Patriots have the best offense in the AFC according to company that grades every NFL snap

The New England Patriots have the third best offense through seven week in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus’ rating system.

“It hasn’t been as efficient and all-conquering as it has been in the past,” PFF writes, “but the Patriots offense has still been rolling in 2017, and been money when the game has been on the line and they have needed to pull something out of the fire. Tom Brady has been the best quarterback in the game once more, while their entire stable of running backs are grading positively. They are playing a slightly different style this season, but it is not much less effective than it was before despite the loss of Julian Edelman.”

The Patriots rank behind the Atlanta Falcons and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and are followed by the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Kansas City Chiefs. With the New Orleans Saints ranking sixth and the New York Jets ranking tenth, the Patriots have played five of the ten best offenses in the NFL in their first seven games.

The Carolina Panthers rank 20th and the Houston Texans rank 25th.

New England boasts an incredibly well-rounded offense, with QB Tom Brady (92.1 out of 100) and FB James Develin (78.5) ranking first in their position, TE Rob Gronkowski (86.4) ranking second, RG Shaq Mason (85.9) and C David Andrews (82.7) ranking third, and RB Dion Lewis (82.6) ranking seventh.

RB Mike Gillislee (14th), RT Marcus Cannon (15th), LG Joe Thuney (16th), and WR Brandin Cooks (23rd) all rank highly at their respective positions, but there are some clear weaknesses.

RB James White has seen his touches drop from 13 to 11 to 10 to 9 over the past four weeks and his playing time decrease from 61% to 47% to 43% to 31%, an almost perfect correlation with the recent rise of Dion Lewis. LT Nate Solder is the 47th ranked tackle in the NFL and has not been playing up to his usual standard, while PFF named TE Dwayne Allen the worst player on the Patriots offense.

In a surprise, WR Chris Hogan grades out poorly (52.0; 83rd for wide receivers). My perception is that Hogan has been clutch when the Patriots have called his number and that he’s been productive all over the field. He ranks 22nd in receiving yards (378) and 4th in touchdowns (5) on pace for a career season.

I’ll keep an eye out for this moving forward, but my gut says they’re a little hard on Hogan.

What do you think about these rankings?