Mike Zimmer Zimmer calls out PFF

[Trrrroy]

http://www.si.com/nfl/2014/08/25/mike-z ... ball-focus

... I look at the grades and I can’t tell you what a 0.7 is or anything like that, but I know that the people that are grading our games and our defenses and our offenses, they don’t know if the tackle gets beat inside, if we weren’t sliding out to the nickel or who our guys are supposed to cover. I guarantee they don’t know who is in our blitz package and what they are supposed to do.

PFF's Sam Monson's response:

"I understand Mike Zimmer’s reservations, but while coaches like to maintain the mystique of football, the bottom line is most plays are simple enough to decipher," Monson told me. "We won’t get everything 100 percent right, the same way the Vikings won’t get everything 100 percent right when watching tape of any other team in the league – it doesn’t mean they’re not right most of the time and it’s still not a worthwhile exercise.

 

[mikeak]

If the Bikings set the benchmark then PFF just needs to be at 25% right....

 

[RolandDeschain]

I don't have much faith in PFF's ratings system. Way too many anomalies. DVOA is infinitely better and more accurate.

 

[the ditch]

I don't have much faith in PFF's ratings system. Way too many anomalies. DVOA is infinitely better and more accurate.

I'm going to have to disagree with you because I think on the individual level I much prefer PFF's grading system. For team comparisons DVOA works well, as PFF doesn't really have a team ranking, they have an accumulation of gradings for offense and defense for each team but those don't mean much without context while DVOA is normalised across the league.

But for things like offensive lineman play, wide receivers, quarterbacks, I think PFF is way better. Sure it's subjective but I much rather see quarterbacks ratings with thrown away balls and blatant drops taken off, or yards per route run for a wide receiver. Even the grading system works well imo I can sort by position and grades and take a look and for most of them I wouldn't disagree at all. I think it's a good tool to give an idea about how a player is performing, certainly not the be all end all but definitely better than dvoa for individual positions.

 

[RolandDeschain]

I'm going to have to disagree with you because I think on the individual level I much prefer PFF's grading system. For team comparisons DVOA works well, as PFF doesn't really have a team ranking, they have an accumulation of gradings for offense and defense for each team but those don't mean much without context while DVOA is normalised across the league.

But for things like offensive lineman play, wide receivers, quarterbacks, I think PFF is way better. Sure it's subjective but I much rather see quarterbacks ratings with thrown away balls and blatant drops taken off, or yards per route run for a wide receiver. Even the grading system works well imo I can sort by position and grades and take a look and for most of them I wouldn't disagree at all. I think it's a good tool to give an idea about how a player is performing, certainly not the be all end all but definitely better than dvoa for individual positions.

PFF's ratings are accumulation-based. Even for a single game. A dominant DT can have a fantastic day but rate lower for a game than another DT on their team who had only a decent day but played 50% more snaps. Similarly, any player that doesn't play a full 16 games is at a severe disadvantage in the rankings because their yearly ratings are all just an accumulation of each week's totals. It's not AS bad as just looking at yards thrown for to gauge a QB by like a lot of casual fans do, but it's not great. DVOA on the other hand is not accumulation-based at all. Thank God.

PFF ratings...Just...No.

 

[KK84]

PFF is ok. Their O-line grades are absolutely horrendous though.

 

[ivotuk]

Why is Zimmer bothering with calling out PFF? Doesn't he have other things to worry about, like coaching?

 

[Trrrroy]

Why is Zimmer bothering with calling out PFF? Doesn't he have other things to worry about, like coaching?

Could be because Kalil and Barr were given negative grades this last game and he disagreed? Who knows. He went out of his way to call them out, too.

 

[RolandDeschain]

Could be because Kalil and Barr were given negative grades this last game and he disagreed? Who knows. He went out of his way to call them out, too.

I could see if it a rookie player gets demotivated from being graded poorly, or something. You have to be tougher than that, but...*shrug*