PFF Player Rankings Ahead of Week 14

[RiverDog]

Gotta get my money's worth out of my subscription. Here's how our players stacked up in PFF's latest player grades along with the top ranked player and a few of interest to Hawk fans. The total number of players ranked, based on a minimum number of snaps, is noted in parenthesis:

QB (38): Geno #14. #1 is Dak, Russell Wilson is ranked #17.

WR (119): Tyler Locket #23, DK Metcalf #25, Jake Bobo #34, JSN #68. Tyreek Hill is ranked #1.

RB (59): Kenneth Walker #15, Zach Charbonnet #23. McCaffery is ranked #1.

TE (72): Will Dissly #16, Noah Fant #23, Colby Parkinson #39. George Kittle is #1.

Center (39): Evan Brown #31. Connor Williams of Miami is ranked #1.

OG (76): Damien Lewis #34, Phil Haynes #56. Chris Lindstrom of the Falcons is #1.

OT (83): Charles Cross #35, Stone Forsythe #57, Jake Curan #63. Penei Sewell of the Lions is ranked #1.

CB (118): Devon Witherspoon #8, Tre Brown #47, Tariq Woolen ##53. Daron Bland of the Cowboys was ranked #1.

Safety (88): Jamal Adams #42, Julian Love #44, Quandre Diggs #76. Jevon Holland of the Dolphins is ranked #1.

LB (82): Bobby Wagner #10, Jordyn Brooks #48. Fred Warner of the Niners is ranked #1.

DT (126): Leonard Williams #28, Mario Edwards #39, Jaran Reed #67, Dre Mont Jones #73. Dexter Lawrence of the Giants is ranked #1. Jalen Carter is ranked #4.

Edge (109): Boye Mafe #34, Uchenna Nwosu #49, Darrell Taylor #98, Derrick Hall #105. Nick Bosa is ranked #1.

 

[WarHawks]

Wow! That's incredible. Our highest ranked player is Bobby at #10, and everyone else is middle of the pack. DK and Tyler are only 26th and 23rd? Wow. Never would have guessed our talent level really is this meh, even though our record indicates as much. How much of that is coaching? That's the real question. One thing is for sure though. Homeritis. Still a thing.

 

[RiverDog]

Wow! That's incredible. Our highest ranked player is Bobby at #10, and everyone else is middle of the pack. DK and Tyler are only 26th and 23rd? Wow. Never would have guessed our talent level really is this meh, even though our record indicates as much. How much of that is coaching? That's the real question. One thing is for sure though. Homeritis. Still a thing.

Our highest ranked player is Witherspoon at #8.

You have to weigh the rankings according to the number of players meeting the minimum number of snaps. For example, there's only 39 centers in the rankings, so Evan Brown's #31 is pretty bad. On the other hand, Leonard Williams similar ranking of #28 is actually pretty fair as there's 126 defensive tackles that are ranked.

In that light, Lockett and Metcalf aren't ranked all that poorly as there's 119 wide receivers, which would put them in the upper 20% of their position. They're not performing quite to what they're being paid, but they're not dog meat either.

The position that's not earning their paychecks is our safeties.

 

[hawkfan68]

This confirms my eye test. Safeties are subpar in performance but the one safety that has been here the longest is the worst of them - Diggs. Talk about someone who got their money and now isn't performing to that level. I know most complain about Adams but he is far ahead of Diggs in the rankings.

 

[flv2]

Seems fair. Decent players, but no difference makers.

 

[Ozzy]

I know this will make people mad but there is no way Bobby is 10. He has been getting picked on week after week over the middle. @JPatera76 was right about the safeties. I can't remember who kept arguing with him that he was a hater but he was spot on, they've been bad. Adams isn't even a starting level safety either at 47.

I think we've overplayed the fact that Seattle has drafted so much better than they did for about a 6 year stretch. John/Pete haven't been good enough in that regard for a long, long time even if the past couple of have been an improvement.

One premier player in Witherspoon and that's it.

