Analyzing Patriots' PFF Grades After Week 1

Unsurprisingly, New England's offensive line had some of the top grades on the team.

Starting the season 1-0 is reason for optimism if you're the New England Patriots. But how well did the individual players on the team perform against the Miami Dolphins? 

PFF has rolled out their grades for the season opener, so let's check in and see how some of New England's top names performed in Week 1. 

Offensive PFF Grades:

• Shaq Mason (RG): 89.2
• Joe Thuney (LG): 82.3 
• David Andrews (C): 80.4
• Isaiah Wynn (LT): 78.4
• Michael Onwenu (OL): 75.4
• Jermaine Eluemunor: 75.2 

It's no surprise that New England's offensive line ranked at the top of the grading scale after one week. Mason had the second-best grade out of any guard in the league, Thuney (5th) and Andrews (5th) were top five at their respective positions, and Wynn managed to crack the top 10 at tackle, grading 10th best. 

The offensive line dominated at the line of scrimmage, which allowed Cam Newton (68.2 overall grade), J.J. Taylor (71.4), Sony Michel (69.3), Rex Burkhead (63.1) and James White (57.5) to combine for 271 rushing yards, which is the most of any team through one week of the regular season. 

Newton's overall grade was a bit of a surprise. Even though he was extremely efficient on the stat sheet, PFF did not grade his passing (70.7) or running (60.7) strongly.

Tight end Ryan Izzo finished with a 71.4 overall grade, with pass blocking as his strongest trait vs. Miami (72.6) and receiving and run blocking being his worst traits (67.8). Second-year wideout N'Keal Harry finished with a measly 57.6 overall grade, which came by way of poor run blocking (59.0) and receiving (57.2). Julian Edelman was unsurprisingly the strongest receiver last Sunday, gathering a 73.7 overall grade, which is nearly 20 points higher than Harry, who was the second-best graded receiver on the team. 

Defensive PFF Grades:

• Brandon Copeland (LB): 85.4
• Joejuan Williams (S): 85.1 
• J.C. Jackson (CB): 81.5
• Anfernee Jennings: 77.2
• Jonathan Jones (CB): 75.9
• Deatrich Wise Jr. (DE): 75.6

What should be noted about that the above grades is that both Copeland and Jennings did earn strong grades, however, those grade came from very small sample sizes. Copeland played eight defensive snaps, and Jennings nine. 

Second-year defensive back Joejuan Williams had a very strong showing in his debut as a safety, ranking 4th among all safeties in the NFL after Week 1. Jackson was the best defensive back on the field Sunday, grabbing an interception in the end zone late in the game, and coming away with the 4th best grade at cornerback in the league. 

Stephon Gilmore did not grade well according to PFF; he had a 52.8 overall grade (60th best among all cornerbacks), with his coverage grade being 50.9. Safety Adrian Phillips did not grade well overall either (63.3), which mostly had to do with his run defense grade over 16 snaps (34.2). However, he graded very well in coverage (79.7). 

Starting inside linebacker Ja'Whaun Bentley didn't overly impress in his season debut, grabbing a 69.2 overall grade by PFF, with his strongest category being coverage (68.0).

Due to PFF grades being available to subscribers only on PFF.com, we will only share a few of the grades they gave to Patriots players. To view all the grades, go to PFF.com and subscribe today.