New Florida Football defensive tackle Joey Slackman is the best in the SEC. Sort of.
![The SEC logo in orange and blue colors is painted on the field before the game between the Florida Gators and Arkansas Razorbacks at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, November 4, 2023. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_5472,h_3078,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2F213%2F01j01vhnqcmwxkp439hp.jpg "The SEC logo in orange and blue colors is painted on the field before the game between the Florida Gators and Arkansas Razorbacks at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, November 4, 2023. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]")
It seems like every day now, Pro Football Focus is putting out a list of top players and/or units for 2024, and Florida Football seems to be on just about every list. It speaks to something we have said on this site that the roster for the Gators in 2024 is better than most are willing to give them credit for.
The newest member to make a PFF list is one of the key transfers Florida picked up in the offseason. He is considered the best-returning player in his position for 2024 in the SEC.
It just comes with a slight asterisk.
Florida Football: No Slack, Man
PFF put out their list of top returning defensive tackles in the SEC for 2024, and it was a bit of a surprise to see transfer Joey Slackman not only make the list, but be ranked as the top tackle in SEC according to PFF metrics.
Highest Graded Returning SEC Defensive Tackles💪 pic.twitter.com/9r7PWYhB6y
— PFF College (@PFF_College) June 10, 2024
It is cool to see the Penn transfer at the top of the list, but we would be remiss if we didn't point out a couple of very important caveats that skew this list.
The first is that it isn't clear how he wound up with a season grade of 90.5. He did have two games during the 2023 campaign were PFF graded him out with a 90 or above, but he didn't even top 80 in their ratings for any other game of the season.
In addition, the two games where he was given a grade over 90 were against Georgetown and Bucknell, neither of whom finished 2023 with a winning season at the FCS level.
Hell, forget being the best defensive tackle in the SEC, Slackman might not be the best defensive tackle for Florida. Cam Jackson and Caleb Banks are expected to have solid season and Slackman was limited during the spring and played on the second unit during the spring game.
But, the play of Slackman in 2024 could go a long way in telling the story of the Gators. He was a top 40 overall transfer portal prospect this past cycle according to On3 and if Billy Napier and his staff can get the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year to have his play translate at all in the SEC, the Gators might just up a rotating cast of battering rams in the middle of the defensive line.
feed