It’s worse than that. 98% of the staff doing the grading doesn’t even know the basics of football or how it’s even played.
I honestly don’t think that’s how they do it. I know a guy who used to work there, and while he wasn’t a tape grader he implies that the outsourcing rumors were nonsense. Though he knew they were rampant.
Choose to Believe it or not. The facts have been substantiated many times. I actually know someone who was once close to the situation back when Schwartz was our HC and he is currently employed in the NCAA but was formerly employed in the NFL his job is verifying the analytics, stats, and the trends associated with them. We studied statistics together before he went on to London to study under Adrian Smith. Most in the NFL at that time laughed whenever someone quoted PFF. Go back and read some of the HC’s comments on PFF before the league took them on as a sponsor and nixed all the negative talk about them.
Yeah, I don’t really care. You’ve heard from whoever and will believe what you want, just like I have. That’s fine. I think there’s a legit place for PFF grades, and I don’t think it’s outsourced to India. Again, Slowik and Robinson have refuted that too. If you want to believe it, that’s fine.
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This is copied right from their site.
WHO IS DOING THE GRADING?
PFF employs over 600 full or part-time analysts, but less than 10% of analysts are trained to the level that they can grade plays. Only the top two to three percent of analysts are on the team of “senior analysts” in charge of finalizing each grade after review. Our graders have been training for months, and sometimes years, in order to learn, understand and show mastery of our process that includes our 300-page training manual and video playbook. We have analysts from all walks of life, including former players, coaches and scouts. We don’t care if you played.
So they have 600 analysts but less than 10% are trained to the level they can actually grade plays. So less than 60 employees of the 600 doing the grading are actually trained to a level they can honestly grade a play. 540 employees are part time employees (overseas in India) who are analyzing plays without much training at all.
Only the top 2-3% so roughly 12 people are senior analysts in charge of finalizing the grades.
Now imagine each NFL game runs approximately 150-160 plays a game. They then have to evaluate 22 players on each play and give them a grade, then multiply by 32 teams. There’s well over 100,000 evaluations being made each week. You have roughly 12 people who actually know football spot checking those 100,000 + final grades.
I always take pff scores with a huge grain of salt… but the best rated Lions do kinda meet the eye test this year for the most part.
Sanjid is learning. 
If there is one thing I know, its that I trust @stephenboyd57 eye test.
One way to look at this is who you will upgrade.
Alim and Hutch are the cornerstones.
DT - Benito Jones, BroMart, Levi, sometimes Cominsky
DE - Paschal, Houston, ROkwara, sometimes Cominsky
I purposely left off JOkwara, Harris, and Alualu - they’re likley not in our plans.
I think we have more talent - and younger guys who could break out, at DE.
So I’d go with DT.
Still another way to look at it is the FA crop. You know its not Brads MO to go all in on a Dexter Lawrence or Miles Garrett type. But If you draft one position and get a mid tier FA at the other, which mid-tier FA’s fit is best? I’m intrigued with Clowney on a one or two year deal as a mid-tier DE FA, while drafting the DT.
Alim is 6th for DT’s.
I think PFF has improved over the years.
It still has its warts, for sure.
Look at all pro’s vs. PFF grades, its pretty good.
Look at any one game and you scratch your head sometimes.
Weird. We’re 31st as a team in rushing stop rate wins.
We’re second as a team in defensive YPC against the run.
Which sort of implies one of these is a meaningless stat. I’d go with defense YPC as more meaningful.
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As I’ve said before…. We had 2 guys playing a heavy dose of snaps that shouldn’t be playing, period.
Benito- undrafted free agent in 2020, and earned 43 NFL snaps in 2 years prior to being claimed off waivers in 2022 by Detroit. He’s gotten nearly 1,000 snaps here despite very minimal production, a terrible pff rating both years, and clearly isn’t starter with the eyeball test either.
Kindle Vildor- he was drafted in the 5th round by the Bears in the 2020 draft. He had a few nice starts and some production for the Bears, but was waived prior to 2023 (still in his rookie contract) and picked up by the Titans on waivers, then waived again a few weeks after arriving there, and picked up by us.
Everyone is heavily speculating what Houston can or will be next year, but it’s his final year under contract, and it’s clear that AG/DC weren’t exactly settled on him playing a huge role at Edge in 2023. Many of us really like Comish, but the 2023 version performed a lot more like the 19’-22’ version in Atlanta. Getting 2 sacks and 8 hits in nearly 600 snaps just isn’t going to cut it for anything but a NT. Harris and Romeo each gave us a solid to really good season awhile ago, but neither were going be impact players, and we knew that before week one. The fact is there is no reason not to keep or consider Levi or Bro Mart as our depth, but that’s it for now. They are cheap at least…
- this won’t be popular but there is at least a chance Houston is kind of like Buggs- fans liked what they saw more than DC and AG- it would be amazing if he could give us 7-8 sacks on 300 snaps, but I’m not staking my season on it.
