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Graham Barton’s Overlooked Rookie Season

June 8th, 2025

Budding star?

Now this is pretty damn impressive to Joe. Provided it is accurate.

Regular readers know Joe is not down with the PFF tribe’s mindless grades. When NFL folks start to take these seriously– as one NFL scout told Joe years ago, “They’re cute.” — then Joe will think about taking them seriously.

People who monitor the NFL closely know there are all kinds of dubious issues with these … things.

But what “this Joe” likes about the PFF tribe is its stats. There’s a big difference between “grades” and “stats.” The obvious is subjective vs. objective.

The following is an example of the PFF tribe’s enlightening stats.

Last year then-Bucs rookie Graham Barton played in every snap for the Bucs. That, per Pro Football Reference, was 1,065 snaps. That’s quite a bit.

Per the PFF tribe, Barton was responsible for just one sack all season. One sack in 1,065 snaps.

Just one sack allowed by a rookie starting center? Joe thinks that is damn impressive. So Barton didn’t get bull-rushed or owned or beaten by some of the best defensive tackles in the game? Dang.

Now Joe knows it’s hard to compare players on the offensive line just because they have different positions and responsibilities. Joe’s readers may draw their own conclusion to the following.

When Tristan Wirfs was a rookie, playing at right tackle, he allowed one sack.

When Chiefs center Creed Humphrey was a rookie, he only allowed one sack. When the recently retired Detroit center Frank Ragnow was a rookie in 2018 he gave up four sacks.

So you can see that Barton seems to be in pretty good company.