Pro Football Focus is notable to most fans for their grading of every individual player on every play. Their weekly performance grades generally do a good job of illustrating who played well and who did not.
PFF also grades the entire team in various aspects each week. As with the players, they keep an ongoing tally and aggregate score for the teams in things like run blocking, tackling, coverage and receiving.
The score values themselves can be somewhat subjective, but on the whole, the PFF team grades tend to make for a nice comparative tool on how a team stacks up against the other 31 clubs. With that in mind, here’s how the Detroit Lions rank in all the team-centric PFF metrics through Week 5. The Lions have played one less game than most teams, but these are not quantity-based grades, so they’re still quite appropriate as the NFL progressed into the second quarter of the 18-week season.
Overall – 3rd
Lions PFF grade: 83.9
Best: 49ers
Worst: Panthers
Total offense – 4th
Lions PFF grade: 77.7
Best: 49ers
Worst: Browns
Passing offense – 25th
Lions PFF grade: 57.2
Best: Bengals
Worst: Titans
Pass blocking – 6th
Lions PFF grade: 74.4
Best: Packers
Worst: Rams
Receiving – 8th
Lions PFF grade: 73.3
Best: Texans
Worst: Panthers
Running – 5th
Lions PFF grade: 86.8
Best: Seahawks
Worst: Chargers
Run blocking – 4th
Lions PFF grade: 74.4
Best: Colts
Worst: Raiders
Overall defense – 2nd (tied)
Lions PFF grade: 76.6
Best: Steelers
Worst: Cowboys
Run defense – 8th
Lions PFF grade: 68.2
Best: Ravens
Worst: Cowboys
Tackling – 4th
Lions PFF grade: 62.7
Best: Steelers
Worst: Raiders
Pass rush – 2nd
Lions PFF grade: 85.0
Best: Steelers
Worst: Panthers
Coverage – 11th (tied)
Lions PFF grade: 68.6
Best: Jets
Worst: Raiders
Special teams – 10th
Lions PFF grade: 80.1
Best: Patriots
Worst: Raiders