• Sauce Gardner continues to wow: The New York Jets rookie cornerback has been nothing short of a lockdown defender thus far, allowing just one catch for eight yards on six targets in Week 6.

• Another Seahawks rookie CB flourishes:Coby Bryant, joining Tariq Woolen in stellar play, allowed only three catches on seven targets for -1 yards.

• Chase Claypool returns to form in Week 6: The struggling Pittsburgh Steelers wideout earned his first 57.0-plus game grade this season, shattering that benchmark with an 86.7 overall grade.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 mins

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QB Marcus Mariota, Atlanta Falcons

How about the Atlanta Falcons? Entering the 2022 season, they were widely viewed as one of the least talented franchises in the NFL. But after six games, they sit at 3-3 and are tied with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers atop the NFC South. 

Quarterback Marcus Mariota is a big part of that. Against the San Francisco 49ers, Mariota was nearly flawless. He went 13-of-14 for 129 yards and two passing touchdowns in Week 6. He also added 50 rushing yards and a touchdown as the Falcons completed the upset win. 

Mariota finished the game with an 83.2 overall grade, making him the team’s highest-graded offensive player. In fact, this is his highest-graded performance since Week 10 of the 2018 season. It’s been a long time since Mariota has played at this level, but he deserves all of the praise this week after leading the Falcons to a big win. 

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CB Sauce Gardner, New York Jets

It shouldn't be all that surprising when a top-five pick performs like a top-five pick. But when a rookie allows just one reception for eight yards on six targets against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, it's noteworthy. Gardner looked like the best player on Lambeau Field, as he completely shut down the receivers on his side of the field. He finished the game with an 80.0 grade, leading the defense. He has already developed into one of the premiere outside cornerbacks in the NFL, sporting a 73.2 overall grade this season.

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CB Coby Bryant, Seattle Seahawks

Rookie cornerback Tariq Woolen was fantastic again on Sunday, recording his fourth interception of the year. At this point, we expect Woolen to play well. But it’s the play of fellow rookie cornerback Coby Bryant that was surprising in Week 6. 

Bryant was targeted seven times on Sunday, allowing three receptions for a combined -1 yards. He mainly played in the slot and did not allow Arizona Cardinals wideout Rondale Moore to do any damage after the catch. Bryant has improved each week, and Sunday was his best performance of the season. Suddenly, the Seahawks have two fantastic young cornerbacks to be really excited about moving forward.

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EDGE Za’Darius Smith, Minnesota Vikings

The last time Smith recorded double-digit pressures in a game was back in 2019 against the Carolina Panthers. Since then, it's been a struggle for him to record six or more pressures in a single contest. But he finally looked healthy and back to his Pro Bowl self in Week 6. Smith tallied 11 pressures against the Miami Dolphins, tallying seven hurries, two quarterback hits and two sacks. He was utterly dominant en route to a 92.0 game grade. This is the first time in several years we've seen him play at this level.

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CB Tyson Campbell, Jacksonville Jaguars

Sauce Gardner will get a lot of praise this week for his performance against the Jets. But maybe the best effort of the day from a cornerback was courtesy of Campbell. He was targeted six times by the Indianapolis Colts and allowed just three receptions for eight yards. The longest reception was three yards, and he did not allow a single yard after the catch. Campbell finished the game with three defensive stops and a 91.6 overall grade — the highest mark of his career.

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LT Dennis Kelly, Indianapolis Colts

Kelly did not start the game at left tackle, but he did replace Bernhard Raimann early in this contest. Kelly allowed just one pressure on 54 pass-blocking snaps and finished the game with a solid 70.2 grade. While he certainly isn't the long-term solution in Indianapolis, he should probably be the starter going forward, as he is just more NFL-ready than Raimann. It was a workman-like performance by the journeyman offensive tackle on Sunday.

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EDGE Deatrich Wise Jr., New England Patriots

The Patriots' pass rush was excellent in Week 6, spearheaded by Wise and Matt Judon. Wise had his best game of the season, totaling seven pressures —  including five hurries and one sack. He was also fantastic in the run game, recording three stops. Wise and Judon playing at this level has helped the New England defense become one of the top units in the league. And sitting at 3-3 after six games, the Patriots are officially in the mix for a playoff spot again this season.

