The PFF grades are in and, as usual, you’ll be in for a few surprises. The top defensive player won’t come as a surprise, but one of the five-lowest graded offensive players will.
Five-highest graded offensive players
There were 73 possible snaps, and the 49ers were thrown a couple of curveballs as Trent Williams had to leave for a few plays, as did Ben Garland. Richie James playing more than Trent Taylor, is a surprise, though Taylor received a red-zone target. Moving forward, we know the core of the offense will remain the same. The question is, who will replace Raheem Mostert if he goes down. Jerick McKinnon out-snapped JaMycal Hasty, but Hasty received the carries and was on the field to ice the game.
Mike McGlinchey 86.1
Laken Tomlinson 76.6
Trent Williams, 74.8.
When your top three graded players on offense are your lineman, it’s a good sign. The 49ers didn’t allow a sack, and only Kyle Juszczyk and Jimmy Garoppolo were charged with a QB hit. The offensive line had a clean sheet in pass protection against the team that led the league in sacks entering Week 6. Joe Staley was proud of his old teammate, and he had every right to be.
The 49ers averaged six yards per carry running behind Tomlinson. On the play where he was hurt, Williams steamrolled the defender.
Deebo Samuel, 74.3
Deebo had one carry that went for negative six yards. He had six “receptions” that went for 66 yards and a touchdown. Samuel had 96 yards after the catch, as well as four first downs, two missed tackles, and a critical game-sealing touch to end the game. Deebo’s “catches” came at five, four, four, four, eight, and five yards behind the line of scrimmage.
Raheem Mostert, 73.0
Mostert had two receptions for 11 yards and forced a missed tackle. On the ground, Mostert had 65 yards, but 37 of them came after contact. He ran as hard as I’ve seen him over the past two seasons. Hopefully, he doesn’t miss any time.
Five-lowest graded Niners
Brandon Aiyuk 59.1
JaMycal Hasty 56.6
Daniel Brunskill 54.3
Kyle Juszzyk 48.3
Ross Dwelley 40.7
After the game, the players and Kyle Shanahan spoke about how impressed they were with Brunskill.
Hasty grading as a 56.6 is...something.
I know you’re curious, so Garoppolo graded as a 66.0.
Top-five defensive grades
There weren’t many surprises from the snap counts on the defensive side of the ball. Out of 61 snaps, here’s how it looked:
Jason Verrett 94.0
Verrett has not allowed a pass to be completed over nine yards this season. Against the Rams, he broke up two passes, had an interception, and was active in the run game. It’s tough to play a better all-around game than Verrett did Sunday.
Jimmie Ward 74.0
Ward said he owed Verrett a steak dinner after his interception. Ward finished with three tackles, one stop, and didn’t allow a completion on two targets.
Arik Armstead 70.3
Armstead has been “Steady Eddie” this season. He didn’t have a sack or a QB hit but did have two stops in the run game.
Emmanuel Moseley 65.0
Moseley had two stops, allowed four of eight targets to be completed, and broke up two passes. He did have the 40-yard touchdown and a penalty, but having Moseley back on the field was big-time for the Niners defense.
Fred Warner 64.6
To the naked eye, Warner was outstanding. PFF gave him a 39.8 grade against the run, though. He had three stops and only allowed 21 yards on four receptions. I’m going to keep an eye on him when I re-watch the game to see if Warner played that poorly against the run.
Five-lowest graded 49ers
Jamar Taylor 50.6
Kevin Givens 49.5
Javon Kinlaw 47.9
Marcell Harris 30.3
Jaquiski Tartt 29.2
We’re six games in, and Kinlaw has yet to record a sack and only has two QB hits. He has to be better.
Harris struggled to fill in for Tartt against the run. Tartt’s coverage grade was 30.0. He got caught peeking in the backfield on one play. On the touchdown, there’s not much else he could do. It was a great throw by Jared Goff.