Tag Archives: Pro Football Focus

Patrick Mahomes takes shot at PFF

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The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback took a well deserved shot at Pro Football Focus following Thursday’s win.

Patrick Mahomes appeared to have thrown an interception in the Chiefs win over the Chargers Thursday. The call was overturned and Kansas City retained possession, eventually scoring a touchdown to cut Los Angeles’ lead to just three. When asked about the play following the game Mahomes made sure to take a shot at Pro Football Focus.

The reason for Mahomes’ comment? PFF’s grading system had the Chiefs quarterback ranked eighth for his Week 1 performance despite deserving a much higher grade and rank. Anyone who watched Patrick Mahomes in Week 1 knew he was incredible and yet their system, which apparently does not have an algorithm, criticized him harshly.

This is not the first time that Pro Football Focus has been criticized for their grades and grading system. While some of the data that PFF does provide can be somewhat useful, it is their grades that are pretty much useless. Even though PFF claims to be objective, their system is just as biased as anyone else. Time and time again their grades are skewed one way or the other towards certain players or teams. This results in favorable grades for some with others receiving unfavorable for reasons that are completely nonsensical.

The fact of the matter is that they receive much more acclaim for their remedial analytical data just because they were out in front of the advanced data movement. As more outlets produce analytical data it becomes increasingly apparent that Pro Football Focus is not as special as they are made out to be.

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is PFF ROTW

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Cleveland Browns linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah has been named the Rookie of the Week by Pro Football Focus.

It has been only three games into his NFL career, but it appears that the Cleveland Browns have a certified dude in Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. Pro Football Focus has named JOK the Rookie of the Week after his performance in Sunday’s win over the Chicago Bears.

The dynamic rookie linebacker made an impact in multiple facets of the game, totaling four tackles (three solo),  being credited with half of a sack, one tackle for loss, one quarterback hit, and two successful pass defenses. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is someone who appears to be a major difference maker for this Browns defense very early on in his career and that will go a long for the teams larger goals.

Myles Garrett named PFF DPOW

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Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett has been named the Pro Football Focus Defensive Player of the Week after his 4.5 sack performance.

This can be filed under hardly surprising, Myles Garrett has been named the Defensive Player of the Week by Pro Football Focus. It was an easy decision for PFF as the Browns defensive superstar set a franchise single game record with 4.5 sacks.

Myles Garrett finished the game with seven total tackles (six solo), while registering six quarterback hits. Garrett is currently the NFL leader in sacks with 5.5, holding a slim lead over Chandler Jones who has 5.

Jedrick Wills dunks on PFF

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The Cleveland Browns left tackle took a shot at Pro Football Focus Tuesday morning with a hilarious quote tweet. 

It does not appear that Jedrick Wills is a fan of how Pro Football Focus grades offensive line play. Wills took to Twitter with an entertaining quote tweet.

For some, Pro Football Focus is a very useful tool that provides information and grades that are determined by their service. For others, it lacks context and enough relevant information to provide an accurate evaluation of the game of football.

OBJ-Landry 7th on PFF’s top catching tandems

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The Browns receiving duo is ranked as the seventh-best catching tandem in the NFL per Pro Football Focus.

After an earlier list from Pro Football Focus highlighting the top play callers in the NFL missed the mark, a new list is a bit more accurate. PFF’s Anthony Treash ranked the Browns receiving duo of Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry as the seventh-best in the NFL.

Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry are definitely two of the most talented receivers in the game. The only problem is that their production has not matched their talent level over the last two seasons. A year under a bad coach, injuries, offensive style, combined with up and down quarterback play has led to numbers that are not what was initially expected of them.

For the most part there is not a lot to nitpick with this list, but there are two tandems present on the list on the list that are fairly questionable. Those tandems would be Tennessee’s and Atlanta’s. The reason why these are a bit questionable is that no one is quite sure what their dynamic will be.

