After signing a five-year, $86 million contract, Muhammad Wilkerson recorded the lowest-graded season of his career in 2016. Bouncing back to his previous form would go a long way for a Jets’ defense attempting to turn things around in 2017.
With the exception of his rookie season, Wilkerson had finished every year of his professional career with a PFF overall grade north of 80.0. In the 2016 season, however, he earned an 44.1 mark. Wilkerson’s overall grade last season ranked 95th out of 109 qualifying NFL edge defenders
In 2016, Wilkerson recorded a 5.8 pass-rushing productivity mark (PRP measures pressure created on a per-snap basis with weighting towards sacks), which ranked 46th out of 53 4-3 defensive ends. Wilkerson tallied just 30 total QB pressures in 2016, his lowest total since his rookie season.
Wilkerson finished the 2014 season with 31 run stops over 263 run-defense snaps, good for an 11.8 stop percentage. From 2015–2016, Wilkerson had just 43 run stops over 584 run defense snaps, giving him a 7.4 run-stop percentage in the two seasons since that dominant 2014 campaign.