Winters held up well fitting inside runs and tracking Lamar Jackson on the perimeter, but heavy bites on play-action fakes dragged down his overall impact.
Dee Winters posted a 68.0 grade behind solid run defense (73 facet grade) offset by recurring lapses against misdirection and in coverage (56 facet grade). He was reliable when flowing downhill against interior runs, shooting gaps cleanly before halftime (Q2 12:25, Q2 00:13) and shutting down a Jackson keeper for no gain (Q4 02:00). However, Baltimore repeatedly exploited his aggressive run reads with play-action bootlegs, notably biting hard to surrender a Chris Moore touchdown (Q3 03:50) and an open completion to Mark Andrews (Q4 09:06). In pure coverage, he was occasionally slow to squeeze underneath windows, allowing Zay Flowers to find openings behind his zone drop (Q1 03:12, Q4 02:36).
Strengths
Downhill run gap fits
Perimeter pursuit speed
Short-yardage rally tackling
Weaknesses
Biting on play-action and misdirection
Depth and awareness in hook zones
Navigating interior block traffic
Plays that moved the grade
+1.5Q4 02:00, 1st & 10Diagnosed the zone read keeper instantly and took a sharp pursuit angle to force Lamar Jackson out of bounds for no gain.
+1Q1 06:50, 3rd & 10Read Lamar Jackson's eyes in hook zone coverage and triggered immediately on Mark Andrews to make the third-down stop short of the marker.
-0.5Q3 03:50, 1st & 4Bit hard into the line on an inside run fake to Derrick Henry, vacating his zone and allowing a wide-open 4-yard bootleg touchdown pass.
Every graded snap · 24 wins or losses, 22 routine
+0.5Q1 07:26 · 2 & 10 · Run defenseReads the run key quickly and scrapes over top to converge at the point of contact to assist on the tackle.
+1Q1 06:50 · 3 & 10 · CoverageReads Jackson's eyes, triggers immediately on Andrews crossing into his zone, and makes an aggressive stop to prevent the 3rd-down conversion.
+0.5Q1 06:12 · 4 & 1 · Run defenseFlowed cleanly to the interior pile to secure the stop.
+0.5Q1 03:57 · 1 & 10 · Run defenseReads run flow instantly, fills the A-gap aggressively, and enters the tackle pile alongside Ogbonnia.
-0.5Q1 03:12 · 2 & 8 · CoverageGets drawn by vertical stems, leaving the underneath hook zone soft for Flowers to catch and turn upfield.
-0.5Q1 02:42 · 1 & 10 · Run defenseGets caught behind traffic on the scrape and is unable to affect Henry before the first-down marker.
+0.5Q2 14:09 · 1 & 10 · Run defenseScrapes over the top of interior blocks quickly and finishes the tackle on Hill along the sideline to limit the play to 7 yards.
+1Q2 12:25 · 1 & 15 · Run defenseDiagnoses the run quickly, shoots the open A/B-gap crease downhill, and makes primary contact on Hill to limit the gain to 4 yards.
-0.5Q2 06:56 · 2 & 6 · CoverageStep up on the run fake before attempting to scrape outside, failing to contest the quick flat pass.
+0.5Q2 05:32 · 2 & 9 · Run defenseReads the handoff quickly and fills into the tackle pile to assist Ezeiruaku.
+1Q2 00:13 · 1 & 10 · Run defenseDiagnoses the run quickly, shoots downhill into the A-gap, and makes primary contact on Hill after a 4-yard gain.
+0.5Q3 10:34 · 1 & 10 · Run defenseFlows fast downhill into the playside crease to bottleneck the running lane with Williams.
-0.5Q3 04:27 · 2 & 4 · Run defenseGets caught behind trash inside and cannot work over the top fast enough to challenge Jackson's angle.
-0.5Q3 03:50 · 1 & 4 · Run defenseBites forward hard into the line on the run fake to Henry, removing himself from any position to recover to the bootleg.
-0.5Q4 15:00 · 1 & 10 · Run defenseSteps up hard on the interior fake to Henry, delaying his lateral scrape to the boundary.
-0.5Q4 09:06 · 2 & 6 · Run defenseBites hard on Henry's inside zone fake to the left, which creates ample space for Jackson to roll and find Andrews completely open in the flat.
+0.5Q4 08:22 · 3 & 1 · Run defenseFlowed cleanly over top of the interior double team to rally to the ball carrier.
+0.5Q4 05:45 · 1 & 10 · Run defenseRecognizes the scramble quickly from his zone drop, pursues with good lateral speed and shoves Jackson out of bounds.
-0.5Q4 05:14 · 1 & 10 · Run defenseSlightly slow to diagnose and scrape over the top of the double team, allowing Henry extra yardage into the second level.
+0.5Q4 04:35 · 2 & 2 · Run defenseReads run immediately, scrapes across cleanly, and secures Henry to finish the tackle.
-0.5Q4 03:57 · 3 & 1 · CoverageTurns to follow crossing routes and fails to mirror the quarterback scramble in time.
-0.5Q4 02:36 · 2 & 7 · CoverageDrops into the underneath zone but is slightly late reacting to Flowers cutting behind him over the middle, then helps clean up the tackle.
+1.5Q4 02:00 · 1 & 10 · Run defenseDiagnoses the keeper quickly, takes a sharp pursuit angle to beat the blocks, and forces Jackson out of bounds for no gain.
+0.5Q4 01:54 · 2 & 10 · Run defensePursues laterally from the middle of the field and makes a touchdown-saving tackle at the 2-yard line.