 

[RiverDog]

I know this will make people mad but there is no way Bobby is 10. He has been getting picked on week after week over the middle.

There are some things that don't meet the eye test. I didn't list the entire QB ranking, but they have Josh Allen, with his league leading 13 interceptions playing for a team that is a disappointing 6-6 scratching for a wild card ranked #2 while Jalen Hurts, sporting the best W/L record in the league is ranked all the way down at #13. I don't think they're putting enough weight on the team's performance as it relates to their QB rankings.

But for the most part, IMO the rankings are close to our perception and what many of us have commented about. Our QB is middle of the road. Our safeties stink. Witherspoon is a sensation. Our running backs are good but not great. Same with our WR's. Our OL sucks.

 

[WarHawks]

I know this will make people mad but there is no way Bobby is 10. He has been getting picked on week after week over the middle. @JPatera76 was right about the safeties. I can't remember who kept arguing with him that he was a hater but he was spot on, they've been bad. Adams isn't even a starting level safety either at 47.

I think we've overplayed the fact that Seattle has drafted so much better than they did for about a 6 year stretch. John/Pete haven't been good enough in that regard for a long, long time even if the past couple of have been an improvement.

One premier player in Witherspoon and that's it.

Not surprising though, considering we were usually picking near the bottom of the first, or trading back. This is the [logical] end result.

 

[renofox]

I know this will make people mad but there is no way Bobby is 10. He has been getting picked on week after week over the middle. @JPatera76 was right about the safeties. I can't remember who kept arguing with him that he was a hater but he was spot on, they've been bad. Adams isn't even a starting level safety either at 47.

I think we've overplayed the fact that Seattle has drafted so much better than they did for about a 6 year stretch. John/Pete haven't been good enough in that regard for a long, long time even if the past couple of have been an improvement.

One premier player in Witherspoon and that's it.

PFF ranks players in 4 or 5 categories then rolls all of them together to get the overall. Last I looked, Wagner easy at or near #1 in run defense and tackling and near the top in everything else (including pass rush) but pass coverage, where he was near the bottom.

Tracks with what I've seen. But they're only weighing the liability in his game (inability to do anything ar all in pass coverage) as a small percentage.

In the real world, that liability is so bad that it makes him unsuitable for the position.

One reason why PFF grades must always be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[bileever]

@RiverDog, thanks for posting. I think that a team needs multiple players who are one of the top players at their position to be a good team. We don't have that, especially on defense.

To add to your list, here is where these back ups would fall in the PFF rankings if they had the minimum snap counts to qualify: Michael Jackson #17 among CBs, Olu Oluwatimi #27, Devin Bush #43, Anthony Bradford #44, and Abe Lucas #60 (his ranking is due to not only just coming back from injury but that his only full game was against Micah Parsons and the Dallas D-line).

Also, take the PFF rankings with a grain of salt. They're better at evaluating some positions than others.

But overall, this team has not played up to expectations. The rookie class, with the exception of Witherspoon, hasn't shined as we had hoped. JSN has not been the next Cooper Kupp, and Derick Hall hasn't been much of anything. At least with getting Abe Lucas and Charles Cross back, the offense was able to show what it's capable of. I'm just not sure this defense is capable of being better.

 

[Ozzy]

PFF ranks players in 4 or 5 categories then rolls all of them together to get the overall. Last I looked, Wagner easy at or near #1 in run defense and tackling and near the top in everything else (including pass rush) but pass coverage, where he was near the bottom.

Tracks with what I've seen. But they're only weighing the liability in his game (inability to do anything ar all in pass coverage) as a small percentage.

In the real world, that liability is so bad that it makes him unsuitable for the position.

One reason why PFF grades must always be taken with a grain of salt.

Great post and couldn't agree more.

 

[Ozzy]

Not surprising though, considering we were usually picking near the bottom of the first, or trading back. This is the [logical] end result.

