Midseason PFF grades for every Notre Dame football player on defense
The Notre Dame defense is enjoying one heck of a year so far. That unit is a big reason why the Fighting Irish are hanging around the top 10 in the polls and have a 5-1 record at the halfway point of the season.
Pro Football Focus season-long grades give us a better indicator as to who’s playing well for the Notre Dame defense and who could stand to step up their games in the second half.
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, UCLA defensive end Laiatu Latu leads all FBS edge rushers with a season-long grade of 92.4.
The following chart is in order of overall defense grade. It only includes players who have logged at least five defensive snaps this season.
Midseason PFF grades for the Notre Dame defense
RankPlayerSnapsOverall Defense GradeRun Defense GradeTackling GradePass Rush GradeCoverage Grade1DT Howard Cross III27790.786.864.390.364.12LB Jack Kiser16782.488.487.671.464.83DT Rylie Mills24681.778.369.483.760.04LB Marist Liufau31578.873.939.862.282.65DE Javontae Jean-Baptiste25378.585.375.168.956.46DT Donovan Hinish6475.280.176.358.5–7CB Benjamin Morrison29973.861.438.752.177.78DT Aidan Keanaaina1673.272.971.958.5–9CB Ryan Barnes1372.661.573.5–71.710CB Christian Gray7372.372.480.2–70.311DE Joshua Burnham7172.174.864.167.460.012DT Gabriel Rubio4770.763.035.776.9–13CB Cam Hart28269.867.344.6–70.814CB Clarence Lewis9369.473.046.857.567.315DT Jason Onye8265.972.278.266.058.516DE Junior Tuihalamaka7365.866.979.459.062.317S Zavier Watts32965.563.549.065.365.117S DJ Brown26865.559.860.856.168.319LB Preston Zinter565.263.6––60.020DE Boubacar Traore965.165.6–57.6–21CB Jaden Mickey9964.568.334.2–62.722CB Chance Tucker1264.060.5––62.923LB JD Bertrand26363.856.352.973.863.524CB Micah Bell1163.361.6––61.725LB Jaiden Ausberry1562.861.379.259.362.726LB Drayk Bowen761.460.0–59.160.027CB Thomas Harper22661.276.881.566.055.828S Luke Talich660.860.0–60.029DL Brenan Vernon659.760.169.759.9–30S Adon Shuler1758.955.528.0–62.531DE Nana Osafo-Mensah12757.258.945.852.562.932DE Tyson Ford656.853.071.165.1–33S Ramon Henderson17155.955.750.765.655.134LB Jaylen Sneed10655.751.632.562.758.335DE Jordan Botelho23455.560.869.857.751.536S Marty Auer945.160.9––45.237S Antonio Carter II3739.256.783.960.041.6
Blue & Gold takeaways
• Cross III is a machine. The hype around him has never been higher than it is right now, but he’s been one of Notre Dame’s best defensive players since the very beginning of the 2022 season.
• Kiser’s tackling grade is always astounding. So is his run defense grade. His No. 1 on the team in both of those areas.
• Mills put together a really solid first half of the season. He’s tied with Kiser and Jean-Baptiste, who has also been excellent up front, on the Notre Dame roster in run stops per PFF. They have 11. Cross III has 14. Mills also has a pass-rush win percentage of 20.4, which is second on the team. Only Rubio’s 26.7 is better, and Mills has played far more snaps than Rubio.
• Let’s stick with pass-rush win percentage for a minute. Botelho’s is at 3.5. Notre Dame cannot afford to have its No. 1 Vyper, which is primarily a pass-rushing position, to have a win percentage so small. It’s the second-lowest on the team of anyone who has rushed the passer more than five times. Botelho is really, really struggling to get to the quarterback.
• Let’s give Liufau his due. He has the best coverage grade of any Notre Dame player. The only thing that’s holding him back is his tackling grade, and that seems to be an epidemic throughout the Notre Dame roster. Nine Notre Dame players have tackling grades below 50. Those are marks that show up in orange and red numbers on PFF’s chart. Not good.
• Morrison is one of those nine players with a sub-50 tackling grade. Like Liufau, that’s the only blemish on what is otherwise a nice list of grades. That said, his pass-rushing grade could be a bit better as well but that’s an Al Golden thing. The Notre Dame defensive coordinator should stop blitzing his best cover man in the secondary.
• A Notre Dame safety does not appear until a tie for 17th between Watts and Brown. Henderson is toward the bottom of the list and Carter II brings up the rear. Safety play needs to improve in the second half.
• Harper is on the lower end, but look at his tackling grade of 81.5. That’s the third-best mark on the team. That’s why he plays so much nickel.
• Sneed does not have a grade better than 62.7 in any of the five categories.
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