The bye week is a perfect opportunity for some self reflection, and you better believe the Detroit Lions are doing that following their uneven 3-2 start to the season. With back-to-back division games out of the bye week, this is the perfect time for the team to reset, make some changes, and look a little unpredictable when welcoming the Green Bay Packers to Detroit in Week 7.
While they do all of that, I figured this would be a good time to just check in on each individual starter and see how they've performed thus far. And to do that, I'm doing the very inexact analysis of looking at their PFF grades. Look, I don't swear by these grades, which is why I'm also going to provide my own commentary based on my own personal perceptions. But it is a decent way to at least get a snapshot of how these players are playing and where they rank among the rest of the league. I don't have time to watch every single game and every single player in the NFL, so this is about as good of any way to provide a league-wide view of Detroit's start to the year, as long as we all agree PFF grades have their limitations.
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Quarterback
Jared Goff
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86.3 PFF grade, sixth in NFL
Goff is off to a fantastic start, ranking second in passing yards, second in passing touchdowns, ninth in yards per attempt, and third in passer rating. Sixth seems a little low, but PFF's grading system rewards mobile quarterbacks, so it's not surprising to see Lamar Jackson, Bryce Young, Brock Purdy, Patrick Mahomes, and Joe Burrow ahead of Detorit.
[Note: PFF's No. 1 QB is Drew Lock, but I am excluding him since he only had one start.]
Running back
Jahmyr Gibbs
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88.3 PFF grade, fourth in NFL
Gibbs is currently fourth in rushing yards, t-first in rushing touchdowns, and first in receiving yards among running backs. I have no problem putting Gibbs fourth, currently behind Kenneth Walker, Bhayshul Tuten, and Bijan Robinson—especially since they're all with 2.5 points. It's worth noting Gibbs has the highest receiving grade (91.0) of any back.
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Tight ends
Sam LaPorta
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80.6 PFF grade, fourth in NFL
Brock Wright
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57.0 PFF grade, 55th in NFL (out of 81)
It's certainly relieving to see LaPorta establish himself as a top-tier tight end after a back injury ended his 2025 season early. LaPorta currently leads all tight ends with 316 yards, and is tied for fifth in touchdowns. And while his blocking continues to improve, he is comfortably out of the top-20 in both pass blocking (69.6, 28th) and run blocking (56.9, last)
Wide receivers
Amon-Ra St. Brown
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73.6 PFF grade, 32nd in NFL (out of 114)
Jameson Williams
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62.5 PFF grade, 69th in NFL (out of 114)
Isaac TeSlaa
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59.3 PFF grade, 87th in NFL (out of 114)
If there's been a unit that has underwhelmed compared to expectations, it's this one. St. Brown has still been very productive (12th in yards among WRs), but he's had an odd amount of drops and fumbles. Jameson Williams remains a big-play machine, but he battles through some early drops. Isaac TeSlaa is starting to become a bigger part of the game plan, but started off slow.
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Offensive line
LT Penei Sewell
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90.9 PFF grade, 1st in NFL among all OT
LG Christian Mahogany
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86.4 PFF grade, 3rd in NFL among guards
C Juice Scruggs
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75.6 PFF grade, 1st in NFL among centers
RG Tate Ratledge
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75.5 PFF grade, 13th in NFL among guards
RT Blake Miller
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67.1 PFF grade, 33rd in NFL (out of 72)
Wow. This is a bit surprising. The Lions have an outstanding offensive line by PFF standards, but that doesn't quite match the eye test. Don't get me wrong, this is a much-improved unit from last year, but the inconsistencies are obvious (and expected with such a young unit). Scruggs being the No. 1 graded center is shocking. He's been good, but there have been a couple of down games. Perhaps this just says more about the current state of NFL centers. With no Frank Ragnow, Jason Kelce, Drew Dalman anymore, maybe the league just lacks good centers right now.
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The worst graded player is first-round rookie Blake Miller. But for him to be a middle-of-the-pack offensive tackle in his first five NFL games is more than acceptable.
Defensive line
EDGE Aidan Hutchinson
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91.4 PFF grade, 2nd in NFL
DT Alim McNeill
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79.4 PFF grade, 9th in NFL
DT Tyleik Williams
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66.0 PFF grade, 40th in NFL out of 133
DT Skyler Gill-Howard
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54.9 PFF grade, 83rd in NFL out of 133
EDGE DJ Wonnum
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56.7 PFF grade, 79th in NFL out of 95
Alim McNeill is back. Aidan Hutchinson is still Him. Tyleik Williams has shown improvement. And then you have Wonnum's puzzling grade after tallying 5.0 sacks through five games. He's being dinged for poor run defense (40.5 grade), but I'm not so sure I agree with that. It's maybe a little more apt for Gill-Howard (51.6), but that's still not bad for a Day 3, undersized pick. Regardless, Detroit has to be pretty happy with this unit's overall performance.
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Linebackers
LB Jack Campbell
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58.4 PFF grade, 52nd in NFL out of 72
LB Derrick Barnes
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66.9 PFF grade, 28th in NFL
LB Malcolm Rodriguez
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78.3 PFF grade, 5th in NFL
Campbell's slow start has been a shock to the system, but hopefully he's back on track after producing a 79.2 PFF grade against the Cardinals—13th best of any linebacker in Week 5. It's encouraging to see Detroit's other two "starting" linebackers put up decent numbers. And it looks like Rodriguez has earned more playing time despite only playing in 28% of snaps through five weeks.
Cornerbacks
CB D.J. Reed
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66.3 PFF grade, 39th out of 104
CB Roger McCreary
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53.8 PFF grade, 80th out of 104
CB Rock Ya-sin
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42.4 PFF grade, 95th out of 104
CB Ennis Rakestraw
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64.3 PFF grade, did not qualify
Nothing about this is particularly surprising, although Reed was a bit higher than expected. He's starting to turn his season around, after really struggling in man coverage through the first few games.
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The entire unit is being dragged down by coverage grades, because they've actually fared okay as run defenders. McCreary ranks 14th in run defense grade (78.9), while Reed isn't far behind at 69.0. But McCreary is 94th in coverage grade (47.1), and Reed is 41st (64.6).
Safeties
S Chuck Clark
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70.9 PFF grade, 23rd out of 95
S Christian Izien
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63.3 PFF grade, 44th out of 95
S Avonte Maddox
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38.9 PFF grade, 92nd out of 95
This doesn't pass the eye test to me. Clark hasn't been as reliable as advertised, and Izien has been far too inconsistent. For both to rank in the top half of safeties in the NFL just doesn't look right to me. But perhaps it's a sign that things aren't as bad as they seem. In case you're wondering, Keith Abney received a 59.9 PFF grade for his one start at safety against the Cardinals, dragged down by a 55.5 coverage grade.
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Overall
By PFF grade, the Lions have top-10 players quarterback, running back, tight end, offensive tackle, both guards, center, defensive end and defensive tackle. Their players in the trenches are playing great, which should bode well for future success.
Unsurprisingly, the weaknesses are in the back seven on defense. That said, the wide receiver room has a ton of room to grow, and there's no reason to believe they won't play better moving forward.
One last thing to leave you on: PFF offers full-team grades, and the Lions currently rank first with an 85.0 grade. Their offense ranks first at 84.1, their defense is 13th at 67.4, and special teams ranks 16th at 76.9.
