I don't get the Aaron Donald grades. He has been all over the place the last two games.
For some reason ... that makes Zero sense to me ... many fans and paid analysts accept the PFF grades but have No Understanding of HOW PFF's Grading Methodology and System works.
I do not presume to know exactly how it currently works. However, I did at one time.
Years ago when PFF was owned (majority stake) by Cris Collinsworth; and getting a ton-of-play on NBC,
I decided to do a deep-dive into How PFF did its analysis.
I was planning on retirement, and my work-days were not busy or challenging. I had free time in an office and spent a considerable amount of time over several days reading-up on PFF's grading methodology.
Back then, I could write pages about it (probably still could) but it would not be worth the effort as that was almost a decade ago; and it would be presumptuous (probably faulty) to assume the grading process has not changed ... perhaps even improved.
I will say that back then, PFF made HUGE Broad Assumptions about opponents, expectations and individual player responsibilities given specifi situations.
In my opinion, at that time, the PFF grading methodology was extremely Subjective. Add in that most of its employee/analysts had little-to-no coaching or playing backgrounds, I concluded (for myself) that PFF was merely one data source but mostly useless.
I have made this point many times on ROD but I respect different opions. However, when I discuss this topic with friends who use, reference or like PFF, I ask the simple question ...
How does its grading work?
The Next Person to give me a Substantive Answer, will be the First Person to give me a Substantive Answer.
