PFF grades and snap counts for the Giants’ victory over the Chargers

If I told you a month ago the New York Giants were going to win one of their first four games this season, I doubt many of you would have picked Game 4 against the Los Angeles Chargers. Yet, that’s what happened. It wasn’t a perfect performance by the Giants, but what it was, was a day when the Giants came up big with the game on the line, something that has been rare since 2023. Let’s see what the analysts at Pro Football Focus thought about individual player performances, along with who played and how much.

I had a request to show the entire offense’s grades when I write these pieces, so I’ll leave those here without comment, other than to point out that PFF didn’t think anyone on the offense played much better than average, and many played worse. We’ll discuss why in the individual position sections.

Let’s start at quarterback, where I’m sure many of you will be saying unprintable things about PFF’s view of Jaxson Dart’s performance (it’s going to be years before I stop typing “ck” instinctively instead of “x”):

Here is why it is important to understand what PFF grades are and are not. PFF grades are not about intangibles. They do not try to measure leadership, toughness, etc. They just try to assess specific plays: How well the quarterback threw the ball, how many difficult but accurate throws he made, how often he put the ball up for grabs where it could have been intercepted, etc. You can see that when Dart was kept clean, he passed reasonably well though not spectacularly (69.4, only 111 passing yards, 1 TD on a shovel pass), i.e., he didn’t make any wow passes, but neither did he almost get intercepted. Those passes were mostly short (5.9 ADOT), as we can see from his spray chart for the game:

Most of his passes were about 10 yards or less, he didn’t complete any beyond 20 yards, and he didn’t even use the middle or left parts of the field beyond 15 yards. Dart did however get an elite 89.4 rushing grade when kept clean, which mostly accounts for his 83.3 overall grade. He made no turnover-worthy plays, but neither did he have any big-time throws.

Under pressure was a different story. Dart was pressured 35.7% of the time according to PFF (32.1% according to NextGenStats). On 10 such dropbacks, he only passed 4 times, completing none of them. His time to throw under pressure was a whopping 4.17 s. Also, unlike most experienced QBs who are comfortable dealing with the blitz, Dart’s grade was noticeably lower when blitzed, and three of his five sacks came on plays he was blitzed, though his one TD shovel pass was against a blitz.

Pass blocking is sorted by pass block snaps to highlight the offensive line. Andrew Thomas (86.0), in his first full game, gave up no pressures, which is great news. Jon Runyan Jr. (87.3) joined him in having a clean stat line. John Michael Schmitz (68.1) only gave up one QB hit, but his one penalty lowered his grade. The worst offensive line performances were by Jermaine Eluemunor (64.1, two sacks and a hurry) and Greg Van Roten (57.9, two sacks), but overall that is not bad against a defense that is fourth in the NFL in sacks. It’s worth noting that the three tight ends did a pretty good job blocking as well.

Run blocking was a different story:

Only Van Roten (63.6) did an adequate job run blocking against an admittedly stout Chargers defensive line (second in the NFL in team run defense grade in PFF’s rankings). Thomas, Eluemunor, and JMS were slightly below average, and Runyan got an awful 39.6. Fortunately the Saints, the Giants’ next opponent, are middle of the pack in run defense, because with Malik Nabers now officially out with a torn ACL, the Giants are going to have to find a way to run the ball effectively if they are going to keep Dart upright.

To put a bow on that last point, here are the Giants’ receiving grades:

The tight ends were the only receivers to grade even slightly above average. Darius Slayton (69.8) did pretty well, and we know from the early Daniel Jones era and from the brief Tyrod Taylor era that he is still a good deep threat. Wan’Dale Robinson (57.9) is like the little girl with the curl – when he is good, as he was in Dallas, he can be very good, but in traffic where he has to take a hit, he doesn’t have the strength to hold onto the ball, as was the case in the end zone yesterday. PFF didn’t assign him a drop on that play that would have sealed the game, but neither can he be counted on to win those red zone battles.

