Offensive Lines

All 32 lines graded on what they actually did, and what that is worth in fantasy points — which turns out to be a different answer for every position.

How many more points you get behind a good line

The eight best lines against the eight worst, within each season so no era drives the number, compared on the fantasy points per game of each team's best player at a position. Averaged across 21 seasons, half-PPR.

Line overall

Position	Best 8 lines	Worst 8 lines	Difference	Held up in	What it means
QB	17.1	13.8	+3.3 pts/g	21 of 21 seasons	a real edge — worth drafting for
RB	14.1	12	+2.1 pts/g	21 of 21 seasons	a real edge — worth drafting for
WR	13	11.3	+1.7 pts/g	21 of 21 seasons	a small, steady edge
TE	8.1	6.6	+1.5 pts/g	21 of 21 seasons	a small, steady edge

Pass protection

Position	Best 8 lines	Worst 8 lines	Difference	Held up in	What it means
QB	17.1	14	+3.1 pts/g	21 of 21 seasons	a real edge — worth drafting for
RB	13.8	12.2	+1.6 pts/g	21 of 21 seasons	a small, steady edge
WR	13.4	10.9	+2.5 pts/g	21 of 21 seasons	a real edge — worth drafting for
TE	8.1	6.4	+1.7 pts/g	21 of 21 seasons	a small, steady edge

Run blocking

Position	Best 8 lines	Worst 8 lines	Difference	Held up in	What it means
QB	16.5	14.8	+1.7 pts/g	21 of 21 seasons	a small, steady edge
RB	13.6	12.7	+0.9 pts/g	21 of 21 seasons	a small, steady edge
WR	11.8	12.3	-0.5 pts/g	21 of 21 seasons	slightly worse behind a good line
TE	7.6	7.4	+0.2 pts/g	21 of 21 seasons	barely moves the needle

It is pass protection that pays, not run blocking

Split the grade in two and the positions separate. Pass protection is worth +3.1 points a game to a quarterback, +2.5 to a receiver and +1.7 to a tight end — and it was positive in every one of the 21 seasons studied. Run blocking is worth only +0.9 to a running back, and it is -0.5 for receivers: a team that blocks well for the run runs more, and throws less.

Reading it the other way: choosing between two backs, the line's pass protection tells you more than its run blocking does.

And what it does to a player's breakout odds

A different question. Above is how many points the best player on a good-line team scores; this is whether a player who has not broken out yet is more likely to, measured on the line he played behind the season before.

QBTop-10 pass protectionbooster

Behind a top-10 line31.6%

Behind everyone else17.1%

1.8× more likely to break out. 38 of 149 seasons met it.

RBTop-10 pass protectionbooster

Behind a top-10 line16.7%

Behind everyone else12.2%

1.4× more likely to break out. 216 of 699 seasons met it.

WRTop-10 pass protectioncontext only — scores nobody

Behind a top-10 line5%

Behind everyone else8.7%

The data does not support it — pre-breakout WRs broke out less often behind a good line. 418 of 1368 seasons met it.

TETop-10 pass protectionbooster

Behind a top-10 line13.4%

Behind everyone else8.2%

1.6× more likely to break out. 186 of 635 seasons met it.

Why the two disagree about receivers

Good pass protection is worth +2.5 points a game to the WR1 a team already has — but a receiver who has not broken out yet is less likely to break out there. Both are true. Offenses that protect well tend to already have an established No. 1 taking the targets, and a breakout has to come out of somebody's share. A good line is a fine place to own a receiver and a hard place for a new one to emerge.

The same question, asked of the preseason projection instead

Everything above measures a line by what it actually did that season. This runs the identical breakout-odds question against PFF's preseason pass- protection projection instead — so it only knows what was knowable before Week 1. Four seasons only (2021, then 2023–2025; 2022's preseason file isn't available), a much thinner sample than the 21 years above — read it as an early look, not a second confirmation of that study.

Position	Behind a top-10 projected line	Behind everyone else	Sample
QB	27.3%	16%	11 of 61 — small sample
RB	9.8%	11.4%	82 of 257
WR	6.5%	6.6%	153 of 488
TE	6.5%	5.8%	62 of 233

Only the quarterback shows real separation on a sample this size — 27.3% behind a top-10 projected line against 16% behind everyone else. Running backs, receivers and tight ends are close to a coin flip here, the opposite of how cleanly they separate in the measured study above. Never blended into that study, into a player's grade, or into any score on this site — shown here for the same reason every other thin-sample number on this site is shown rather than left out.

2026 projected line rankings forecast, not measurement

Everything above is measured. This section is a forecast — useful because it accounts for an offseason the tape cannot, and worth less because nobody has played a snap yet. It does not move any player's breakout grade.

