Junior offensive lineman Chase Roullier was graded out this week by Pro Football Focus as the ninth best lineman in football this season. Roullier, a guard from Savage, Minnesota was graded out next to all offensive and defensive lineman in FBS. Among offensive lineman he ranks third in pass protection and in the top 10 in run blocking. Roullier has not allowed any sacks this season. With those statistics he graded out as the top guard in the combined numbers. Only one guard was ranked above him, Joshua Garnett from Stanford. Despite the Cowboys poor record this season seeing Roullier ranked so highly is a nice bright spot for the Cowboys. Roullier was an honorable mention for the All-Mountain West team last season.
These were Pro Football Focus’s comments on Roullier: “Chase Roullier of Wyoming has had himself an impressive year, grading out very well in both run blocking (+26.0) and pass protection (+9.3). In both categories, Roullier ranks in the top ten among all guards. His strength seems to lie in the run game, but not by much – Roullier has an outstanding pass blocking efficiency rating of 99.3 (No. 3 nationally) and has not allowed a single sack this year. His consistency in both areas is what has earned him PFF’s No. 1 overall grade for guards this season (+37.5).”
Pro Football Focus, which is based in the UK, is a site dedicated for analyzing every single player and giving them grades every week based on their performance. NFL teams, scouts, and agents have bought into this data and use it to research any and every player.
Another Cowboy who seems to be grading out pretty well lately is running back Brian Hill. This week the Doak Walker award committee announced their semifinalists for the award and pared their list down to ten. Brian Hill, the talented sophomore running back for the Cowboys, was among the top ten for the award. Hill, currently the fourth leading rusher in the country with 1399 yards with one game remaining. Hill is the only player from the Group of Five to be selected in this group.
Hill is only 57 yards short of breaking the all-time season mark for the Cowboys, a record currently being held by Ryan Christofferson. Hill also ranks sixth all-time on the Cowboys all-time career list in rushing yards.
The finalists for the award will be announced this week, on the 24th. The winner will be announced live on the Home Depot Awards Show, December 10.
Hill is a sophomore from Belleville, Illinois.
The other semifinalists for the award are:
Brian Hill (So.), Wyoming
Devontae Booker (Sr.), Utah
Alex Collins (Jr.), Arkansas
Dalvin Cook (So.), Florida State
Ezekiel Elliott (Jr.), Ohio State
Leonard Fournette (So.), LSU
Royce Freeman (So.), Oregon
Derrick Henry (Jr.), Alabama
Shock Linwood (Jr.), Baylor
Christian McCaffrey (So.), Stanford
C.J. Prosise (Sr.), Notre Dame