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WR Chase Claypool, Pittsburgh Steelers

Before Week 6, Claypool was among the most disappointing players in the NFL. Across his first five games, he was averaging just 8.06 yards per reception and had totaled only 129 yards. But he exploded in Week 6 against Tampa Bay, catching all seven of his targets — including two contested ones — for 96 yards. He added eight rushing yards on the ground and was the most reliable offensive weapon for the Steelers. 

Claypool was also able to help Pittsburgh convert multiple third-and-10 or longer situations in the fourth quarter to hold off the Buccaneers in an upset win. He finished the game with an 86.7 grade, which is his highest since Week 5 of 2021. It was a much-needed performance from a player directly at a pivotal point in his career.

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TE Jake Ferguson, Dallas Cowboys

Despite Dalton Schultz not being on the final injury report, the Cowboys kept him on the inactive list in Week 6. That forced rookie tight end Jake Ferguson into the starting lineup, and he played 37 snaps on offense. Ferguson struggled as a pass-blocker, but he makes this list because of his 91.5 receiving grade. He caught four passes for 40 yards, including this incredible touchdown during which he made a defender miss in the open field.

Cooper Rush leads a 93-yard drive to cut it to 3! #DallasCowboys

????: #DALvsPHI on NBC
????: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/exBLpcJhjSpic.twitter.com/riHy8SVAjY

— NFL (@NFL) October 17, 2022

Ferguson also had another long reception brought back due to a penalty, but it’s clear he is the future at the tight end position for the Cowboys.

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LB Cory Littleton, Carolina Panthers

Not long ago, Cory Littleton was the crown jewel of the 2020 free-agent class for the Raiders. But since then, his play has dropped significantly, and the team eventually released him. Littleton had put together back-to-back seasons with sub-48.0 grades in Las Vegas, and his time in the NFL was running out. 

He then signed with the Panthers this offseason to be a backup, and he struggled again last week on 66 snaps against the 49ers. That's all in the past now after one of the best performances of his career in Week 6, totaling seven stops and allowing just 27 receiving yards on four targets.

Littleton was the Panthers' second-highest-graded player in Week 6 (90.7), and this is the best he's looked in years. Unfortunately, he did have to leave the game with an injury, but this was arguably the most surprising performance of the week considering how much he's struggled over the past couple of seasons.

CLEVELAND – For now, at least, Glenville High School coach Ted Ginn Sr. hopes a few assumptions about Black youth are put to rest following the state championship football game Dec. 3.

“We’ve proven that we’re intelligent enough and not just athletic enough, and maybe we can get rid of the stigma that many kids from our area have,” Ginn said. “That’s for other people, because we never thought any of [those stereotypes] were true. That’s what some assumed, and we had to show them.”

There was plenty to see Thursday morning as the city of Cleveland celebrated Glenville’s championship with a motorcade a half-mile long that traveled the seven miles from the high school to Public Square Auditorium downtown. Of course, the event didn’t compare to the city’s celebration of the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA championship in 2016, but it was just as important and exciting to many in the estimated crowd of 1,100 who honored the team at the rally.

Especially to 1959 Glenville grad Charles Lucas.

“I’m here to represent my classmates from 63 years ago,” Lucas said. “This is a great joy to see our high school have this kind of reception and this kind of event. I’m thankful.”

So was Cleveland mayor Justin Bibb, who praised the team shortly after its state title victory, and from the podium Thursday.

“On behalf of the great city of Cleveland, this team has made everybody proud,” Bibb said. “It’s a big deal for Ted Ginn Sr. and for all he’s done for our city for over two decades. It’s a dream come true for me as mayor to see these young boys get this amazing achievement.”

They were all there to salute Glenville’s 26-6 victory over previously unbeaten Cincinnati Wyoming to win the Ohio Division IV title at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton.

It was the first football state title by a Cleveland Metropolitan School District team since the Ohio High School Athletic Association playoffs started 50 years ago. Glenville (15-0) previously qualified for the state playoffs 19 times, which included runner-up finishes in 2009 and 2013. In 1999, Glenville became the first Cleveland Public School to earn a playoff berth.

After the Cavaliers defeated the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, who won three state basketball titles and helped lead St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron to the state semifinals in football his junior year, agreed that Glenville’s title moves beyond sports.

“That’s amazing when you can get a school like Glenville that can win a state championship [because] it can allow a lot of inner-city kids, for one, to believe they can win as well, be seen and be heard,” said James, who was also an All-State wide receiver. “This is special. Seeing the success they had to make a state run to bring a championship back to the city and inner city brings a lot, not only to the sports side of it, but to the community in general.”