Julio Jones was just traded from Atlanta to Tennessee to give them the second-best catching tandem on this list. There is the possibility that the Titans passing offense is not as prolific as some project it to be currently. Additionally, considering that Jones and A.J. Brown haven’t played together yet, ranking them second on the list may be a bit high at this current time and nobody reasonable would have complained if they were ranked just a bit lower due to that fact.

As far as Atlanta goes, Calvin Ridley is stepping into the number one receiver role while Kyle Pitts is yet to play a single NFL snap. The fact they appear on the list at all as of now is a bit premature. Perhaps once the upcoming season is over their appearance on the list could be justified, sometimes it is just better to wait for proven results and not project the unknown.

Overall this is far from the most egregious list put out by Pro Football Focus. Sure some shuffling and removal of one tandem could produce a better list, but that is really the only knock here.

Kevin Stefanski absent from list of top play callers

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The absence of the Cleveland Browns coach is puzzling on PFF’s list of top play callers.

Eric Eager of Pro Football Focus ranked the top six play callers in the NFL and the list is interesting to say the least. The interesting part besides making the list six and not five is the absence of one excellent play caller in particular, Kevin Stefanski.

Other play callers snubbed from the list include Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, and Sean Payton. McVay, Shanahan, and Payton are considered to be some of the best in the league and yet they do not appear on the list. Their absence alone should question the validity of this list, Stefanski’s absence just makes it that much worse.

Kevin Stefanski took over a situation in Cleveland that was attractive somewhat, but there were question marks on the roster. Nobody knew exactly what he was going to get out of Baker Mayfield and whether or not he could perform in the offense. Additionally, nobody was sure that certain players, such as Odell Beckham Jr., would work in this offense. There was a real chance that if the team did not perform up to expectations that a lot of roster turnover could have occurred. Stefanski was a coach who was able to overcome the obstacles that came with last season and took what was an underachieving group the previous season and transformed them into one of the better offenses in the league. One would think that the reigning NFL Coach of the Year would at least make an appearance on the list and not be completely snubbed.

Dissecting the list of people chosen over Kevin Stefanski

Matt LaFleur gets top honors and that starts off a highly questionable list. LaFleur is not bad play caller overall, but the question has to be asked how much of the success in Green Bay is due to Aaron Rodgers and not LaFleur. It’s a pretty safe bet that Rodgers is responsible for the majority of the success and a definite answer could be found out this season if an agreement cannot be made between the two parties. That would certainly give a much better answer of who the credit belongs to in Green Bay.

There are no real gripes with Brian Daboll and Andy Reid. Daboll has proven to be a quality play caller in his NFL return after an uninspiring performance earlier in the career. As far as Andy Reid is concerned, everyone is very aware of his offensive success during his time in Philadelphia in Kansas City. Their presence on the list is not an issue whatsoever.

The issues do continue though with Joe Brady, and Byron Leftwich. Unfortunately for Leftwich he suffers from the same issue that LaFleur does in Green Bay, just a bit more to the extreme though. Tampa Bay’s loaded offense with Tom Brady at the helm is not necessarily a difficult situation. While calling productive plays is still required, it’s a bit easier with an offense with that much talent. Joe Brady’s rank being this high seems a bit premature considering his one season as a NFL offensive coordinator and their offense was nothing special. Maybe in time he would belong on a list like this, but not just yet.

That brings us to Jon Gruden, this is going to take a minute. Once upon a time Gruden was one of the better offensive coaches in the league, although there were some issues that were glossed over in his coaching style. Those issues certainly surfaced in his return with the Raiders. Gruden is a coach who has a strong affinity for what he doesn’t have on his roster and grows tired of what he actually has. Gruden is a guy who is in a casino playing a slot machine who loses $20 pretty quickly and sees someone else win big on a different machine. Thinking he can duplicate that success he moves to that machine only to lose more money even though he made the change he desperately wanted to. Gruden constantly overhauls his roster and his approach to the game can be a little bit dated. The fact that this list actually includes Gruden is quite surprising.

What to make of this list that doesn’t include Kevin Stefanski?

