• Philadelphia Eagles denying the deep ball: The Eagles defense has yielded negative results for opposing offenses attempting deep passes in 2024.
• The Detroit Lions’ excel at targeting their talented running backs: The Lions have had the most success targeting running backs on pass plays this season; however, it is not Jahmyr Gibbs, but David Montgomery who put up the best numbers if we look at the advanced metrics.
• 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Try PFF's best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2025's top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Going into what is often called “the best weekend of the NFL season,” we will watch arguably the best eight teams face each other in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.
These eight teams obviously do a lot of things very well; however, looking at the situation through an advanced stats lens, we examined what the remaining eight teams are the best at.
Kansas City Chiefs: Interior pass protection
The Kansas City Chiefs‘ interior offensive line – left guard Joe Thuney, center Creed Humphrey and right guard Trey Smith – has been arguably the best in the entire NFL over the last couple of seasons, and they proved themselves again in 2024.
Looking at how well the players playing at those positions played — for some weeks it includes Mike Caliendo instead of Thuney as the latter also played left tackle — shows a big gap between this group and the rest of the NFL. Excluding Week 18 when backups were playing, the Chiefs' interior offensive line did not allow a single sack. The Bills' interior offensive line is the only other grouping in the NFL that can say the same.
Overall, the Chiefs' interior offensive line recorded a 96.1 PFF pass-blocking efficiency rating score, which also led the entire NFL, allowing only 55 total pressures – 12 quarterback hits and 43 hurries – on 707 snaps. Finally, the cumulative PFF pass-blocking grade of players playing at those positions was 85.4, the highest in the NFL by a significant margin.
Houston Texans: Pass rush from the edge
The Houston Texans have an elite pass-rushing duo in edge rushers Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter. Anderson has earned an 87.4 PFF overall grade so far this season, 10th among edge defenders, while Hunter’s 83.2 PFF overall grade ranks 13th at the position.
The Texans are also one of just four teams – the Denver Broncos, Baltimore Ravens and Minnesota Vikings being the other three – to have had two different edge rushers record at least 10 sacks in the regular season, as Hunter finished with 11.5 while Anderson Jr. registered 11 sacks.
Overall, all Texans edge defenders sacked opposing quarterbacks 32 times — tied for the third most among all teams, but it's actually the highest figure among the remaining eight teams. Finally, Houston's 29.6% pass-rush win rate by its edge defenders ranked second to only the Cleveland Browns during the regular season.
Washington Commanders: Jayden Daniels in the red zone
Jayden Daniels burst onto the scene as a rookie and was one of just five quarterbacks to earn an elite PFF overall grade over 90.0, as his 90.1 PFF overall grade ranks fifth at the position so far this season. Daniels’ performance essentially brought the Commanders from a top-two draft pick last year to play in the divisional round of the playoffs this weekend.
The LSU product does many things well, but if there is one thing we can pinpoint in his rookie campaign, it is how good he has been in clutch situations, namely in the red zone. On plays from inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, Daniels has earned an 86.2 PFF overall grade this season, second to only Lamar Jackson.
Furthermore, his 90.1 PFF passing grade in the red zone also only trails Jackson. Daniels has thrown 21 touchdown passes in the red zone to only one interception, leading to a 102.8 passer rating in these situations, which ranks eighth among all quarterbacks in the NFL.
Detroit Lions: Running backs in the passing game
The Detroit Lions have many strengths, especially on the offensive side of the ball; however, one that might not get enough recognition is how dangerous their running backs are out of the backfield.
During the regular season, Detroit’s running backs earned 945 receiving yards, which led the NFL and were more than 50 more than the second-placed Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Furthermore, it is not just due to a high volume of plays, as Detroit backs have also been the most efficient. They averaged 1.89 yards per route run, the most in the NFL by a significant margin. In addition, their 10.8 receiving yards per reception ranked second to only Baltimore’s running backs.
Presumably, many thought of Jahmyr Gibbs after reading the above passage; however, teammate David Montgomery has been just as good as a receiver, if not better.
