2018 NFL Draft Watch: Weekend Overview, Week 5

Each week at PFF, we'll break down the previous weekend's slate of college football games, with an eye towards the 2018 NFL draft including those players featured in the PFF Preseason Draft Guide.

With that, here are a look at the NFL draft storylines from Week 5 of the college football season:

OFFENSE

• The biggest story from the draft perspective over the weekend was the match-up between two of the top quarterback prospects in USC’s Sam Darnold and Washington State’s Luke Falk. Darnold played his worst game as a starter in the Trojans loss against Washington State in the match-up of Top-20 teams as he finished with a 40.9 overall grade. Darnold only completed 15 of his 28 “aimed” passes against Washington State for 164 yards no touchdowns and one interception. Darnold struggled to connect at the intermediate and deep levels as he only completed two of 11 passes targeted beyond nine yards downfield. Darnold posted a 0.0 QB rating when under pressure from the Cougars. It will be important to see how Darnold rebounds from this performance.

• Luke Falk did outperform Sam Darnold during the game and the Cougars did pull off the epic upset but Falk’s performance would fall under solid rather than spectacular as he earned a 78.1 overall grade. Falk completed 34 of his 51 “aimed” passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. Cougars pass-catchers dropped six of Falk’s passes on the night which limited his production. Falk wasn’t exactly sharp when pushing the ball down the field and only completed six of his 16 passes targeted 10 or more yards downfield. Falk was impressive under duress from the talented Trojan pass-rushers as his QB rating under pressure was 103.0 and his passer rating when blitzed was 155.8.
• The best passing performance of the week came from Pitt’s Max Browne who left USC and transferred to Pitt after he lost his long-term starting position at USC to Sam Darnold. PFF has four years worth of grades on Browne and this was his best performance of his career by far. Browne’s 92.7 pass grade was the best of any FBS quarterback in Week 5. Browne completed 28-of-32 passes for 420 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions against Rice. Browne was only under pressure on five pass attempts but he completed all five for 135 yards and three touchdowns and an eye-popping 158.3 passer rating when under duress. History says this performance is likely an outlier but if Browne can keep this type of performance up he will be able to get his name back in the mix for QB prospects.

• Stanford running back Bryce Love is making his appearance in this column on a regular basis and has already fulfilled our preseason projection as our breakout running back candidate for the 2017 season. Love’s Week 5 performance was on another level from his previous work and was comparable to Barry Sanders’ dominant performances at Oklahoma State. Love carried the ball 25 times for 301 yards and three touchdowns. Love was the beneficiary of some great blocking from the Cardinal offensive line and was able to break some big runs without even being touched against Arizona State. Love’s ability to create on his own is without question as 175 of his 301 yards came after contact. He also forced 12 missed tackles on those 25 carries and has now forced 39 missed tackles as a runner while his elusive rating of 215.7 ranks No. 1 among all FBS running backs with at least 50 carries.

• Oklahoma State wide receiver James Washington came into the 2017 season as a highly-touted prospect and his play thus far this season has not disappointed. Washington keeps adding impressive weekly performances to his resume. In Week 5 against Texas Tech, Washington was targeted 12 times and caught nine of them for 127 yards – including 32 yards after the catch – and one touchdown. Washington did have one drop but beat four different coverage defenders for catches and the passer rating when targeting him was 136.5.

DEFENSE

• North Carolina State edge Bradley Chubb continues to prove why he is one of the premier pass-rushing prospects in the draft class. Against Syracuse, Chubb racked up one sack, three QB hits and three hurries on 43 pass-rushing snaps. Thus far for the season Chubb has four sacks, nine QB hits, 12 hurries and one batted pass on 160 pass-rushing snaps. Chubb’s pass-rush productivity rating of 12.9 ties him at No. 7 among 4-3 defensive ends with at least 90 pass-rushing snaps.

• Duke Ejiofor’s Demon Deacons ended up on the losing side of their battle against Florida State but Ejiofor played valiantly in defeat. Ejiofor had an incredible seven run stops on his 32 run defense snaps against the Seminoles. He also generated three hurries on his 26 pass-rushing snaps. Ejiofor has been able to generate pressure consistently this season and from both sides of the Demon Deacons’ defense. Ejiofor has provided one sack, one QB hit and five hurries from the left and one QB hit along with seven pressures from the right. Ejiofor has been even more impressive as a run defender and his 13.6 run stop percentage ranks No. 1 among FBS 4-3 defensive ends with at least 90 run defense snaps.

• Oregon DI Jalen Jelks made our Draft Board Risers list last week and backed that up again this week with one of the more dominant performances of any interior defensive linemen. Against Cal, Jelks generated one sack, four QB hits, four hurries and two batted passes on his 47 pass-rushing snaps. Jelks has graded positively as a pass-rusher in every game thus far in 2017 and has collected four sacks, eight QB hits, 12 hurries and three batted passes on his 177 pass-rushing snaps this season. Jelks' pass-rushing productivity rating of 11.4 ranks No. 1 among all FBS 3-4 defensive ends with at least 75 pass-rushing snaps.
• Troy cornerback Blace Brown played a big role in the Trojans’ upset over LSU. Brown forced a fumble against a driving LSU offense at his team’s own five-yard line which Troy recovered. In coverage Brown was targeted five times and allowed three catches for 61 yards. Brown only allowed 3 yards after the catch and the QB rating when throwing into Brown’s coverage was only 63.3. Brown sealed the victory with an interception and is having a solid 2017 season thus far.
• PFF-favorite, USF cornerback Mazzi Wilkins continues to be one of the premier cornerbacks for making plays on the ball in 2017 as he had an interception and broke up four passes against East Carolina. Wilkins’s eight passes broken up ties him at No. 1 among FBS cornerbacks. He has also added three interceptions which ranks No. 3 among FBS cornerbacks. NFL decision-makers go out of their way to add cornerbacks who can get their hands on the ball so Wilkins' performance is definitely getting attention. His combined 11 plays on the ball – three interceptions & eight pass break-ups – is the best mark among all FBS cornerbacks so far this season.