YPC is a team stat and the defense has given up the 4th most yards through the air on the season.
Easily DE for me.
DT is a much easier position to fill in lower rounds of the draft or moderate priced free agents.
Just imagine this defense with a serious pass rusher on the other side (like we had last year with Houston for the 2nd half of the season).
If we are looking at spending some money it would be on an under 30 pass rush DE. Our window is now.
We are a stout run defending team. Our pass rush is not consistent. This points to end as the greater need. But really I need a crystal ball to see Houston’s future to properly answer this question. A healthy Houston is a more gifted rusher than anyone we could draft with our available picks.
Here are my tiers… and frankly we need 3 new DL players in my opinion.
Snap Counts NFCC
Hutch- 58
McNeill- 46
Alualu- 43 (36 years old, signed off the couch)
Comish- 37
Paschal- 36
Benito- 13
Romeo- 12
Levi- 12
Houston- 11
That’s a 9 man game day rotation, and the thankfully Romeo, Benito, and Alualu are free agents. I would argue we need at least 3 new faces, and I believe we need to get Comish to restructure a bit. I can’t see paying him nearly 7M in cap hit for 2023, and playing him 55% of the snaps anymore.
Free agency-
Tier One: ELITE IMPACT
- Chris Jones
- D Hunter
- J Madubuike
- Josh Allen (Edge)
Tier Two: INSTANT IMPACT
- DJ Reader
- B Huff
- B Burns
Tier Three: Instant Rotational Impact
- AJ Epenesa
- G Stewart
- S Rankins
- D Armstrong
- J Clowney
- DJ Woonum
Draft Round Day 1-2
- B Murphy
- B Trice
- K Jenkins
- T Sweat
- Chop
- Isaac
- M Jackson
- Ruke
- D Carter
- D Robinson
- J Ellis
Which combo of 3?
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My instinct is that Arnold, Wiggins, Kool Aid, and Q will all be gone by the time we pick.
I’m very nervous if our intent for the 2024 CB1 is either a rookie or Sutton…. Not even nervous, I’d be furious!
I like Sneads game a lot, but if he already has multiple rings, and was never a top 3-4 player in KC, it might be hard for him to live up to a 15-16M per year (plus) deal.
- I love how consistent Fuller has player, even on bad teams, and amidst chaos. He is a true pro, hasn’t shown any decline, and I bet comes in around 13-14M for a 3 year deal that could function like a 2 year deal. I think Fuller, Sutton, a rookie on day 2, and our safety group is a hell of an upgrade.
Denico Autry- the mighty internet is suggesting a 1 yr 9M deal….
J Clowney- his juice the last 3 years rushing the passer, and constant ability to stop the run makes him an appealing veteran add who could pair ideally with Houston.
K Fuller- the major get.
Glasgow- reasonable extension
Jackson- team friendly deal but still solid money
How would you guys feel about this FA haul
Toads are highly effective 
Right.
We can agree our pass defense sucked, let’s not go there.
We were talking about run defense.
I was comparing a team stat to a team stat.
The ESPN team stat in the table that you shared showed the Lions as the 31st ranked team in run stop win rate. [Detroit Lions] 27% (31)
Which is very different than being 2nd in YPC allowed (3rd incl. playoffs) at 3.8 YPC. Also second in rushing yds/game at 91.1.
I’m suggesting that one of these team stats is very different than the other. And maybe “win rate” as a team (which is likely a weighted average of individual win rates) is not all that useful?
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Yea that doesn’t make any sense. No one can run on us but the Lions players suck against the run?
That’s like saying the Lions Oline can’t run block when Monty and Gibbs have 2000 yards and 23 TD’s. Makes zero sense.
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I like it, except, I’d scratch Autry’s 9M and Jackson’s 10M and go all in on a top level guard for the same money (or a little less (17M)) - Dotson or Hunt. Either one works, and Glasgow doesn’t care which side he plays on.
An elite O-line is our identity and I’d double down on that; Jackson has been inconsistent.
When was he a liability? I think that he gets the most snaps out of all our DTs because he isn’t. He’s not one of the 3 or 4 elite DTs in the league but 5 sacks and 6 TFLs is very good.