PFF ranking in football is a position-based ranking created by Pro Football Focus (PFF) that orders players or teams based on PFF’s detailed grading system rather than simple box-score stats like yards or touchdowns.

What is PFF?

  • Pro Football Focus (PFF) is a football analytics company that watches and grades every player on every play in NFL and major college (FBS) games.
  • They turn those film grades into advanced stats, 0–100 player grades, and then rankings by position and by team.

PFF grade vs PFF ranking

  • PFF grade :
    • A numerical score (normalized roughly on a 0–100 scale) that reflects how well a player performed on all his snaps, based on film study and contextual factors.
* Built from play‑by‑play grades on a -2 to +2 scale in 0.5 increments, then aggregated and adjusted.
  • PFF ranking :
    • The ordering of players (or teams) from best to worst using those grades and additional adjustments like snap count and opponent strength.
* Example: if a linebacker is PFF rank 25th out of 86, that means he has the 25th best PFF grade among qualifying linebackers for that season.

Simple illustration

If two cornerbacks both have good raw stats, but one faced elite receivers every week and held up well, while the other mostly faced backups, PFF grades and rankings try to reflect that tougher context, so the first might rank higher even with similar basic numbers.

How PFF builds those rankings

  • Analysts watch every snap and assign a play grade from -2 to +2 based on responsibility, execution, and impact, not just the outcome.
  • These play grades are totaled and normalized into season or game grades on a 0–100 type scale, where around 60 is roughly average for a position.
  • Rankings then order players within their position group, often with filters like minimum snaps so short stints don’t distort the list.
  • PFF also adjusts for things like opponent strength and usage, so a starter playing 70 snaps against a top defense isn’t treated the same as a backup playing 10 easy snaps.

Why fans and analysts care

  • PFF rankings give a process-focused look at performance: “Did the player do his job?” rather than “Did the stat line look good?”.
  • They can highlight:
    • Underrated players who grade well despite modest box-score stats.
    • Overrated players whose big counting stats are boosted by scheme or supporting cast.
  • Teams, media, bettors, and hardcore fans use PFF rankings as one input (not the only one) when evaluating players, matchup edges, and trends.

Key takeaways (TL;DR)

  • “PFF ranking” = where a player or team stands relative to peers based on PFF’s film-based grading system.
  • It’s not a traditional stat; it’s built from human film review plus algorithms that factor in context, responsibility, and difficulty of assignment.
  • Use it as a smart reference point, but always pair it with your own eye test and football knowledge.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.