box score. One thing I focus on when grading lineman is won/loss/stale reps. Too often we get caught up in pancakes/sacks/pressures/etc., but too often these individual stats fail to provide context (such as, what was the player's assignment?) I talk about that here. Is Saints DT Sheldon Rankins providing value? Let's take a look at the tape.

Notes:
-Rankins came out swinging in the 1st half against Cleveland and found a lot of success. So much so, they started targeted him with double teams.
-When grading lineman, the focus should be on won/loss reps based on assignment and not on pancakes/pressures/sacks/etc. (though those are great).
-Won reps don't always show up on the box score

Inside the trenches: How Sheldon Rankins is adding value to...