Derek McDonald leads Syracuse in pressuring the QB. Why does PFF grade him so low?

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Derek McDonald said he isn’t familiar with Pro Football Focus, a sports analytics company that gives performance grades to professional and college football players. McDonald, Syracuse’s starting weakside linebacker, said he doesn’t completely understand PFF’s grades.

“I don’t look at that stuff too much,” McDonald said. “I think it’s kind of weird how they take metrics and stuff like that. It doesn’t really make too much sense sometimes.”

After redshirting in 2021 and serving as a backup in 2022, McDonald emerged as a starter for SU this season. According to PFF, McDonald leads the Orange in quarterback pressures through seven games with 17. Yet, PFF lists him at a 56.4 overall defensive grade, which is one of the worst marks among qualified defenders (at least 20% of snaps) on Syracuse.

McDonald admitted he needs to work on getting to the quarterback more often. But, the grade is a stark difference between the value McDonald’s teammates and past coaches have placed on the linebacker.

British football fan Neil Hornsby launched Pro Football Focus in 2007, giving grades for every player in each specific aspect of the game. In 2014, NBC sports commentator and former NFL player Cris Collinsworth bought a majority interest in the service, constantly referencing it on Sunday Night Football.

According to its website, PFF employs over 600 analysts for both the professional and college level. One of those analysts is Max Chadwick. After graduating from SU in 2021, Chadwick joined PFF as a college football analyst and member of its social media team.

Chadwick was specifically impressed that PFF provides offensive linemen grades for both pass blocking and run blocking. Overall, each player is given a grade of negative to positive in 0.5 increments on a given play. Zero is the average or “expected” grade.

“Our motto was (to) recreate every single player on every single game, and on every single play in every single game,” Chadwick said.

Every week during the season, Chadwick writes about the highest graded college football player from each position. He keeps track of how players at his alma mater are graded. But more specifically, he knows why certain players like McDonald are graded the way they are.

When it comes to pass rushers like McDonald, Chadwick said the stat he prefers to use is pass rush win rate. McDonald’s pass rush win rate is 6.7%, which ranks 36th out of the 55 qualified edge rushers in the Atlantic Coast Conference. As for why McDonald leads the Orange in quarterback pressures, Chadwick said McDonald was unguarded on 16-of-17 of his overall pressures. He said McDonald leads Syracuse in missed tackles on running plays (six).

McDonald’s one sack against Western Michigan is a prime example of Chadwick’s analysis. With 51 seconds remaining in the first half, the Orange stacked the box with six defenders. McDonald lurked on the far right side of the defensive line before sprinting right toward opposing quarterback Jack Salopek.

There were no offensive linemen attempting to cover McDonald, who took advantage of the opening for his first solo sack of 2023. McDonald acknowledged that his 225-to-230 pound frame hinders his chances against 300-pound offensive linemen. He said the size discrepancy forces him to use his quickness to beat offensive linemen in one-on-one matchups.

“So obviously, it’s a bigger person I’m going up against so I have to be smart about how I do it,” McDonald said. “I gotta be fast, I got to attack half a man.”

At the Marist School (Ga.), McDonald played at defensive end. His head coach Alan Chadwick (no relation to Max Chadwick) used to drop McDonald into coverage and while creating pressure off the edge because he was so athletic. Alan said McDonald could make all kinds of plays like tipping passes, getting tackles for losses, sacks, quarterback hurries and blocking kicks.

Alan said Marist has a coach dedicated to breaking down sets, usage rates of different formations and on-field player locations. But when it comes to evaluating players, Alan uses a combination of analytics and his own observations. He said McDonald always performed well.

“When you see stats on a particular individual, and they pop off the page, you put the eye test to them to kind of confirm that,” Alan said. “But the other part of that is, are they building up stats against a very poor football team or an opponent? Are they doing it against better people?”

But as Chadwick said himself, PFF is not perfect. The website has garnered detractors and criticism among the football community, including SU’s head coach. Dino Babers said McDonald never gets his due and when he was informed of the linebacker’s grade, he scoffed and shook his head.

“Believe the coach, don’t believe the grade on this one,” Babers said.

Chadwick has heard this criticism before and pushed against the notion that PFF analysts don’t have the credentials to grade certain players. According to PFF’s website, its employees include former NFL players and under 10 percent of analysts are trained to the level that they can grade plays. But Chadwick said McDonald brings more value to the Orange than the grade indicates, despite his inconsistency.

“I still think (McDonald’s) a very, very good player for Syracuse’s defense,” Chadwick said. “So yeah, he definitely has an impact.”