Damon Harrison, Landon Collins Make PFF Top 50

Pro Football Focus is doing a top 50 NFL players this season, rather than the top 101 it has done in previous years. On Wednesday, PFF released Nos. 50-21 on the list and two New York Giants made the grade. Both players that came in on the list from the list are on the defensive side of the ball. Defensive tackle Damon Harrison came in at No. 41, while safety Landon Collins came in at No. 24.

Collins has burst onto the seen for the Giants. Last season, he started all 16 games and racked up 125 combined tackles. His success didn’t start there as he picked off five passes and took one back for a touchdown. He was arguably the best defensive player for the Giants last season.

PFF said:

A position switch for Collins in year two – moving from free safety to strong safety – saw him transformed from an ugly rookie season to a Defensive Player of the Year-caliber sophomore campaign. Collins notched 46 defensive stops last season, eight more than any other safety, while also notching five interceptions, five pass breakups, four sacks and 10 total pressures on the blitz. Collins became a matchup player for the Giants defense, and was able to make plays all over the field from his alignment closer to the action.

The second Giant in on the list is Damon Harrison, a 6-4, 350-pound defensive tackle out of William Penn. Harrison had the best year of his career last season with 86 combined tackles and 2.5 sacks. He started all 16 games for Big Blue, proving as a force in the middle of the defense.

PFF said:

Nobody stuffs the run quite like Harrison. He has led the league in run-stop percentage in each of the past four seasons. As an undrafted rookie back in 2012 he played only 11 defensive snaps, making one tackle, and it was a defensive stop. The past two years he has the highest two run-stop percentages we have ever graded in over a decade of recording it, and his 49 stops in the run game this season were 10 more than any other defensive tackle. Only eight other DTs could even get within half of Harrison’s total, and he played fewer snaps against the run than many of them.

Nos. 20-11 will be announced later on Wednesday by Pro Football Focus.