NFL News & Analysis

10 worst players from Sunday's Week 10 NFL action

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - SEPTEMBER 28: Muhammad Wilkerson #96 of the New York Jets reacts in the first quarter against the Detroit Lions at MetLife Stadium on September 28, 2014 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Ron Antonelli/Getty Images)

Every Tuesday, PFF will be releasing its Team of the Week, representing the highest-graded players at each NFL position for that week. But Senior Analyst Sam Monson gets a jump on that by picking out the 10 least impressive individual performances from Sunday’s games.

Here are the 10 worst players from Sunday’s Week 10 action:

[Check out the 10 best performances from Sunday of Week 10 right here, or access our Player Grades tool to see how every NFL player measures up through three weeks of the season.]

1. Jay Cutler, QB, Chicago Bears

This was a disaster from Cutler in Chicago's blowout loss to Tampa Bay. Cutler completed only 53.3 percent of his passes in the game, and when kept entirely clean in the pocket he had a passer rating of just 51.7 — about 30 points worse than the average NFL QB’s passer rating on all throws over a season. Cutler tossed a pair of interceptions, including a disastrous pick-six, and gave the Bears no shot at all to win this game with his play.

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2. Logan Ryan, CB, New England Patriots

The Seahawks were able to beat the Patriots on Sunday night largely due to the strength of their passing game. Logan Ryan was thrown at 11 times, three more than any other Patriots defender, and he allowed 101 yards. Those yards came to five different receivers, with Doug Baldwin getting him for a touchdown as well. Overall, the passer rating of Russell Wilson when throwing in Ryan’s direction was 116.1.

3. Donald Stephenson, T, Denver Broncos

For the second week running, Stephenson was a walking trainwreck for the Broncos offense in their close win over New Orleans. This week he was bad enough that he lasted 53 snaps before being sat down for the remainder of the game, but in that time, he managed to surrender six total pressures and get beat repeatedly in the run game. Stephenson has been the single biggest issue in Denver’s offense in each of the past two weeks, but the problem is they have no better option in personnel terms, so they need to start to come up with ways to give him help, rather than replace him.

4. Chris Chester, G, Atlanta Falcons

Chester surrendered seven hurries against the Eagles, a league-high figure among all offensive linemen, let alone guards. He allowed that total on 35 pass-blocking snaps and was also flagged for a false start as he tried desperately to keep his head above water against the Eagles' defensive front and Fletcher Cox in particular. As if his pass blocking performance wasn’t enough, he also struggled in the run game, giving up a tackle for loss to Destiny Vaeao and losing on a couple of other blocks in Atlanta's loss.

5. Muhammad Wilkerson, DE, New York Jets

This was not a good time to disappear on the field for Wilkerson, who compounded his off-field doghouse status by going entirely AWOL against the Rams offense in the Jets' loss. Wilkerson played 56 snaps this week, but was nearly blanked from the stat sheet, recording just a single pressure on 26 pass rushes. He did record three solo tackles and two defensive stops, but this was a poor return for a player with his ability, and didn’t reflect how easily he was moved in the run game.

6. Cameron Heyward, DE, Pittsburgh Steelers

Playing the Dallas offensive line was always going to be tough sledding for Cameron Heyward, but even so the loss was a performance he would rather forget in a hurry. In 32 pass rushes, Heyward could manage just a single hurry, and he off-set that by jumping offsides earlier in the game. Against the run he simply wasn’t able to contend with the brute force of the Cowboys' ground attack, and the combination of Tyron Smith and Ronald Leary in particular just routinely moved him off the ball.

7. Nelson Agholor, WR, Philadelphia Eagles

Agholor was on the field for 71 snaps against the Falcons and was only targeted four times. That would be bad enough, except from those four targets he could manage just two catches for seven yards, and one of them required a pointless challenge to secure as he bobbled a pass going to ground at the sideline. That turned 2nd-and-20 into 2nd-and-16, but cost the Eagles a challenge where a clean catch would have spared it. Agholor also dropped another of the targets and was effectively a drag on the entire Eagles' offense in Philadelphia's close win.

8. Joe Barksdale, T, San Diego Chargers

Two weeks ago, Barksdale was utterly dismantled by Von Miller and the Denver Broncos. He wasn’t a whole lot better last week against the Titans, but the pass rush they can bring will have been seen as something of a respite. This week he was back in the fire again going up against Cameron Wake and the Dolphins, and it went badly. Barksdale surrendered two sacks and six total pressures – the most among tackles this week – on just 56 offensive snaps, 37 of which were pass-blocking.

9. Ty Sambrailo, T, Denver Broncos

This is why Denver is in trouble at the right tackle spot. After finally tiring of Donald Stephenson’s revolving door performance art, the Broncos benched him in favor of Ty Sambrailo, who in just 17 pass-blocking snaps surrendered four hurries, for the worst pass-blocking efficiency score of the week at his position. It’s a close competition, but Sambrailo is – if anything – worse than Stephenson, and whichever the team turns to they have no viable right tackle.

10. Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix, S, Green Bay Packers

Most of the Packers defense could have appeared on this list after their wretched overall performance in the loss to Tennessee, but Clinton-Dix is the guy who gets to represent the team failure. He was flagged for unnecessary roughness on QB Marcus Mariota, allowed a first down or touchdown every time he gave up a catch, missed a tackle on Delanie Walker after one of his receptions and generally did little of note to offset any of the bad.

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