Through the first four games of the 2023 NFL season, the Detroit Lions sport an impressive 3-1 record that includes road wins in Kansas City and Green Bay. It’s a great first quarter of the season.
(Technically, the first quarter of the 17-game season occurs after the first quarter of the Week 5 game, but I digress…)
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The Pro Football Focus grading through the season’s first quarter does a good job in detailing how Detroit won three of its first four games. PFF metrics from the Lions in relation to the rest of the league are a good barometer for how Dan Campbell’s team is faring compared to other teams.
Here’s how the PFF team metric grades for Detroit rank after Week 4, with some thoughts on notable scores from other teams as well.
Overall grade: 5th
Detroit’s 84.3 overall grade is behind only four other teams: SF, MIA, BUF and DAL.
The New York Giants are last at 53.3
Offense: 3rd
The Lions score of 79.9 trails Miami (87.6) and San Francisco (82.3). Detroit is eighth in scoring offense with 106, but analytically speaking, they’re better than that output.
Pittsburgh is last with a total offense grade of 51.8, which would not surprise anyone who has watched more than two drives of Steelers football thus far.
Passing: 3rd
It’s third place again for the Lions with the overall passing grade of 81.0. Miami tops the league with an astonishing 90.3. Passing encompasses everything from QB play to pass blocking and receiving catch rates.
Detroit’s Week 3 foe, the Atlanta Falcons are last in passing grade with a dismal 40.2, more than eight points lower than any other team.
Pass blocking: 5th
This is a great ranking considering the team has rolled out a different starting offensive line in each game due to injuries. Detroit grades out at 71.6. Buffalo is the best (76.4), with Pittsburgh (31.8!) bringing up the bottom.
Receiving: 3rd
The 76.1 grade here is built on a strong showing by Amon-Ra St. Brown and rookie TE Sam LaPorta. The high catch rate (over 75 percent) and great work on contested catches (14 of 18 have been caught) bolster the rank.
Three of the bottom four teams reside in the AFC North, from Pittsburgh (29th) to Cincinnati (31st) and then the Giants at the bottom.
Run: 14th
The first metric outside the top 10, Detroit sits 14th with a 72.6 total run grade. Fumbles have hurt, as have poor blocking grades for FB Jason Cabinda and TE Brock Wright.
Run blocking: 4th
As with the pass blocking, earning such a high score is all the more impressive considering the rotating cast of linemen in the lineup. Detroit’s 70.0 is fourth, with NFC teams making up the top seven spots before the first AFC team, the New York Jets.
Defense overall: 10th
Is Detroit a top-10 defense? Heck yeah.
The Lions edged out the Seahawks and Eagles for 10th, 73.6 to 73.4. The biggest reason for the high ranking is the stop rate against the run, while an inordinate number of enforced penalty yards (139, 4th-most) hurts the grade.
Run defense: 7th
The Lions defense allows the fewest rushing yards per game (60.8)and the second-best yards per carry average (3.0), but the overall run defense grades out 7th at 69.9.
Detroit’s next two opponents are the Panthers (47.7) and Buccaneers (44.4), both in the bottom five.
Tackling: 17th
The relatively poor tackling grade of 56.5 is Detroit’s worst ranking and score of any metric from PFF. High missed tackle rates from CB Jerry Jacobs, EDGE Aidan Hutchinson and DT Alim McNeill drag down the score considerably.
San Francisco is at the top, with Denver dropping the bottom out at just 28.6.
Pass rush: 17th
If not for Aidan Hutchinson and his spectacular 89.8 grade in the pass rush, Detroit’s total score of 69.4 would be near the bottom. The lousy Week 2 against Seattle really weighs down the overall grade with such a small sample size.
Two NFC North rivals, the Vikings and Bears, are the bottom two teams in pass rush grades.
Coverage: 14th
Being 14th with a 72.9 overall grade is the product of steady week-by-week improvement in coverage; Detroit has raised the coverage grade for each game by at least five points from the prior week.
Baltimore tops the league at 89.9, while Denver is last at 35.9
Special teams: 21st
The placekicking has been good, but penalties, missed tackles and an uncharacteristically slow start from punter Jack Fox (16th at his position) dog the grade of 65.4 overall.
Of note: Detroit’s first two opponents, the Chiefs and Seahawks, rank 3rd and 2nd, respectively.