PFF grades for every Notre Dame player on offense in all 12 games
With the 2023 Notre Dame football regular season in the books, it’s time to take a look at season-long Pro Football Focus grades for the Fighting Irish offense. The names at the top of the list shouldn’t surprise you.
PFF gives every player a grade of -2 to +2 in increments of 0.5 for every play. A “0” is average or expected. Each position has its own grading rubric. The plus-minus grades are converted to a 0-100 scale.
Grades in the upper 90s are next to impossible. Grades in the lower 90s are elite. Grades in the 80s are elite to very good. Grades in the 70s are very good to good. Grades in the 60s are good to average. Grades in the 50s are average to below average. Grades in the 40s and below are bad. For reference, LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels leads all FBS QBs with a season-long grade of 94.6.
The following chart is sorted in order of overall offense grade. It includes all 31 Notre Dame players who logged at least 20 offensive snaps. The chart goes to player No. 29 because there were two ties.
Season-long PFF grades for every Notre Dame player on offense
RankPlayerSnapsOverall Offense GradePass GradePass Blocking GradeRun GradeRun Blocking Grade1RB Audric Estimé38894.272.360.394.060.02LT Joe Alt71391.259.292.2–87.73QB Steve Angeli7488.188.1–60.060.04WR Jordan Faison11281.179.6–67.663.25TE Mitchell Evans42580.283.667.463.359.26QB Sam Hartman67878.578.8–57.360.17RB Jadarian Price8878.274.956.977.757.78OT Aamil Wagner4676.0–29.7–82.29WR Chris Tyree27675.276.8–45.366.410TE Cooper Flanagan11973.774.545.2–68.911RB Jeremiyah Love12672.858.244.774.754.012RT Blake Fisher71071.5–72.5–69.613C Ashton Craig17770.6–66.8–68.413WR Jayden Thomas27270.669.864.463.263.614WR Deion Colzie5170.169.3––62.515WR Jaden Greathouse25968.469.0–57.573.416WR Rico Flores Jr.40467.766.467.8–74.417RB Gi’Bran Payne14166.567.035.767.858.918WR Braylon James2265.664.7––62.219LG Pat Coogan70865.0–61.5–64.820RG Billy Schrauth19664.9–60.2–64.620WR Matt Salerno4264.969.7––58.221RG Rocco Spindler55964.1–65.6–62.922C Zeke Correll55861.7–78.0–58.723WR Tobias Merriweather37860.460.0––66.324TE Holden Staes36960.270.637.7–42.325TE Davis Sherwood9759.061.168.3–55.826RB Devyn Ford4958.968.39.457.261.427TE Eli Raridon14954.268.371.3–45.728OL Andrew Kristofic6145.8–64.4–44.529OT Tosh Baker5739.759.843.8–40.6
Blue & Gold takeaways
• Estimé was No. 2 in the FBS among running backs and Alt was No. 1 among tackles. They were two of the best at what they do in the entire country.
• Despite throwing his first career interception in the regular season finale at Stanford, Angeli was really good in 74 snaps this season. If Notre Dame gets Duke quarterback Riley Leonard from the portal, it’ll be interesting to see what Angeli does. He could start at a lot of programs as a junior.
• Faison placed fourth on the list. His 112 snaps is a fairly large sample size. The lacrosse player can play a little ball too. How much he’s able to keep improving is intriguing to monitor.
• Evans was a stud in eight games before tearing his ACL. His loss certainly affected Notre Dame’s chances of beating Clemson and getting to 10 wins in the regular season.
• All in all, showing up at No. 6 on the chart isn’t too shabby for Hartman. There was some good and some bad, but there was definitely more of the former despite Notre Dame’s 9-3 record.
• The future of the Notre Dame running back room is found at No. 7 and 11 on the list.
• It could be Wagner’s turn to start at tackle with Alt and Fisher potentially both going to the NFL. Wagner only played 46 snaps, but look where Notre Dame’s other backup tackle appeared on the chart in 57 snaps. Dead last. Wagner is being groomed to be one of the Irish’s two bookends as soon as 2024.
• In Notre Dame’s laundry list of tight ends, it was the freshman, Flanagan, who came in second at the position behind Evans. He blew Staes’ and Raridon’s grades out of the water.
• There is a lump of four wide receivers in a row right in the middle of the chart. They were good at times and invisible at others. Injuries did not help in the cases of Thomas, Colzie and Greathouse. It’s a position that just needs to be better and more reliable for Notre Dame, as seen by the firing of position coach Chansi Stuckey.
• Three of Notre Dame’s five starting offensive linemen appeared in or near the bottom third of the chart. That’s just not good enough in South Bend. Correll is on the way out to cede his position to Craig, who nearly checked into the top third.
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