Why Detroit Lions Players Are Not PFF Fans
How NFL players are evaluated has been put into the spotlight this week.
One of the most popular player grading tools is Pro Football Focus. Their weekly grades are looked at by college football fans, NFL front offices and by a significant amount of NFL fans and pundits.
Several Detroit Lions players told Lions OnSI this week the weekly grades are not really indicative of how a player is performing. One called the graphics aired and what is put in them during player introductions simply "entertainment."
Former NFL offensive lineman Chris Long took offense to seeing PFF grades on the screen during Sunday Night Football and shared his reasoning on a recent episode of the "Green Light" podcast
“Get Mahomes quarterback 13 of 32 off my television screen. We’re talking about legislation, what our kids shouldn’t see at school, what they shouldn’t be learning about, should we have political ads on television. I want the PFF scores off the TV as bad as I want political ads off the television,” Long expressed. “God forbid there’s somebody watching the game who doesn’t know who f—ing Patrick Mahomes is. They’re going to be badly misguided, brother. Thirteenth best quarterback in the league? If I was (Derrick) Nnadi, and maybe he earned it this year, but I would f—ing sue. I would be in Cris Collinsworth’s backyard dude."
Collinsworth defended the platform this week, explaining anyone is free to come visit and see how the grades are curated.
“Thanks for the attention, you’re helping our sales,” Collinsworth said on “The Up & Adams Show," when asked about the increased scrutiny. "It’s easy to criticize if you haven’t seen how the potato chips are made, but an open invitation to all those guys. Anybody who wants to come in and take a look, debate, argue, sit down, pound the table. We’ve had a lot of people do it in the past, and we’ll have a lot of people do it in the future.”
Former NFL defensive end J.J. Watt told Pat McAfee this week, "I’ve had my issues with PFF for a very long time. The No. 1 issue with PFF by far, bar none, hands down is their player-grading system and the fact that they project it everywhere, including nationally televised games on Sunday night where everybody’s watching.
“I know defensive line play unbelievably well. I could not go and grade a game for a player and give him a definitive grade without speaking to him, his coach, learning the scheme, everything,” Watt added. “PFF has a ton of great stuff but player grading sucks. Stop putting it out.”
Linebacker Grant Stuard understands why fans put stock into the platform, but shared he only looks at PFF to see how many snaps he played at the end of the season.
"I just think it's strange," said linebacker Grant Stuard. "Like who said that PFF was the one that everybody is going off of or whatever? Sometimes you see PFF or even a reporter say something like, 'Alex Anzalone, he played the most nickel cornerback snaps.' No, he's just lined up in the apex. He might have been blitzing. So, if a fan is maybe putting some stock into it, because what else do they have to put stock into? I'm saying they don't know, really. Nobody knows what we're running but us. So, I can understand the value that it presents, but I don't think too much about it."
Cornerback Terrion Arnold indicated he will never accept PFF as a fair grading system, since those evaluating players do not even know what plays are being called or what scheme is actually being ran.
"I will never accept PFF, because they ain't even real," said Arnold. "If you go and look at it, it's saying in their database, the main people who grade it -- like I stopped checking when there was a play where I was in Cover 2 and it said I was actually in man-to-man. So, they don't really know the scheme.
"Then it was another thing, too. I went and looked at the touchdowns. When I go and look and it says I gave up this and this. I was the closest in the vicinity of the play, but that wasn't the play call," Arnold added. "So, when I go and look at it, PFF is not getting ready to get you paid, it's not ready to go out here and show the ins and outs of what's really going on. Because at the end of the day, those coaches who are designing those schemes aren't out there grading."
Amik Robertson stopped looking at PFF grades during his second NFL season. Even though rankings are aired publicly, the veteran defensive back is focused more on what he puts on film, where his coaches are actually aware of what his responsibilities are during a given play.
"PFF is just guys who never played the game. They do not even know what defense we are in. I stopped looking at PFF when I was in my second year in the league," said Robertson. "Man, I stopped worrying about PFF. You know, it's all good, but I stopped paying attention to PFF, man. I just go out there and perform. I know a lot a lot of guys think the same way, though. They don't really believe in PFF. Some guys do, though.
"I really don't give a f**k. I don't really care. I don't really care about rankings. I try to let my film speak for itself, man. Because at the end of the day, the eye in the sky don't lie," Robertson commented further. "Like I said, most of the time they don't know what defense we are running, they don't know this guy's job, they see who is in the vicinity of the ball getting thrown. That's all they see. So, I never really cared about it."
Yankees Must Reclaim the Japanese Market Before It’s Too Late
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For decades, the New York Yankees stood as the global symbol of baseball dominance—a team that not only signed the best players in the United States but also lured superstars from Japan. From Hideki Matsui’s World Series MVP heroics to Masahiro Tanaka’s playoff brilliance, the Yankees once represented the ultimate destination for Japanese talent. But that era has vanished, and the Los Angeles Dodgers have taken their place.
The Dodgers’ aggressive investment in Japanese players—from Shohei Ohtani to Yoshinobu Yamamoto—has turned the franchise into baseball’s most forward-thinking global powerhouse. For the Yankees, who have not landed a major Japanese star in over a decade, this should serve as a wake-up call.
Dodgers Have Turned Japan Into Their Pipeline
When the Yankees lost the 2024 World Series to the Dodgers at Yankee Stadium, it wasn’t just another October heartbreak—it was a global marketing defeat. Ohtani stood at the center of the celebration, the face of a franchise that has mastered the art of international recruitment. Months later, Yamamoto emerged as the National League’s Rookie of the Year runner-up, solidifying Los Angeles as the new face of the Japanese baseball connection.
The Dodgers’ dominance is no accident. They’ve invested heavily in relationships with Japanese agencies, built scouting networks that extend across Asia, and treated Japanese stars as cultural ambassadors, not just on-field assets. When Ohtani and Yamamoto both chose Los Angeles over New York, it wasn’t about geography—it was about trust and vision.
Meanwhile, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman continues to blame the East Coast’s distance from Japan as a deterrent. But that argument no longer holds water in an age when elite players like Roki Sasaki and Munetaka Murakami have global branding aspirations and care more about franchise reputation than flight times.
Yankees’ Image Problem Abroad
The Yankees’ struggle isn’t financial—it’s philosophical. They remain stuck in a mindset that assumes their brand speaks for itself. That approach might have worked when Matsui and Tanaka were household names, but today’s generation of Japanese stars sees the Dodgers as the more modern, player-friendly organization.
In 2017, the Yankees rolled out a full-scale recruitment campaign for Ohtani, only to learn early in the process that he wasn’t even considering them. They tried again with Yamamoto in 2024, sending Cashman to attend his no-hitter in person—an image that briefly went viral—but the effort felt reactive, not proactive. The Dodgers already had their relationships in place.
If the Yankees want to compete for players like Murakami this offseason, they need more than money. They need cultural credibility—something that’s been eroded by years of stagnation and front-office inertia.
The path forward is clear. The Yankees must re-establish a consistent presence in Japan, rebuild their scouting relationships, and modernize their approach to international negotiations. Hiring bilingual staff, strengthening their Pacific Rim operations, and forming partnerships with Japanese leagues and sponsors could help rebuild their reputation.
It’s not just about signing one player—it’s about transforming perception. The Dodgers have proven that global appeal translates directly into on-field success and business growth. The Yankees, with their resources and history, have no excuse for being left behind.
If New York continues to ignore the international market, it’ll remain stuck in a cycle of nostalgia while watching another Japanese superstar lift a World Series trophy somewhere else.
