Pro Football Focus shows egregious disrespect to Raiders TE Darren Waller

Pro Football Focus shows egregious disrespect to Raiders TE Darren Waller

Today, the folks over at Pro Football Focus wrapped up their drawn out countdown of who they believe to be the NFL’s top 50 players. Among them was nary a single Raiders player. One Raiders player snub sticks out like a sore thumb — tight end Darren Waller.

As of Thursday, PFF had counted down to 11 and there had yet to be a tight end mentioned. Which may have left same to wonder if Travis Kelce and Darren Waller would both be in the top ten. Considering Waller was right on Kelce’s heels all last season at the position.

That was not the case.

Their top ten came out and it was Kelce at third overall and Kittle at nine overall. Waller was nowhere to be found.

While this in and of itself is shocking, you need only look at their recent activity to see signs this was coming. Just the day before, they had choreographed their preferences with this interesting little poll.

How you gonna ask this question and not even have Darren Waller as a choice? Of course they didn’t do a standard twitter poll — which allows for as many as four options — they did the like or retweet thing because it’s all about visibility.

It’s the same reason you typically see them pulling specific positive stats about players knowing fans will retweet them. Such things may have led you to believe they loved Waller. Like this one about Waller leading all tight ends in yards after catch. Or this one about Waller leading all receivers (not just TE) in contested catch percentage.

The last positive mention PFF had for Waller came out in March. Come May, PFF had begun pumping out Kelce and Kittle as the NFL’s unquestioned top two tight ends.

I’m not saying Kittle is *not* the second best tight end in the league. He’s elite, no question. What I am saying is it’s far more arguable between him and Waller than PFF is currently letting on.

They may have Waller as third behind Kittle among tight ends, but based on their top 50 list, their tight end rankings look more like this:

1. Travis Kelce
2. George Kittle
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3. Darren Waller

With all due respect, this is downright laughable and absurd.

Only three players in the NFL had more catches last season than Waller (107). And yet there are ten receivers ranked in the top 50. Hard to say it’s a position thing either, considering no position had fewer players in the top 50 than tight end, while there were eight wide receivers and five running backs.

If you put Waller and Kittle’s stats the past two seasons side-by-side, it shows how close they are. I will even double Kittle’s 2020 stats since he missed half the season with injury.

Catches Yards TD’s YPC
George Kittle 181 2321 9 12.7
Darren Waller 197 2341 12 11.9

Again, these are not even Kittle’s actual numbers. Setting aside the best ability being availability, I gave Kittle the benefit of the doubt for last season, doubling his 8-game totals.

Even with that, Waller had more catches, yards, and touchdowns, and averaged less than a yard (.8) fewer per catch than Kittle. Does that look like the kind of numbers that would have Kittle top ten in the NFL and Waller not ranked at all? I don’t think so.