Projections like them more than 2025 did

LAC▲ 24graded 30th in 2025 · projected 6th

PHI▲ 20graded 22nd in 2025 · projected 2nd

MIN▲ 17graded 29th in 2025 · projected 12th

NE▲ 14graded 27th in 2025 · projected 13th

LV▲ 11graded 32nd in 2025 · projected 21st

SEA▲ 8graded 19th in 2025 · projected 11th

Projections like them less than 2025 did

CIN▼ 19graded 5th in 2025 · projected 24th

WAS▼ 15graded 13th in 2025 · projected 28th

GB▼ 11graded 18th in 2025 · projected 29th

BAL▼ 11graded 15th in 2025 · projected 26th

DAL▼ 11graded 7th in 2025 · projected 18th

HOU▼ 10graded 20th in 2025 · projected 30th

Source: Consensus of PFF 2026 OL rankings + Sharp Football Analysis 2026 OL rankings. The rules engine reads the measured rank, never this one — a player's breakout grade is scored on the same column the historical hit rates were computed from.

All 32 lines 2025, measured

Click a column to sort. Grade 50 = league average. Pass and Run are the two halves; a line can be excellent at one and poor at the other. Every column carries the season it is from — the last one is the only forecast in the table.

Every line, ranked on one metric at a time

The scatter above needs both axes read together. This is one metric, sorted — pick the year and what to sort by.

LA64.7

CHI64

BUF61.6

TB60

CIN60

DEN59.7

DAL59.6

ATL58.7

IND58.2

PIT57.3

SF53.9

KC52.9

WAS52.5

CAR52.1

BAL52.1

DET52

NYG51.5

GB50.9

SEA49.1

HOU48.1

NO48

PHI46.9

JAX45.6

ARI45

NYJ44.5

TEN43.1

NE42.4

MIA41.2

MIN37.5

LAC35.7

CLE29.4

LV21.6


1	LA	64.7	1	8	3.69	19.40	18.06	2.81	8 ▼7
2	CHI	64	13	1	3.73	27.87	15.84	3.12	5
3	BUF	61.6	12	3	6.75	20.00	16.27	2.90	4
4	TB	60	5	13	5.90	17.20	18.86	2.70	3
5	CIN	60	10	7	5.21	22.34	12.60	2.25	24 ▼19
6	DEN	59.7	3	16	3.40	20.88	19.52	2.59	1 ▲5
7	DAL	59.6	9	9	4.53	23.56	15.91	2.56	18 ▼11
8	ATL	58.7	4	15	4.44	20.37	18.45	2.52	10
9	IND	58.2	7	14	4.79	21.21	16.97	2.43	7
10	PIT	57.3	2	21	5.23	16.36	18.92	2.29	17 ▼7
11	SF	53.9	6	23	4.29	21.25	20.37	2.35	9
12	KC	52.9	23	5	6.82	28.77	14.88	2.62	14
13	WAS	52.5	15	18	6.51	22.17	19.01	2.51	28 ▼15
14	CAR	52.1	21	10	5.98	27.18	16.70	2.49	19 ▼5
15	BAL	52.1	26	2	8.95	27.25	17.95	3.14	26 ▼11
16	DET	52	20	12	6.25	26.46	19.91	2.84	16
17	NYG	51.5	25	4	7.66	29.47	15.07	2.71	22 ▼5
18	GB	50.9	14	20	5.23	24.54	17.89	2.20	29 ▼11
19	SEA	49.1	11	28	5.19	22.66	23.08	2.48	11 ▲8
20	HOU	48.1	8	29	4.78	22.16	21.47	2.10	30 ▼10
21	NO	48	17	24	7.30	21.32	17.93	2.06	15 ▲6
22	PHI	46.9	16	27	6.09	23.34	24.06	2.60	2 ▲20
23	JAX	45.6	18	26	6.35	25.04	20.25	2.22	23
24	ARI	45	24	17	7.89	28.20	19.67	2.59	25
25	NYJ	44.5	30	6	9.79	31.17	17.98	2.90	20 ▲5
26	TEN	43.1	28	11	8.67	31.75	17.20	2.54	31 ▼5
27	NE	42.4	22	25	7.82	26.10	22.87	2.56	13 ▲14
28	MIA	41.2	19	30	7.13	24.22	22.92	2.20	27
29	MIN	37.5	31	19	10.43	30.37	19.02	2.44	12 ▲17
30	LAC	35.7	32	22	8.81	34.27	21.89	2.61	6 ▲24
31	CLE	29.4	29	31	7.96	34.05	21.14	1.81	32
32	LV	21.6	27	32	10.67	26.41	26.56	1.63	21 ▲11