ProFootballFocus.com is rapidly becoming a mainstream tool to measure NFL players and teams. Sunday Night Football on NBC has been integrating the website’s analytical grades on their broadcasts. There are coaching staffs around the league who pay Pro Football Focus (PFF) top dollars for their expertise in grading tape.
The grade PFF doles out does not have scheme specifics, but it does give us a general sense of who is playing well.
So after two weeks, it’s kind of surprising to see how PFF has graded the 49ers’ offensive line.
Against the Rams, the analytics said they struggled. Against the Panthers, the analytics said they thrived.
Huh?
The five highest-graded 49ers offensive players against Carolina were all five of the offensive linemen. Yet the minute Chip Kelly’s press conference began, he was quick to note the team lost on the line of scrimmage and struggled to run the football, condemning the performance of his offensive line.
“Early in the game we got in trouble because we were never able to establish the run,” Joe Staley told reporters in Charlotte. “And that’s something as an offensive line we try to pride ourselves on. They do a lot of stunts and different things with [Luke] Kuechly that we really hadn’t seen before.”
The confusing part is Daniel Kilgore (41.6 total) is still somehow the lowest-rated center in the league but received the second-highest 49ers grade against the Panthers (81.6). The only offensive lineman to struggle against the Panthers, according to PFF, was right tackle Trent Brown against the run. Every other player was given a run-blocking grade above 74.6 on a day that the 49ers rushed 26 times for just 65 yards (2.5 yards per carry).
In turn, last Monday night against the Rams, Staley was the only offensive lineman with a positive grade in a dominating performance against Los Angeles.
Something isn’t adding up here. When the coaches and players think the offensive line had a poor day at the office; PFF thinks the offensive line barely missed a beat.
To give PFF some credit, this offensive line is light years ahead of last year’s unit. Blaine Gabbert has been sacked just twice in eight quarters of football and he’s had ample time to throw from the pocket. Despite the woeful day running the football, the 49ers still check in 12th in the NFL in rushing, averaging 107.5 yards per game.
PFF grades each player on each play. So there were plenty of chances — 65, in fact — for the line to either win or lose on any given play. The argument from PFF is that the 49ers’ offensive line did enough to win, but Gabbert, Carlos Hyde and the playmakers didn’t do enough. (Here’s a link to how they grade.)
But again, Kelly doubled-down Monday at his press conference, suggesting the offensive line play could be much better.
“Sometimes we just, timing-wise, we weren’t synced up in terms of our double teams up to the linebackers,” Kelly said. “Maybe we were off a little bit too quick because we were so concerned with playing linebackers like that, that now we’re not in position to move the three-technique or the one-technique like we wanted to move them.”
We can all agree the offensive line will be imperative to success moving forward. 49ers fans hope both Kelly and PFF will be aligned in that the unit turned in a positive day next week at Seattle.