Welcome, Skoloholics! As you know, PFF is an analytics site, and we will be using their data, which is all behind a pay wall, so I won’t bother with a link. Their unique grading system grades each individual player on each individual play. It aggregates the plays then assigns each player an overall game grade in each category, along with an overall grade for the game. For offense, players are given grades for overall offense, a grade for pass (the passing game), pass blocking, rushing, and run blocking. As with any metric or analytics analysis, there will be flaws, so this, along with any other metric, should be used as a tool and not used as a “be-all-end-all” answer to how someone played.
How did the Vikings players fare in Saturday’s crazy last-second win according to PFF? I’ll list each player who played significant game time, their snap counts, and their PFF grade(s). The list will be sorted by each player’s overall offensive grade. I’ll post the defense shortly.
Vikings Offense Snap Count & PFF Grade(s)
| Player | Snap Count | Position | Offense | Pass | P Blocking | Rushing | R Blocking |
| Justin Jefferson | 72 | WR | 85.7 | 83.8 | 62.2 | ||
| T.J. Hockenson | 65 | TE | 84.7 | 87.3 | 73.6 | 61.6 | |
| Christian Darrisaw | 72 | LT | 83.0 | 83.3 | 79.6 | ||
| Ezra Cleveland | 72 | LG | 79.0 | 59.3 | 82.7 | ||
| Kirk Cousins | 72 | QB | 69.4 | 67.2 | 62.6 | 60.0 | |
| Brian O’Neill | 72 | RT | 66.8 | 83.0 | 47.4 | ||
| Dalvin Cook | 57 | RB | 66.6 | 59.1 | 54.0 | 69.5 | |
| Ed Ingram | 72 | RG | 66.2 | 53.7 | 68.9 | ||
| K.J. Osbourne | 50 | WR | 60.2 | 59.9 | 59.0 | ||
| Austin Schlottman | 72 | C | 57.6 | 26.3 | 69.9 | ||
| Adam Thielen | 66 | WR | 46.0 | 45.9 | 66.2 | 60.4 |
Summary
One of the things that stood out to me was Schlottman’s horrendous pass blocking grade. I looked, and this is the exact same pass blocking grade he had in Denver last year, and just above what he graded the year before. He’s scored much higher in pass blocking in his other games this year, so let’s hope he can get his groove back before Sunday, if Bradbury is unable to return to action. Thielen did NOT have a great game, according to PFF, and that seems to jive with what we watched during the game. Thielen seems like age is catching up with him, so I expect to see him transition into more of a possession WR in the future, playing more of a WR3 slot role than a WR2 role. It’s time.
Sad to see Thielen fading, but it was inevitable. Hope he still has a few magic plays left for this post-season.
He can still be effective, but his days as a WR1 or even WR2 are gone. He still has strengths, mainly route running and pass catching ability, so use that. Use him as a possession WR, more of a slot guy, and he can have a couple more years of success in the NFL.
In my opinion.
One of my favorite players, will be a sad day when Adam is done. I fondly remember five predicting Thielen won’t ever be much more than WR5 and a special teams guy 😅
Be that as it may, he still can help the offense of utilized correctly, not sure KOC is seeing much value in him though.