2 August 2024

PFF presents poster presentation at CMSAC Football Analytics Workshop

Cincinnati, Ohio — PFF is proud to announce a successful poster presentation at the Carnegie Mellon Sports Analytics Conference (CMSAC) Football Analytics Workshop, a premier event that invites students, academics and industry professionals to explore the fascinating world of football analytics.

This year’s workshop took place in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Saturday, May 18, 2024, and delved into insightful discussions and expertise on a wide range of topics related to football analytics. Through presentations, panel discussions and hands-on sessions, attendees gained exposure to various methods of analyzing football data using traditional charting and player tracking-based data sources.

PFF presented a poster introducing a new metric named “PFF Advanced Coverage Grade.” The table below shows the highest-ranked players in Advanced Coverage Grade over the last three years alongside their rankings in the traditional PFF coverage grade.

In a larger study using NFL data from 2019-2023, PFF found that the Advanced Coverage Grade is more stable year over year for individual cornerbacks, linebackers and safeties. It is also more predictive of future team success than many other coverage metrics, including PFF coverage grades, completion percentage allowed, passer rating allowed and target rate.

Position Ranking: Clockwise from top-left, the table showcases some of the top cornerbacks, linebackers, and safeties by their rank within their position over the last three years. The Advanced Coverage Grade rank is more stable than the traditional coverage grade rank.

Jacob Baldwin, a data scientist at PFF, expressed his excitement about the poster, stating, “Coverage is one of the most difficult facets of football to quantify using basic charting data. The PFF All-Coverage process provides additional information about all coverage defenders on a play, not just targeted players, and allowed us to build a more complete picture of a coverage defender.”

“We were excited to have Jacob present the latest PFF research at our inaugural CMSAC Football Analytics Workshop. This event brought together over 50 football analytics professionals from across the country working on challenging problems. We look forward to hosting more PFF research presentations at CMSAC events in the years to come,” said Ron Yurko, Assistant Teaching Professor at the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Carnegie Mellon University and organizer of the CMSAC Football Analytics Workshop.

About PFF

PFF is a premium data and analytics company. PFF’s data and tools are trusted by all 32 NFL teams, all 134 FBS college football teams, over 200 NCAA teams and major media networks.

About CMSAC

The Carnegie Mellon Sports Analytics Center (CMSAC) is a leading organization dedicated to promoting the application of data science, statistics, and analytics in sports.

CMSAC aims to bridge the gap between academia and industry through workshops, conferences and networking events, fostering collaboration and innovation in sports analytics.

For more information about CMSAC events, please visit the CMSAC website.

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