For starters it is wrong. The fact Kevin Stefanski is notably absent is an absolute travesty. Perhaps this is just more anti-running game that seems to be prevalent in what is the remedial analytics of PFF. Then again it could just be bias that is not supposed to exist in the world of advanced statistics. The only team to appear in the Top-10 in rushing with the play callers listed is Green Bay, but their offense is more a product of Rodgers than anyone else. Las Vegas is 14th, Kansas City is 16th, Buffalo is 20th, Carolina is 21st, and Tampa Bay is 28th in rushing. For the record Cleveland is ranked third, just behind Baltimore and Tennessee, also teams without play callers appearing on this list.

The fact of the matter is that Kevin Stefanski most definitely should be on the list of top play callers in the NFL. Anyone is able to take the disjointed mess that the Browns were in 2019 and turn it into the consistent and productive offense they were in 2020 deserves a massive amount of credit. That credit should at least include being included on a list of the top six play callers in the NFL.

Denzel Ward 8th best outside corner per PFF

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Pro Football Focus ranked all of the outside cornerbacks in the NFL and the Cleveland Browns corner ranked eight overall.

One thing has become quite clear recently and that is the fact Pro Football Focus really likes the Cleveland Browns defense. John Johnson, Troy Hill, and Ronnie Harrison were already ranked high among players at their position and another Browns defender can be added to the list, Denzel Ward. PFF ranks Ward as the eighth-best outside corner in the NFL.

This list seems about right as Denzel Ward is a shutdown corner, but not the best. Slotting in at eighth really seems like an accurate ranking of his overall skill as an outside cornerback.

PFF ranks three Browns DB’s among NFL’s best

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Pro Football Focus ranks three Cleveland Browns defenders among the best in the NFL.

There is one thing that everyone knew about the Cleveland Browns defense this offseason, they needed to get better. That is why it is great to see high praise for two new additions to the secondary. Pro Football Focus released their top 32 safeties and top 10 slot corners in the league and there are three Browns defensive backs on the two lists.

John Johnson ranks third among safeties, ranking only behind Justin Simmons and Harrison Smith. Johnson is one of, if not the biggest addition to the Browns defense. The difference that will be seen with Johnson lining up rather than the previous cast of characters will be huge.

Also appearing on the safety list at 30 is Ronnie Harrison. Harrison was more of a part time player for the Browns last season, but when he was on the field he did make plays. It is quite impressive to see Harrison make this list considering he only appeared in 30% of snaps last season.

The other new addition for the Browns that made a list was Troy Hill. Hill was named fifth-best slot corner after making the move in side with Los Angeles last season. There is a considerable difference with Hill when he lines up inside versus outside and adding him to a cornerback room that already has Denzel Ward and just added Greg Newsome in the draft.

Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah to Browns in PFF mock

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A NFL mock draft from Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus has the Cleveland Browns selecting the Notre Dame linebacker.

Considering the source of this mock draft and the pick for the Cleveland Browns this is a bit surprising. Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus released a mock draft Monday which had the Browns taking a position that many do not expect, linebacker. Cleveland selects Notre Dame linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah 26th overall. (This is a mock that is done with what Monson would do if he was the GM and not what he predicts will happen according to an editor’s note.) Monson explained his selection for the Browns.

Cleveland has done an impressive job of overhauling its roster, and the team heads into the draft without many holes in need of immediate attention. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah has elite quickness and speed for a linebacker, and he also earned one of the best PFF coverage grades in the nation in the slot, regardless of position. JOK could bring some elite versatility to the Browns’ coverage unit.

PFF’s Sam Monson on his mock selection of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah to the Browns at 26

The surprise honestly is that a linebacker was mocked to Cleveland. There are many people that have been pounding the table for the Browns not valuing linebacker. A lot of those people also happen to reside in or are adjacent to the analytics community. So the fact that PFF has a mock that features the Browns taking Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is a bit of a shocker.

All of that being said, Monson is right. Linebacker is a need for the Browns and drafting one would be an excellent decision after their moves in free agency. There are some linebackers on the roster who should not be playing much. Drafting Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah in addition to their signing of Anthony Walker this offseason would be a home run for this unit.