Now the suddenly important running backs:

Cam Skattebo (70.2, 25 rushes for 79 yards) had another good game, with three missed tackles forced and one explosive (10+ yards) run. Devin Singletary (64.4, 7 rushes for 28 yards) also forced a missed tackle and ran well in my opinion. This is a good thing, because the Giants are going to need them.

First, the entire defense – quite a difference from the offense, with 3 elite grades and 6 above average grades. There is no doubt why the Giants won yesterday:

Now let’s look specifically at the pass rush:

The Giants pressured Justin Herbert an amazing 27 times collectively (i.e., there were probably multiple players pressuring him on certain plays). To put that number into perspective, PFF credited the Giants with 28 pressures of Tom Brady in their 2007 season Super Bowl win over the Patriots. Herbert was pressured on almost half his dropbacks (45.5% per PFF, 47.7% per NextGenStats). Herbert was only 5 of 18 for 49 yards on pressured throws – that’s how you beat a great quarterback.

Abdul Carter (92.1) led the way with an unreal eight pressures, including five hits on Herbert. Carter still doesn’t have an NFL sack, but I’m sure that when Herbert woke up this morning he expected to find Carter in his bed next to him. Yesterday was the answer to two questions: Why draft an edge defender No. 3 when you already have two good pass rushers, and why do you try to extend Kayvon Thibodeaux when you have Brian Burns and Carter?

Speaking of Burns, he was no slouch himself (72.7), with seven pressures including a sack and three hits. Kayvon Thibodeaux (66.1) never gets the love from PFF, but he had five pressures including a sack and two hurries. Dexter Lawrence (74.2) only had two hurries, but he will be trying out this week for Nabers’ WR1 role after intercepting Herbert on a blocked pass and almost taking it to the house.

Elsewhere on the IDL, it’s worth noting that third round pick Darius Alexander, whose snap count is gradually increasing, had his best pass rush showing yesterday (71.1 with a hurry). Roy Robertson-Harris (60.4) had a QB hit, and D.J. Davidson (55.0) had a hurry in only seven snaps.

Andru Phillips has been a frustrating player to watch this season. He played poorly in Washington, well in Dallas, and then terribly last week against Kansas City. Yesterday we got good – no, great – Dru Phillips (91.8). He gave up only two short receptions in seven targets for a 0.0 passer rating. he had 3 pass breakups, and an interceptions. The Giants are going to need his aggressive play (the good kind, anyway) going forward.

Tyler Nubin is a different story. His coverage grade was a good 77.1, with five receptions in 6six targets but for only 26 yards. However if you look back at the overall defense grade chart, he graded 35.4 in run defense and 36.8 in tackling. He had 4 tackles but two more missed tackles; his missed tackle rate for the season is an awful 29.6%. Nubin is one of the culprits in the Giants seventh-worst PFF team run defense grade. He is continually taking poor angles to the ball and allowing big gains to the outside. He was a ballhawk at Minnesota but hasn’t had even one NFL interception yet and has had only one pass breakup thus far.

The other coverage grades were either average or below average. Of note in the secondary were Paulson Adebo (61.4), Deonte Banks (62.9, but the culprit on the Quentin Johnston TD), Cor’Dale Flott (62.2, but 5 of 5 completions for 56 yards), Jevon Holland (54.6 but only one completion for 9 yards), and Dane Belton (44.5, 1 completion for 19 yards, but he was late getting over to help on the Johnston TD). A reminder, PFF grades every play, not just the bad ones.

Bobby Okereke (49.7 coverage, 37.2 overall) had his worst game of the season. He is just not the player that he was in Wink Martindale’s defense. On the other hand, Darius Muasau (65.6 coverage, 78.7 overall) had his best game of the year, including a QB hit and a hurry, four tackles and one assist with no missed tackles. His PFF grade has gone from 30.0 to 64.4 to 78.7 in the three games he’s played this season.