I don't like this argument and disagree its logical. You still have picks all the way through the draft and a lot of teams clean up in the 2nd and 3rd round. That argument essentially seems to hyperfocus on the first round and I would also argue Seattle has been closer to the middle of the first than the very bottom for years now too so its overstated in that regard too. There are many teams that have outdrafted Seattle all the way through the whole draft. We have two years that were downright terrible.

 

[Ozzy]

There are some things that don't meet the eye test. I didn't list the entire QB ranking, but they have Josh Allen, with his league leading 13 interceptions playing for a team that is a disappointing 6-6 scratching for a wild card ranked #2 while Jalen Hurts, sporting the best W/L record in the league is ranked all the way down at #13. I don't think they're putting enough weight on the team's performance as it relates to their QB rankings.

But for the most part, IMO the rankings are close to our perception and what many of us have commented about. Our QB is middle of the road. Our safeties stink. Witherspoon is a sensation. Our running backs are good but not great. Same with our WR's. Our OL sucks.

Yep valid points, when looking at it in totality it seems pretty fair really. Renofox brought up a good point about Wagner. He's really good in some areas so his overall score is good but his weakness in pass protection would probably bring him way down in the real world. Like you said though overall its probably pretty spot on with what we see for the Seahawks.

 

[LickMyNuts]

Thanks for putting this together. Coaching aside, the talent level on defense is poor. Our linebackers, safeties and defensive line are below average.

 

[RiverDog]

PFF ranks players in 4 or 5 categories then rolls all of them together to get the overall. Last I looked, Wagner easy at or near #1 in run defense and tackling and near the top in everything else (including pass rush) but pass coverage, where he was near the bottom.

Tracks with what I've seen. But they're only weighing the liability in his game (inability to do anything ar all in pass coverage) as a small percentage.

In the real world, that liability is so bad that it makes him unsuitable for the position.

One reason why PFF grades must always be taken with a grain of salt.

Absolutely true. Another example is our safeties. Both Jamal Adams, ranked 43rd, and Julian Love, ranked 45th, are ranked relatively low overall. But when you click on the pass rush category, suddenly Love is ranked 4th and Adams 5th.

But while their pass rush is ranked highly, neither one has gotten home and recorded a single sack or partial sack, which is obviously why there's such a discrepancy between their pass rush and overall rankings.

Another weakness is that they tend to consider all safeties the same even though there are distinct differences in how they are used, ie a strong safety vs. a free safety. The same is true with linebackers. Even quarterbacks are used differently and can't be accurately compared. Mathew Stafford vs. Lamar Jackson is a good example.

 

[RiverDog]

Thanks for putting this together. Coaching aside, the talent level on defense is poor. Our linebackers, safeties and defensive line are below average.

No sweat. And if there's other information anyone would like to see, please note it and I'll try to comply. Last week, one poster wanted to see more on the QB rankings, so I posted all of them from 1-35 or so.

Accuracy aside, they make good fodder for discussion.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Wow! That's incredible. Our highest ranked player is Bobby at #10, and everyone else is middle of the pack. DK and Tyler are only 26th and 23rd? Wow. Never would have guessed our talent level really is this meh, even though our record indicates as much. How much of that is coaching? That's the real question. One thing is for sure though. Homeritis. Still a thing.

Meh, it's just a ranking. A good read though.

 

[RiverDog]

Meh, it's just a ranking. A good read though.

Although it's not the holy grail, it's as good of an analysis of player performance and ranking as there is. It's a very difficult thing to quantify, and as most of us have remarked, for the most part, it meets the eye test.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Yes, we know brother. DK sucks. You've def. made it known.

 

[RiverDog]

Yes, we know brother. DK sucks. You've def. made it known.

Now where did you see me say that? Had you read my comments in this thread, you would have seen this one:

In that light, Lockett and Metcalf aren't ranked all that poorly (at #23 and #25 respectively) as there's 119 wide receivers, which would put them in the upper 20% of their position. They're not performing quite to what they're being paid, but they're not dog meat either.