The Cincinnati Bengals' 2022 regular season has come to an end. The team won the AFC North for the second straight season and, as a result, are heading back to the playoffs. This time, hopefully they'll get the storybook ending.
With the season coming to a close, I put together the list of the highest-graded Bengals according to PFF with the only criteria being that they had to play at least a significant number of snaps.
So, who made the top five for the stripes?
Bengals five best players according to PFF were...
It's a good sign when the quarterback is at the top of the list and Joe Burrow closed out the season as the Bengals' highest-graded player with a 90.7. He threw for 4,475 yards, 35 touchdowns, and 12 picks and probably would have passed his 2021 yardage total had a game not been canceled. Even with one less game, Burrow passed his own touchdown record by one. Burrow is the only Bengal to make PFF's All-Pro team this season, coming in as the second-team quarterback behind Patrick Mahomes.
Second and third place shift to the defensive side of the ballas D.J. Reader was the second-highest graded player with an 87.3. This was despite Reader missing six games with an injury. He was a gem against the run with a 73.1 grade and it wasn't hard to spot the team's struggles with stopping the run while Reader was out.
Hendrickson received the third-best grade on the team with ab 85.0 grade from PFF. While he didn't come close to the sack numbers he had during his inaugural season, Hendrickson was still a freak of nature with a 90.0 pass-rush grade.
Ja'Marr Chase came in fourth with an 83.0 grade. He missed five games due to injury but still balled out with 87 catches for 1,046 yards and nine touchdowns. He had more receptions this season than he did as a rookie.
In the five spot is Germaine Pratt with an 80.6 grade. Pratt is slated to hit free agency this offseason and the Bengals need to do whatever they can to retain him in the spring. He had a career-high 98 tackles this season.