PFF's top RBs

[QuincyCarterEra]

Wow

 

[Crown Royal]

Never, because I can't pace myself. If I did it, I'd be way too much of a perfectionist about it, then burn out after about six months and piss off all my subscribers. I don't know how people like Sturm do what they do.

Interns, assistants and earning about half a mil a year with this being his actual day-job.

 

[CATCH17]

I wouldn’t trade our guy for any of them.

4th and 1 in OT and we give Zeke the ball and he finds a yard when there isn’t a yard there.

That’s why he’s special. He can make the big play and can make the small play.

 

[gimmesix]

The argument in the thread for that tweet is that Elliot's oline is doing the work.

Against eight-man fronts? Man, all of our lineman need to make the Pro Bowl.

 

[percyhoward]

Here's PFF's current top 15 RB. Not making this up.

1 Barkley
2 Chubb
3 Gordon
4 Carson
5 Kamara
6 Henry
7 Gore
8 Hunt
9 Lindsay
10 Gurley
11 McCaffrey
12 Mixon
13 Miller
14 Elliott
15 Michel

They rank Elliott 16th in rushing, 19th in protecting the ball, and 7th in blocking. Those are the subjective grades.

By the objective measures, he's 9th in yards after contact per attempt, 5th in avoided tackles on runs, 23rd in fumbles, and 8th in % of runs that went for 15+ yards.

 

[plasticman]

Thank you Pro Football Focus. Could you please rank the Cowboys D-line insultingly low? Pretty please?

 

[unionjack8]

People need to stop using PFF and watch the games with their eyes

 

[ItzKelz]

Not surprising. Both Zeke and Gurley have been playing hurt the last few weeks.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

The disrespect...

they are somewhat but not really accurate. they pay a bunch of people they trained to watch games and make call about a play and create stats based on their observations. they have no real way of knowing the responsibilities of the players in a given play outside of having access to the full play book from every team. is some of their stats valuable? yes. is all of it valuable? no....that's why teams are starting to have their own data analysts as I have seen some teams post jobs for that role (I actually applied for one )

 

[pupulehaole]

PFF is people who have never played football grading people who play football.

 

[northerncowboynation]

The disrespect...

Love the way PFF takes different RB's or any player, on different teams, with different O-lines, different coaches, different play calling and different opponents then make all the conditions and variables equal by neglecting the variables. Real researchers/statisticians would look at that and say, pfft to PFF. Any researcher worth their salt knows that accurate stats depends on controlling the variables so that the only thing being evaluated is the subject, in this case the RB, under the same conditions. Comparing Zeke to Rod Smith after 200 carries would be reasonably accurate.

Yes we love stats but please, accurate stats would be great. Here's a stat for ya, Jerry said any coach would be successful with this team, that's hyperbole, in other words exaggeration. Also hyperbole that any RB would be great running behind the blocks of our great iron curtain O-line.

PFFT TO PFF

 

[Carson]

Here's PFF's current top 15 RB. Not making this up.

1 Barkley
2 Chubb
3 Gordon
4 Carson
5 Kamara
6 Henry
7 Gore
8 Hunt
9 Lindsay
10 Gurley
11 McCaffrey
12 Mixon
13 Miller
14 Elliott
15 Michel

They rank Elliott 16th in rushing, 19th in protecting the ball, and 7th in blocking. Those are the subjective grades.

By the objective measures, he's 9th in yards after contact per attempt, 5th in avoided tackles on runs, 23rd in fumbles, and 8th in % of runs that went for 15+ yards.

1a Kamara
1b Elliott
1c Barkley
1d Gurley

Solved it

 

[Risen Star]

Yep. Put that in your memory bank. They are telling you Chris Carson is a better RB this year than Ezekiel Elliott.

Remember it and never again use PFF grades as if they have any worth.

 

[CCBoy]

Never, because I can't pace myself. If I did it, I'd be way too much of a perfectionist about it, then burn out after about six months and piss off all my subscribers. I don't know how people like Sturm do what they do.

Sturm is a quality journalist as well...

 

[percyhoward]

Sturm is a quality journalist as well...

He is. And I've done some pretty decent writing when I was inspired, I just wouldn't be able to sustain a high level. @Plankton is as good a sportswriter as there is right now. It's becoming a lost art.

 

[CCBoy]

Here's PFF's current top 15 RB. Not making this up.

1 Barkley
2 Chubb
3 Gordon
4 Carson
5 Kamara
6 Henry
7 Gore
8 Hunt
9 Lindsay
10 Gurley
11 McCaffrey
12 Mixon
13 Miller
14 Elliott
15 Michel

They rank Elliott 16th in rushing, 19th in protecting the ball, and 7th in blocking. Those are the subjective grades.

By the objective measures, he's 9th in yards after contact per attempt, 5th in avoided tackles on runs, 23rd in fumbles, and 8th in % of runs that went for 15+ yards.

(chuckling to self)

 

[CCBoy]

He is. And I've done some pretty decent writing when I was inspired, I just wouldn't be able to sustain a high level. @Plankton is as good a sportswriter as there is right now. It's becoming a lost art.

A play by play of this quality can cause a fan to love following a team and it's games!!

 

[DCowboyz]

They lost me at Kareem Hunt @ #8.

 

[aikemirv]

Right lol. We love it when Byron and LVE are at the top....now it sucks when Zeke isn't top 5 lol.

Well Gurley is not there either so there is really no defense for them!

 

[jterrell]

Here's PFF's current top 15 RB. Not making this up.

1 Barkley
2 Chubb
3 Gordon
4 Carson
5 Kamara
6 Henry
7 Gore
8 Hunt
9 Lindsay
10 Gurley
11 McCaffrey
12 Mixon
13 Miller
14 Elliott
15 Michel

They rank Elliott 16th in rushing, 19th in protecting the ball, and 7th in blocking. Those are the subjective grades.

By the objective measures, he's 9th in yards after contact per attempt, 5th in avoided tackles on runs, 23rd in fumbles, and 8th in % of runs that went for 15+ yards.

Like you I'd drive myself crazy tweaking my grading until the top (eye test +/- per play) correlated at least loosely with the bottom(actual stats).
Data is king and knowing how to use that to make adjustments is so important.
But poor data and subjective data is utterly useless except in this advertising sense.
Like things Jerry Jones says, just making noise can be beneficial as a sales tool but any thoughtful data scientist would quit PFF in weeks if not days.