The regular-season finale against the Minnesota Vikings wasn’t the best showing by the Detroit Lions. The Lions’ 30-20 win was effective without being superlative.
The team’s grades from Pro Football Focus reflect that, by and large. Here are the best and worst individual grades from PFF, as well as a few notable standout metrics.
Best Offensive Grades
WR Amon-Ra St. Brown – 91.0
WR Kalif Raymond – 90.2
LT Taylor Decker – 78.2
QB Jared Goff – 75.7
TE Sam LaPorta – 74.0
St. Brown, Raymond and LaPorta all benefitted from good receiving scores bolstered by YAC figures. Decker was charged with the only sack of QB Jared Goff but still had the 2nd-best best pass-blocking grade (75.4) of the starting five linemen and also the top run-blocking grade.
Worst Offensive Grades
RG Graham Glasgow – 42.4
TE James Mitchell – 52.0
RB Jahmyr Gibbs – 58.3
FB Jason Cabinda – 59.2
WR Donovan Peoples-Jones – 60.0
Gibbs didn’t have his best day running the ball, but his PFF grade tanked due to a truly miserable pass protection performance. Gibbs had a grade of 2.4 by allowing four QB pressures in five pass-blocking attempts.
Poor run blocking grades dogged Glasgow (48.3) and Mitchell (48.9) overall.
Worst defensive grades
DT Benito Jones – 27.7
DT Tyson Alualu – 36.2
CB Cam Sutton – 46.4
S Kerby Joseph – 50.7
CB Kindle Vildor – 53.1
Jones and Alualu each earned terrible run defense grades, and with neither being a pass rush threat, it kept their overall grades in the league-wide bottom-feeding range. Sutton allowed eight completions on 10 targets for 147 yards and also had a penalty. Joseph had a poor coverage grade (50.2) and also missed two tackles, keeping his grade low.
Best defensive grades
DE Aidan Hutchinson – 91.7
LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin – 84.1
S Ifeatu Melifonwu – 80.0
DT Levi Onwuzurike – 78.8
DT Alim McNeill – 73.2
Hutchinson and Onwuzurike each had individual pass rush grades over 90. Interestingly, both had a missed tackle that stained their overall grades from being even higher. McNeill earned the highest run defense grade of any defender at 74.2, which is a low figure for the top score. Reeves-Maybin turned in the best coverage score at 85.1 in 10 coverage snaps.
Overall notes
A handful of observations…
- RT Penei Sewell had his lowest overall grade of the season (60.2)
- The team tackling grade of 40.0 was the second-lowest by the Lions all year, ahead of only the Week 17 game in Dallas (36.1)
- The 81.9 team pass rush grade was Detroit’s best of the season and the only time they’ve broken 80.0
- LB Jack Campbell was credited with three missed tackles and a tackling grade of 30.1, which significantly lowered his overall grade (62.2)
- P Jack Fox had his second-highest grade (67.3) and averaged a season-best 53.3 yards per punt.
