In this modern day of the NFL, fans have access to more information than ever before, allowing them, in theory, to be more familiar with the nuances of an offense or defense and to more accurately judge players and coaches accordingly.
But even with the rise of weekly grades from Pro Football Focus and fans having access to All-22 tapes, there are still instances when the fans, and even the professional evaluators who fall outside the scope of the NFL, may not know quite what they're looking at.
And that can unknowingly yield gaps in information in its own right, from which critics can draw unfair conclusions, Washington head coach Ron Rivera warned during his weekly appearance with Kevin Sheehan on Friday, presented by F.H. Furr.
"I think one of the things that fans have a hard time deciphering, unless they're sitting there on the All-22," Sheehan told Rivera on The Team 980. "By the way, what do you think of that? That fans have access to the All-22 and they start breaking down film. It's been sort of a last-few-years trend. What are your thoughts on that?"
"Well, that's great. But I think the one thing everybody has to understand and has to be very careful with is what they say is gonna be subjective," Rivera said. "They don't know necessarily what we're doing, what our [unintelligible] are, what the little things, nuances, that that position or that play is gonna require. So people are gonna draw assumptions and it might not be a fair assumption."
"You know, I had a guy one time wanted to blame one of our linebackers," Rivera recalled, "and said, 'Well, that's why.' And I turned around and said, 'Well actually, if you understood what we were doing, you'd have known it was this guy instead of that guy.' So to me, you just have to be careful."
Rivera has frequently touted PFF stats in interviews this season to positively attribute a job well done to his players, especially on the defensive side of the ball, where, by most metrics, Washington has ranked in the back of the pack in the NFL.
"You know, we've all had in this business guys from PFF — Pro Football Focus — on our shows," Sheehan said, "and I remember a few years ago, what you just said. I said, 'Isn't one of your weaknesses in evaluating a player is you don't know what that specific player's responsibility was on that play?"
"You may be grading him in a way in which the coaches may grade much differently because he actually fulfilled his responsibility," Sheehan continued. "Do you see that in the grades? I know you guys are a PFF customer. Do you see that in some of the grades?"
"Oh yeah. We do. Again, as I said, it's subjective," Rivera said. "So to me, you take it for what it is, with a grain of salt. For the most part, they're pretty good at it. They really are. I've got to give them their kudos. But, to be able to definitively say 'this is what happened,' sometimes it's not fair.
"Because I'll tell you right now, one of the things that's always gotten me, when I hear a guy may get beat for a vertical touchdown, the guy goes, 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe he got beat like that.' Well, he was to the outside, he was expecting inside help. Or, he was inside expecting outside help. Those are things that you have to be careful of."
"Sometimes a guy will be pass blocking, he'll get beat on the inside and the guy goes, 'Oh my God, he gave up the inside!' Well, truthfully, he was expecting the guard or the center to be there to protect his inside," Rivera explained, "and so when he turned, there was no help and that's how he got beat. I mean, those are the little nuances that people don't understand, is that, hey, we call a protection this way, and one guy turns the wrong way and the other guy gets beat inside, and everybody goes, 'Oh God, he gave up the inside!' Well, the guy should have been there to help him. You know what I'm saying? So that's why you have to be careful with that when you're drawing your conclusions."
"Yeah, no, to be honest with you, you've mentioned a few times this year — you've referred to Pro Football Focus and when I've heard you do that, I've been a little bit surprised," Sheehan said. "Because, having followed you even back in Carolina, I would have thought that, initially, at least early on before maybe they proved something to you, that you may have rolled your eyes a little bit at somebody else grading players who didn't know what the players' responsibilities were on a given play."
"Yeah, oh, exactly. Like I said, I take it with a grain of salt, though, just understanding that it's subjective," Rivera said. "But, they can grade athleticism. They can grade the physical talents. You know what I'm saying? Because, again, you watch guys move, you watch certain things happen, you go, 'Man, that's pretty good. I mean it really is.'
"But, again, like I said, at the end of the day, if they [get it] right, great. But if they don't, we always have to just say, 'Well, you know, they don't quite understand that that guy was expecting inside help. They don't understand that he should have been chipped.'"
"We had a play when I was in Carolina coaching in the Super Bowl," Rivera recalled. "And we had a guy that missed a chip that turned into a big play, and everybody wanted to blame the other guy. Well, it's not the other guy's fault because the guy missed the chip. So you have to be careful with it."
