PFF continues to expand its data offerings ahead of the 2026 NFL season, and today brings some of the most exciting additions yet: Positively and negatively graded play rates for run blockers and run defenders.
Built from PFF’s play-by-play grades, these new data points provide a deeper look at the individual plays that contribute to a player’s overall grade. They give users another way to understand performance beyond the final grade, offering a level of insight into the grading process that only PFF can provide.
Positively and negatively graded play rates are available in Premium Stats Pro, alongside a whole host of new and exciting data points, tools and other features.
What Positively and Negatively Graded Play Rates Measure
PFF grades every player on each play on a scale from -2.0 to +2.0 in 0.5-point increments, with 0 representing the expected performance on a given play. Positively and negatively graded play rates measure the percentage of a player’s snaps that earn a grade above or below that baseline.
Positively graded play rate helps measure impact, showing how often a player delivers a block or other contribution above expectation that positively affects the play. On the other end of the spectrum, a low negatively graded play rate speaks more to stability and dependability and how consistently a player executes his assignment without a costly mistake.
One highlights high-end impact, while the other captures down-to-down consistency. Together, they provide two distinct and valuable ways to evaluate performance in the running game.
Run Blocking
Highest Positively Graded Play Rates
- Overall: G Chris Lindstrom, Atlanta Falcons (23.6%)
- Zone Plays: G Quenton Nelson, Indianapolis Colts (29.4%)
- Gap Plays: T Darnell Wright, Chicago Bears (24.1%)
Lindstrom leading the way overall comes as little surprise after he ranked third among all offensive linemen in run-blocking grade in 2025, at 91.7. Nelson separated himself on zone concepts, finishing 1.2 percentage points ahead of both Lindstrom and Creed Humphrey, while Wright led the way on gap concepts by an even wider margin, finishing 1.8 percentage points ahead of second-place Quinn Meinerz.
Lowest Negatively Graded Play Rates
- Overall: T Trent Williams, San Francisco 49ers (6.8%)
- Zone Plays: T Brian O'Neill, Minnesota Vikings (6.5%)
- Gap Plays: T Trent Williams, San Francisco 49ers (2.6%)
Trent Williams set the standard for avoiding mistakes in the running game, leading both the overall and gap rankings with the lowest negatively graded play rate. He also ranked just outside the top 10 on zone plays, posting a 9.4% negatively graded play rate. Brian O’Neill led all players in avoiding errors on zone concepts, with Laremy Tunsil of the Washington Commanders close behind.
MONTHLY PFF Plus NEW – PRICE DROP!$9.99
per month, billed monthly
Choose Monthly PFF+ monthly, $9.99 per month What you unlock MOST FLEXIBLE- PFF+ content and tools
- Articles, Fantasy tools, NFL and College tools, Betting
- Access to mock draft simulator
- Guru AI football chatbot insights with limited tokens
$99.99$8.33 /mo
per year, billed annually
Go Annual PFF+ annual, $99.99 per year What you unlock BEST VALUE- PFF+ content and tools
- Articles, Fantasy tools, NFL and College tools, Betting
- Access to mock draft simulator
- Guru AI football chatbot insights with limited tokens
- Premium Stats
- Micro transactions available for additional tokens
$199.99$16.67 /mo
per year, billed annually
Go Pro PFF Pro, $199.99 per year What you unlock ELITE- PFF+ content and tools
- Articles, Fantasy tools, NFL and College tools, Betting
- Access to mock draft simulator
- Guru AI with higher base token level
- Upgraded Premium Stats Pro
- Micro transactions available for additional tokens
- Revamped player and team pages
- Enhanced data and visualizations
- Improved Interface
- Programmatic data access for modeling (API/scrape)
Run Defense
For run defense, the calculation works the same way, just from the defensive perspective. As on the offensive side, the majority of plays receive a zero grade, but the league’s best run defenders separate themselves by avoiding mistakes while making positive plays at the highest rates.
Unlike the run-blocking data, these rates are not broken down by scheme. Instead, we’ll look at the top players at each position who logged at least 200 run-defense snaps.
Highest Positively Graded Play Rates
- DI Quinnen Williams, Dallas Cowboys (30.3%)
- EDGE DeMarcus Lawrence, Seattle Seahawks (23.3%)
- LB Cedric Gray, Tennessee Titans (18.6%)
- CB Kenny Moore II, Indianapolis Colts (7.0%)
- S Tykee Smith, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (11.9%)
The midseason trade for Quinnen Williams gave the Cowboys one of the NFL’s best defensive players against the run. Williams not only led all defenders in positively graded play rate against the run, but also finished 3.7 percentage points ahead of the next-closest player. DeMarcus Lawrence’s place atop the edge defender leaderboard comes as no surprise, with the Seahawks standout finishing 0.6 percentage points ahead of Maxx Crosby of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Cedric Gray led the way at linebacker, with Leo Chenal of the Kansas City Chiefs the only linebacker to finish within a percentage point of him. Kenny Moore II topped the cornerback rankings, where slot cornerbacks generally feature prominently given their proximity to the action on running plays. At safety, Tykee Smith finished ahead of Brian Branch, while Kyle Hamilton and Nick Cross tied for third.
Lowest Negative Graded Play Rates
- DI Cameron Heyward, Pittsburgh Steelers (9.1%)
- EDGE Myles Garrett, Cleveland Browns (2.5%)
- LB Derrick Barnes, Detroit Lions (5.0%)
- CB Sauce Gardner, Indianapolis Colts (0.4%)
- S Calen Bullock, Houston Texans (1.1%)
The stat passes the eyeball test with players such as Cameron Heyward and Myles Garrett leading their respective positions, and it’s a testament to Heyward that he has maintained this level of play so deep into his career. Devin Lloyd was the only linebacker to finish within a percentage point of Derrick Barnes, while Cedric Gray ranked just outside the top five after leading the position in positively graded play rate.
Sauce Gardner and Christian Benford were the only cornerbacks with a negatively graded play rate below 1.0%, while Calen Bullock led all safeties at 1.1%. We would expect defensive backs to have lower negatively graded play rates than defensive linemen given the nature of their respective roles in run defense.