Pro Football Focus grades after 2 games

[northerncowboynation]

Granted, I tend to look at PFF rankings with skepticism because there is no consistency in how they grade, who does the grading, etc. There was an article on a Colts site that analyzed what PFF said about Quenton Nelson and pointed out the mistakes PFF made in their grades (for example, they apparently knocked Nelson for giving up a pressure but it wasn't his fault, the OT screwed up).

Nevertheless, here are our current rankings after two games:

OT - Smith (#25 OT)
OG - Williams (#24 OG)
C - Looney (#27 C)
OG - Martin (#13 OG)
OT - Collins (#55 OT)
TE - Jarwin (#55 TE)
TE - Swaim (U/R)
TB - Elliott (#38 HB)
QB - Prescott (#22 QB)
WR - Beasley (#22 WR)
WR - Hurns (#69 WR)
WR - Austin (U/R)
WR - Gallup (#105 WR)
WR - Thompson (#21 WR)
WR - Williams (U/R)

DE - Lawrence (#18 ED)
DT - Crawford (#96 ID)
DT - Woods (#55 ID)
DE - Charlton (#28 ED)
SLB - Wilson (U/R)
MLB - Smith (#33 LB)
WLB - Lee (#53 LB)
LB - LVE (#12 LB)
CB - Jones (#2 CB)
CB - Awuzie (#42 CB)
CB - Brown (#14 CB)
FS - Heath (#64 S)
SS - Frazier (#54 S)

Some make sense. Some are laughable. That's all I have to say.

That's exactly how I would rate them.... insert eye roll here

 

[northerncowboynation]

and you are wrong. I have never bought into this idea that garbage is better than nothing.

One man's garbage is another mans meal

 

[MichaelWinicki]

and you are wrong. I have never bought into this idea that garbage is better than nothing.

I'm looking forward to seeing your "system of perfection."

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I'll offer a system here.

Take their grade as is: i.e. 77.2 Call it a raw grade or raw PPG per play grade.
77.2 x 2 x .% of snaps. = EPG. Effective player grade.

Why?

Player A:
Current grade: 77.2
Plays 33% of snaps.

Player B:
Current grade: 74.8
Plays 80% of snaps.

Which player is having a better performance for his team? A bigger impact on games? Deserves more money?

In my system the grades become.
Player A:50.9
Player B:119.68

This is all simple math but at some point it should jive with real world stuff.
To master their grading a player should simple ask out when tired or on a bad match up to avoid bad plays.
That's not congruent with real football success.

If someone wanted to adjust grades using the metrics you suggest... I have no problem with that.

I'm sure there are entities that take the PFF numbers and do exactly that.

PFF is simply suppling the raw data and then letting whomever wants to interpret it a different way do so.

Over the course of the season guys that get fewer snaps do drop out of the top rankings, however after only two games unless those players have only received a few snaps they're still in there. Ross is averaging almost 20 snaps a game.