Pro Football Focus has been a source of information and analytics for well over a decade now. PFF has built up a significant and legitimate presence in the National Football League. NBC’s Cris Collinsworth has a stake in the statistical database, and their numbers and grades are frequently highlighted in the NFL space.
Much like the “statistics war” in Major League Baseball, PFF and NFL players, talking heads, fans, and otherwise have clashed over the years. Whether it’s their methods, their grades, their rationale, or otherwise, it doesn’t always land. At least not online.
Count CBS Sports studio analyst and former three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt as anti-PFF.
Watt had some choice words for PFF on his way out of his spot on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Wednesday. The future Pro Football Hall of Famer went out with a parting shot to them.
“Let’s send you out on the right note. PFF sucks, have a great day everybody,” Watt said.
"I've literally sat in a meeting room with coaches and put the grades side by side..
A coaches grade and a PFF grade and they're not even close" ~ @JJWatt #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/NzqZy5JObb
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 17, 2024
Watt received applause from some of McAfee’s co-hosts after sending a loud and clear message to them. McAfee cleared the air after, saying that his comments weren’t planned. And Watt wasn’t done talking either after McAfee ‘warned’ Watt that Collinsworth would invite him out to Cincinnati, where PFF is headquartered.
“That’s fine, that’s fine. I shoot it straight, man. I’m shooting it like it is. Like, if they wanna act like they got some like… they come from a very high and mighty place,” Watt said. “They come and speak like they know everything that there is to know about football. And they tell all these players and these coaches that they’re so much smarter and that they’re so much better. And that they have these ways of figuring these things out that are superior.
“It’s just, as somebody who’s done it and who’s been in those trenches and who knows what it’s like and who knows what it’s like to have somebody telling you how good you’re doing. I mean, I’ve literally sat in a meeting room with coaches and put the grades side-by-side from a coaches’ grade and a PFF grade. I’ve done it, and it’s not even remotely close. So like, don’t sit there and tell me, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know how all this works.’ Like yeah, I do. I’ve literally done it. I’ve sat in that room and done it with coaches in the National Football League. So take your **** and shovel it somewhere else. I’m not dealing with it,” Watt said.
In some ways, these conflicts will always exist as new information comes in. For my money, I don’t want my players to be hyper-focused on their statistics. Schooling them on what they’re doing right/wrong is all about coaching anyway, no matter how much data they have. So as long as the message is conveyed right, it really shouldn’t have much of an effect.
PFF’s influence likely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, either. Whatever your opinion is on them, they’ve made their space. It’s not to say they aren’t guilty of having influence over the NFL and whatever troubles might come their way also, or that they’re not criticism-free. It might just depend on how ‘new-age’ you’re willing to be.