This state title is especially meaningful for Ginn, 67, because he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2012 and doctors weren’t confident he would survive . The one-year survival rate is 20%. He even spent a week on life support.

“The doctors wrote me off,” said Ginn, who spent two months in the hospital. “They said to my wife, ‘I don’t know why you’re sitting by his bed, because he’ll never wake up.’ ”

Ginn made a major breakthrough when his son, Ted Ginn Jr., who was playing for the San Francisco 49ers at the time, made a surprise visit.

“I thought I was going to lose my father,” said Ginn Jr., who played 14 NFL seasons. “I wanted to be the first person he saw when he woke up. He looked at me when I walked in. The doctor said my dad hadn’t recognized anyone for the last 40 days until I came into the room.”

The connection helped father and son. Ginn began his march back to health, and Ginn Jr. was able to draw strength from his father’s recovery.

“I needed my Pops,” Ginn Jr. said. “I’d have situations going on in football and it was helpful to talk with him.”

And after Ginn underwent several surgeries, including the removal of his spleen and half his pancreas, Ginn Jr. saw a rebirth in his father.

“He got his health back together and his life back together,” said Ginn Jr., who is involved in the family business in coaching and running Ginn Elite, a youth football and track and field organization. “He was away from his school and football team, and he got right back to work to help these kids.”

Since 1997, when he became the head football coach at Glenville, Ginn dared to dream while in the midst of all of the challenging circumstances associated with leading a football team in an urban setting. Cleveland is ranked in the top 10 cities nationally for violent crime and is one of the poorest major cities in the country.

Ginn’s hire also came with criticism because he was a former assistant and the school’s security officer. Naysayers didn’t give Ginn much of a chance to develop any tangible success, although the neighborhood and school produced actor Ron O’Neal, comedian Steve Harvey, and Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of comic book hero Superman.

“They figured we were just some inner-city school and no one would ever care,” Ginn said. “Those people back then told me that they couldn’t ever see how I could accomplish my goal of winning a state championship. Unfortunately, a lot of those people are dead and gone, and I wish they were still here so I could show them this group of kids.”

This state championship team is the result of Ginn’s 25 years of work. He slowly built his program with some of the same tough love and discipline on which he was raised before moving to Cleveland with his mother from Clifton, Louisiana, when he was 11.

“Being raised by my mother, who helped me learn my worth and understand the spiritual side, led me to what I’m supposed to do,” Ginn said. “As a Christian, when we are saved, we are now responsible to serve. That’s what I was taught and that’s what I always believed I had to do.”

And Ginn has done plenty. While developing his football players and building a track and field dynasty that has amassed 17 state titles, he began a yearly summer bus tour, when he took players to college camps. Pierre Woods, who played for Michigan and in a Super Bowl with the New England Patriots, Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith and Ginn Jr. were among Ginn’s first players on those road trips.

Ginn has helped 300 players receive college scholarships and 30 alumni to the NFL, including four current players: Coby Bryant (Seattle Seahawks), Marshon Lattimore (New Orleans Saints), Frank Clark (Kansas City Chiefs) and Justin Hardee (New York Jets).

“It’s scary to think what could have happened if I wasn’t here with a plan or an idea,” Ginn said. “Can you imagine what would’ve happened to many of these kids over the past 22 years?”

Scholarships and potential NFL contracts are all good, but Ginn wanted to impact more lives for children who struggled with many of the issues that often plague poor Black communities.  

In 2007, Ginn opened the Ginn Academy, where he’s the school’s executive director. The all-boys school is a part of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. It’s the first all-boys public school in Ohio. Discipline is paramount, starting with a dress code that requires students to wear suits and ties. Basketball is the only varsity sport offered at Ginn Academy. Students at the academy are eligible to play football at Glenville.

The school has a 9-12 grade enrollment of about 350 students and uses a curriculum that includes an emphasis on science and math. Ginn Academy has a graduation rate of 92%, compared with 76% at the rest of the schools in the district. At least 1,000 former Ginn Academy students have attended college, entered the workforce or joined the military.

Ginn considers his teaching philosophy old-school.

“We get back to the basics of training, the importance of family and church,” Ginn said. “I use football and track and field as a tool.”

And Ginn will continue to use those tools long after football season.

“My work is just beginning,” Ginn said. “I have 20 seniors whose futures I need to be concerned with. Football is just a game. The lives of these kids are what I am most concerned about — and making sure they have the things they need.”