Since the dawn of the 24 hour news cycle, it’s not uncommon to see a media outlet with a bad take. The sports world is extra susceptible to this due to the networks needing to fill 24 hours with constant news; and sometimes they deliver duds.
Pro Football Focus, also known as PFF, has emerged as one of the leading statistical ranking sites in the NFL. They rank teams and players on a wide variety of metrics. A few days ago, when PFF released their list of the top 32 pass catchers going into the 2024 season, alot of Bucs’ fans, myself included, took issue with veteran Mike Evans being ranked at #20. Let’s dig into why the mysterious “analytics” used by PFF don’t get it right in this case.
First, it’s fair to acknowledge that PFF uses, among other things, a variety of computer based analytics to calculate player rankings in these instances. One might need a PhD to fully grasp some of the formula based equations used by PFF’s model to rank players. Sure, raw statistics are used in their work, but they are increasingly less important in lieu of unseen, incalculable factors decided by a computer, which can’t perform the all important “eye test”.
There is not a single football fan that could watch Mike Evans along side some of the receivers on the list and come away feeling he was 20th best. Evans has a decade long streak of 1000 yard seasons, he was tied for the League’s most touchdown catches last year (13) and ranked ninth in yards. He was also more valuable overall to Baker Mayfield and the Bucs’ offense, helping them to a third straight NFC South title. Evans was even the first priority for offseason contract talks, being handled even before QB Baker Mayfield. PFF has dropped the ball before, but this time around, fans were shocked at the perceived disrespect.
Seeing receivers like DJ Moore, Terry McLaurin, and Garrett Wilson ranked above Evans, though they are talented, seems like an obvious flaw in PFF’s system, at least with receivers. It is an issue in alot of media coverage now, frankly. The incorporation of Artificial Intelligence and technology to handle workloads previously done by actual journalists or fans of the game is troubling.
It was always inevitable that humanity would make leaps and bounds in the tech industry leading to innovation in sports media, but the ability to use the “eye-test” is always the best metric. Looking at players on the field and being able to identify one that is faster, stronger, a better route runner, or producing more consistently will trump data running through a computer any day for me.
I am sure Mike Evans will not lose sleep over an arbitrary ranking and he will likely put forward another 1000 yard season in 2024, but for this writer, I felt that Evans deserved better than #20. Do better, PFF. Watch the games. Watch the players. And give these men the respect of your eye-test before you allow a computer to undervalue them in the NFL hierarchy.
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