The New Orleans Saints will be leaning on David Onyemata often in 2019. With starting defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins sidelined with an Achilles injury in the playoffs, Onyemata steps in as his immediate replacement. And the analysts at Pro Football Focus see plenty of reasons for the Saints to have confidence in Onyemata’s upcoming stint in the starting lineup, having named him the NFL’s most-underrated interior defensive lineman.
Per PFF game grades, Onyemata went on a tear starting in Week 5 last season. His overall grade (89.1) ranked seventh-best at the position after that point, putting him right in the thick of league leaders. That’s very solid production which should bode well for his prospects in New Orleans for 2019.
While Rankings saw most of the work with the starting unit last season, he did split plenty of time with Onyemata. In fact, their regular season snap counts were remarkably similar — Rankins logged 642 defensive plays, while Onyemata was in on 616 plays with the defense. They occasionally took the field together in passing situations. The key difference was that Onyemata also got looks on the special teams units (playing 116 snaps there) while Rankins appeared on just one special teams play. With Onyemata being the next man up in 2019, it would be surprising if he continued to get much action in that area of the game.
