Top returning players by PFF grade: No. 3 Nesta Silvera

Top returning players by PFF grade: No. 5 Cam Harris

Top returning players by PFF grade: No. 4 Zion Nelson

Pro Football Focus grades every player on every play in every game.

It creates a great barometer for performance and a grade above 70.0 is considered very good.

There are five returning Miami players who crossed that threshold over the entire 2020 season.

The past two days we began counting them down with No. 5 Cam Harris and No. 4 Zion Nelson.

Today we continue our top 5 returning players countdown -with No. 3:

PFF BY THE NUMBERS: 434 reps, 71.9 overall grade, 70.0 RDEF, 71.9 TACK, 72.8 PRSH, 64.5 COV

Is it a little scary that only one returning Miami Hurricanes defensive player was rated above a 70 percent grade last season?

That's an affirmative.

And we're not ready to say Silvera is dominant or anything like that, in fact he may wind up being the fourth or fifth player on defense ... at least you have to hope for that given the need for guys like Bubba Bolden (66.6 grade last year), a to-be-determined LB and maybe transfers like Tyrique Stevenson (67.0 grade at Georgia last year) and Deandre Johnson (67.0 grade, was 68.2 in 2019) really shining in Year 1 in the Cane defense under Manny Diaz.

With that said, Silvera made some nice strides last season. While he’s not at an elite level, you can see him maybe getting there this coming season. He showed a knack for bursting past linemen and making plays in the backfield - he had eight tackles for losses and five QB hurries.

The one area he needs to continue to work on is staying focused on the task at hand - he still has some silly frustration penalties.

CaneSport’s Take

Silvera continues to baffle us. He looks great on some plays and then disappears at times. This is a year where he needs to put it all together both for himself and also the team. We see him. We know he is there. Now he has to prove he can be a real problem.