Do you believe that Pro Football Focus is any good at grading players?

[K9Texan]

I'm not qualified to say. As an Ohio State fan I always enjoy reading the grades players received after each game. There is no way for the average fan to truly know how well ALL of the individual players played.

For instance, a former Ohio State coach created his own podcast and he obtains game videos and breaks them down for fans and essentially grades the players' performances. For a rabid fan, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Does anyone do that for K.C. games?

Anyway, PFF DOES and so my question is, again, do you believe they're any good at it?

[KCrockaholic]

Their grades are pretty irrelevant but they do track some specific in depth statistics that are actually very useful for putting together a strong narrative about a player.

[smithandrew051]

I think their OL and DL grades are typically decent. Those are pretty straight forward to grade.

Their QB and skill position or back 7 grades are mostly useless. Those positions are just way too subjective.

QB especially. Unless you can sit down with the QB and Coach to discuss the play call and all that, you can never get the full context.

Also, a guy like Mahomes can get easy throws because he’s Mahomes. Teams have to respect everything he can do, which occasionally creates busts in the defense. How do you grade that?

[K9Texan]

Originally Posted by smithandrew051

I think their OL and DL grades are typically decent. Those are pretty straight forward to grade.

Their QB and skill position or back 7 grades are mostly useless. Those positions are just way too subjective.

QB especially. Unless you can sit down with the QB and Coach to discuss the play call and all that, you can never get the full context.

Also, a guy like Mahomes can get easy throws because he’s Mahomes. Teams have to respect everything he can do, which occasionally creates busts in the defense. How do you grade that?

Makes sense.

[K9Texan]

PFF provides an explanation but I seriously doubt that their grades would match the grades that NFL teams give after watching their own film.

Player grades at Ohio State are given by assistants who know which offensive and defensive call was for every snap and so they can knowledgeably ascertain how each player executed their responsibility on every play. Obviously, PFF doesn't have that benefit.

Still, they give it a shot with the information they have. I enjoy their site; I just don't know how accurate are their grades.

[Megatron96]

I think PFF can provide some decent anaysis/info. Sometimes. Sometimes their takes are BS. But I also think that there's not one site or analyst that can adequately analyze the whole game or player most of the time. I think you have to gather analyses from as many credible analysts as you can, like Kurt Warner and JT O'Sullivan (even Jordan Palmer) for the QB/WR general offense stuff, Baldinger for defense, and so on. The idea is to find a consensus among several analysts. If that meshes with whatever PFF says, it's probably accurate. IF not, I tend to go with Kurt or JT or Baldy over PFF.

[K9Texan]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

I think PFF can provide some decent anaysis/info. Sometimes. Sometimes their takes are BS. But I also think that there's not one site or analyst that can adequately analyze the whole game or player most of the time. I think you have to gather analyses from as many credible analysts as you can, like Kurt Warner and JT O'Sullivan (even Jordan Palmer) for the QB/WR general offense stuff, Baldinger for defense, and so on. The idea is to find a consensus among several analysts. If that meshes with whatever PFF says, it's probably accurate. IF not, I tend to go with Kurt or JT or Baldy over PFF.

Well said. Completely agree.

[BryanBusby]

No. They don't know the assignments. They have the dumbest criteria imaginable and they don't even hide they are just an entertainment site.

They should not be taken seriously.

[Titty Meat]

Nope but Veach is

[K9Texan]

Originally Posted by Titty Meat

Nope but Veach is

Can you link them?

[ChiTown]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

I think PFF can provide some decent anaysis/info. Sometimes. Sometimes their takes are BS. But I also think that there's not one site or analyst that can adequately analyze the whole game or player most of the time. I think you have to gather analyses from as many credible analysts as you can, like Kurt Warner and JT O'Sullivan (even Jordan Palmer) for the QB/WR general offense stuff, Baldinger for defense, and so on. The idea is to find a consensus among several analysts. If that meshes with whatever PFF says, it's probably accurate. IF not, I tend to go with Kurt or JT or Baldy over PFF.

Baldy’s analysis is generally spot on. I love his film breakdown. PFF is complete shit, IMO.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by ChiTown

Baldy’s analysis is generally spot on. I love his film breakdown. PFF is complete shit, IMO.

He does a good breakdown. I just wish he would make it look a little more professional vs it looking like he recorded from the TV using his phone.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by ChiTown

Baldy’s analysis is generally spot on. I love his film breakdown. PFF is complete shit, IMO.

Yeah, I probably wasn't clear enough in my original post. All I meant was that PFF's grades were generally worthless, to the point that I rarely bother to remember them, but sometimes their analyses about how they arrived at the score/rating can be useful. Sometimes.

[Jewish Rabbi]

PFF is absolute shit unless they grade a KC Chiefs player well in which case then they’re spot on!!!

[ChiefsFanatic]

Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi

PFF is absolute shit unless they grade a KC Chiefs player well in which case then they’re spot on!!!

Yep. I think they make some dumbass mistakes, like grading lesser QBs ahead of Mahomes in a single game, a game that the Chiefs won by 10+, etc.

However, I also know that all 32 NFL teams pay for their services. Fans think their rankings are off because we think we know what a good football player, a bad football player, and a great football player look like, and when their rankings don't match our eyes, or even the stats, we assume they are idiots.

What we don't know, and probably never will, is what criteria the NFL teams have given, per team and as a league, to PFF as far as skills, traits, tendencies, etc. that they find desirable or not, and how much of that criteria goes into the player scores that the general public can see.

We have all probably had the Chiefs cut players we thought were better than others, or kept players we thought were trash, like keeping Ben Niemann on the team over almost anyone, and that just illustrates that maybe we don't always know exactly what the Chiefs value, or maybe we know what they value and we just don't agree with them.

In conclusion, it's all subjective, and PFF should feel lucky Veach decided to become an NFL GM.