Admittedly, Montgomery ran fewer routes than Gibbs (156 to 319), but he still had a huge impact. Montgomery’s 2.21 receiving yards per route run led 64 qualifying running backs in the regular season, while Gibbs’s 1.62 ranked fourth in the league. Finally, Montgomery’s 91.0 PFF receiving grade was the highest among all running backs, while Gibbs’s 74.4 – hurt by a fumble and a drop while Montgomery had neither – ranked 12th at the position. Detroit was the only team to have two running backs in the 15 highest-graded players at the position, aside from Baltimore.
Philadelphia Eagles: Defense against deep passes
It would be tempting to highlight the Philadelphia offensive line once again — as we did here — however, the defense deserves to also get credit for its impressive play under defensive coordinator Vic Fangio this season.
Many individual performances could be highlighted, including this season’s breakout player Zack Baun, rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell or interior defender Jalen Carter. However, the most impressive is how well this unit has defended against the deep pass.
Attempting a deep throw – an attempt thrown more than 20 yards downfield – against any other defense has yielded a positive result, on average, so far this season. The second-best defense against deep passes was the New England Patriots, who allowed 0.08 EPA per play on these plays. However, opponents attempting a deep pass against the Eagles have actually lost EPA on average, as these plays resulted in -0.24 EPA per play. The gap between the Eagles and the Patriots (0.32 EPA per play) is equivalent to the gap between the Patriots and the 20th-ranked Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Philadelphia’s defense forced an incompletion on 31.1 percent of deep attempts, the best rate in the NFL, as they allowed four touchdowns but recorded 10 interceptions. As a result, they allowed a 43.1 passer rating on deep passes, which is the lowest among all defenses in the NFL.
Los Angeles Rams: Matthew Stafford using play-action
Partially due to the temporary absence of wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua and the injuries on the offensive line, quarterback Matthew Stafford did not play at his best in 2024. In fact, his 76.0 PFF overall grade ranks only 20th among quarterbacks so far this season.
Nevertheless, the Rams signal-caller has still been among the best in the league this season on play-action passes. Stafford completed 71.3% of his play-action pass attempts in the regular season for 1,444 passing yards, the fourth most among 44 qualifying quarterbacks.
Furthermore, he recorded nine touchdown passes on these plays but did not throw a single interception, leading to a 119.2 passer rating, fifth in the league.
In addition, Stafford earned a 91.5 PFF passing grade on these plays, which ranked third in the NFL and leads all eight quarterbacks of the teams that are still alive.
Buffalo Bills: Josh Allen not taking sacks
This Buffalo Bills revolve around Josh Allen, so they will go as far as Allen takes them. PFF’s third-highest-graded quarterback this season, Allen does many things well, which is also proven by the fact that his 94.5 PFF rushing grade leads all quarterbacks this season.
However, Allen's ability to avoid negative plays deserves to be highlighted. During the regular season, the Bills offensive line allowed the fourth-fewest pressures with 134; however, there were only four times in the regular season that Allen was sacked and it was charged to an offensive lineman — once again proving how a quarterback can own his sack rate. Furthermore, of the 176 times that Allen faced pressure (which includes pressures not charged to the offensive line as well), he was sacked on only 14 plays, or 8.0% of the time, the best in the NFL during the regular season.
Baltimore Ravens: Using the read option
The Baltimore Ravens adding Derrick Henry during the last offseason was one of the most intriguing moves of the summer; however, it also led to some question marks surrounding how Henry’s running style would mesh with Baltimore’s run-game philosophy.
After the last 19 weeks, it is probably fair to conclude that things turned out to be OK for the Ravens’ running game and Henry. The threat of quarterback Lamar Jackson running perfectly complements what Henry brings to the table and actually opens up wider rushing lanes for the former Tennessee Titans running back, which was showcased in Baltimore’s win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild-card round. This is especially evident on read-option runs when both Jackson and Henry could be the primary ball carrier. The Ravens ran read options on 171 plays so far this season, the second most in the NFL.
Among the 11 teams that have used read options at least 40 times, the Ravens rank second in yards per attempt (5.8), first down to touchdown rate (31.0 percent), but they lead the pack with 0.184 EPA per play on these runs.
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