PFF midseason grades: Rams' best and worst performers from first half

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PFF midseason grades: Rams' best and worst performers from first half

Cameron DaSilva
November 10, 2021 1:46 pm PT

It was a successful first half of the season for the Rams, who got off to a 7-2 start and are just one game out of first place in the NFC West. Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald, Matthew Stafford and Jalen Ramsey have been four of the most important players thus far, but the Rams have also gotten impactful contributions out of lesser-known players.

Pro Football Focus has been grading players all season long and at the midway point, we have an idea of which players have stood out in a positive way and who has underperformed.


Below are the top five and bottom five players on offense and defense based on PFF’s grades, excluding those who haven’t played at least 100 snaps this season.

Top 5 offense
Cooper Kupp: 89.4
Andrew Whitworth: 81.8
Matthew Stafford: 78.8
Rob Havenstein: 77.3
Robert Woods: 75.7
There are really no surprises at the top of the offensive grades. Kupp is the No. 2 wide receiver in the NFL based on PFF’s grades, leading the league in receptions, yards and touchdown catches. He’s broken out in a huge way this year, benefitting massively from Matthew Stafford’s arrival.

Speaking of Stafford, he’s only PFF’s 15th-best quarterback with a grade of 78.8. He’s put together a terrific season so far, but PFF still isn’t very high on the Rams quarterback. Even still, he’s been one of the best quarterbacks in football and remains in the MVP hunt despite last week’s dud.

Whitworth and Havenstein have been studs at the tackle position all season, each ranking in the top 14 among qualified tackles in PFF’s grading. Whitworth has given up just seven pressures all year, while Havenstein has allowed 13.

Woods started off slow but has come on in recent weeks. He’s been rock solid as a run blocker all year and now that he’s getting some more opportunities as a receiver, he’s capitalizing and putting up solid numbers.


Bottom 5 offense
David Edwards: 65.1
Johnny Mundt: 64.7
Van Jefferson: 63.0
Tyler Higbee: 62.8
Sony Michel: 62.3
Edwards is the Rams’ lowest-graded offensive lineman this season but even his 65.1 grade is respectable. It’s only slightly behind Austin Corbett’s 69.9 grade, so the Rams have been steady across the offensive front.

Mundt is out for the year but before he went down, he was doing very little as a receiver. Where he excelled was in run blocking, earning a grade in that department of 71.0 – fourth-best on the entire team. Higbee hasn’t gotten much praise from PFF but he’s getting plenty of opportunities and running a ton of routes at tight end.

Van Jefferson’s three drops have hurt his overall grade but he’s been a good WR3 for Stafford behind Woods and Kupp.

Michel only has a pass-blocking grade of 53.1 despite his highlight-reel blitz pickups, and his rushing grade of 66.8 isn’t all that bad.