Rookie of the Year: Shane Ray
By default, this award has to go to Shane Ray, right? I mean, this whole draft class has been somewhat of a disappointment, though I wouldn’t say that’s entirely their fault.
Ray has flashed talent, and he’s improved all season. After returning from injury in Week 10, Ray has upped his production greatly, totaling two sacks, four quarterback hits and 13 quarterback hurries in the final eight weeks of the season. The issue, though, is simply that he hasn’t gotten on the field enough to make a league-wide impression.
And that’s understandable. When you have guys like Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware in front of you, even Shaquil Barrett, it’s going to be difficult to get your own reps. Even on his best week, when Ware was out versus the Chargers in Week 13, Ray was only on the field for 59 percent of the snaps. Otherwise, he’s been lucky to see 35 snaps a game.
The only other rookie that could possibly be considered for this award is Max Garcia, who’s actually played roughly 200 more snaps than Ray, but I just can’t give an award (however fake it may be) to a player on one of the worst offensive lines in football when I could give it to a guy on the best linebacking corps in the league.
And if you had any thought that Ty Sambrailo might have earned this award had he stayed healthy, you weren’t watching the games. In the three games that he did start for the Broncos at left tackle, Sambrailo earned a cumulative grade of -10.3 from Pro Football Focus; that’s an average grade of -3.4 per game. If he had kept that pace up for the whole season, he would have finished with a grade of -54.9, by far the worst in the NFL — and yes, worse that Michael Schofield.
