TJ Watt Lands at Number 20 on PFF Top 101 NFL Players

[Steeler Nation]

Pro Football Focus (PFF) has become one of the most polarizing agencies in the NFL. Their analytics are seen by many as a bad representation of what football players do, while others will swear it’s the best way to tell how good a player actually is. Well, PFF came out with their annual Top 101 players in the NFL and it’s hard to understand their rationale for where the NFL’s DPOY landed on their list.

It was almost a consensus by everyone who closely watches football that Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher TJ Watt had one of the best seasons by a defensive player in NFL history. Yet, the writers at PFF ranked him 20th behind some highly questionable players. The two players he beat in the final DPOY voting, Aaron Donald and Micah Parsons, finished 18 and 10 spots ahead of Watt respectively. Myles Garrett landed 7th on their list while finishing with 7.5 less sacks than Watt and did not receive a single DPOY vote.

Other notable defensive players to finish above Watt were Maxx Crosby (#12) who only recorded a sack in 5 games and had 14.5 fewer sacks than Watt while playing in all 17 of his teams games. Kevin Byard, safety for the Tennessee Titans also finished 5 spots ahead of Watt and Watt’s teammate Cam Heyward landed one spot (#19) ahead of Watt as well. Both Byard and Heyward were first-team All-Pro’s, but there is no argument that either had a better season that Watt.

The writers at PFF have consistently set a bad example for casual fans by throwing bogus stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. The disrespect and disservice that they payed to Watt during his 2021 season has to rank at the top of the list. A guy who tied the NFL record for sacks in a season while only playing in 14.5 games, won DPOY for the entire NFL, and single handedly changed the outcome of multiple games for the Steelers should have been #1 on their list without argument. Without Watt, the Steelers definitely would have missed the playoffs and likely wouldn’t have won more than 6-7 games. Hopefully the writers at PFF will do a little more due diligence before they make their rankings next year.

Where do you think Watt should have been ranked on the Top 101 players in the NFL in 2021? Sound off in the comments below!

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[madinsomniac]

Pff sucks monkeyballs… chris Collinsworth owns them… they know about as much about football as that dipshit

 

[madinsomniac]

Literally if i was using tge PFF model of grading this article I’d give it a low grade because I thought by the title it was going to support their position and ultimately it ( correctly) crapped all over it… so because they didn’t do what I thought their plan was, they sucked… viola one stupid and biased method of grading people

 

[SteelerSask2]

I will be realistic. I might take Donald before Watt from a football strategy point of view. Closer point, forces double teams almost every play and is still very productive. But Garrett or any other edge. STFU. Watt destroyed Garrett's Browns both games and Garrett did little vs. A rookie Tackle.

 

[madinsomniac]

So lets say Ben and Bwady both face the same defense in the same look and both make the same read and throw incomplete to the same position on the field while another position comes wide open

The subjective nature of this is so bad tgat they often would grade ben as a negative on the play because he missed a wide open wr while grading brady as good because it was the correct read for that formation and the d just made a bad play that worked

Its not objective in that the end result was a incomplete pass for both so its equal

Its why soooo many players have talked **** on the concept… because they don’t know the wrinkles and specifics… they are guessing using vanilla concepts and interjecting tons of biases