Cowboys CB Trevon Diggs challenges PFF’s over his 2021 season

With the recent release of EA Sports Madden’s ratings for their latest money grab, err, edition of the game, the talk of player rankings hit its apex in recent days. Without any licensed NFL competition, Madden’s annual reset has lost its luster from the iconic status it held during the 1990s and 2000s, but continues to be the only avenue for fans to compete with their favorite teams. With multiple generations of said fans growing up with skunk rules and trash talking, it still has a strangle hold on the simulation community despite failing to be revelatory in any meaningful way over the last decade.

Still, their ratings release moves needles and 2022 is no different. They’ve released positional top 10s on a daily schedule and Thursday was the cornerbacks turn, with a list that did not include 2021 interception leader, second-year Dallas Cowboys star Trevon Diggs. The cornerback room is crowded but not including a player with 11 picks is a questionable understanding of NFL talent levels and Diggs seems to believe the confusion has a source, Pro Football Focus.

PFF is a paid service which has a group of data collectors assigned to watch every game in the NFL on a weekly basis. Those data collectors are trained to grade player performance on a -2 to +2 per-play basis and more specifically for cornerbacks, assign responsibility in coverage based on their perceptions. Throughout the season, PFF graders would sometimes assign responsibilities to Diggs other outlets did not. As the 2021 season neared its conclusion, the outlet claimed Diggs reached a negative milestone in his coverage, allowing over 1,000 yards to receivers he was guarding.

That assessment made the rounds across the NFL fan community, a group eager to knock down the accomplishments of an America’s Team star. For all of the love Dallas players get because of their huge fanbase, there are many more who love to have negative things to say about the team and its players.

This isn’t to say that Diggs’s doesn’t have room for improvement. He did give up his fair share of big plays. But the narrative that he was boom or bust and that he gave up as many big plays as he created is rubbish.

This is ground that has been covered before here at Cowboys Wire. PFF says Diggs allowed 1,068 coverage yards. Meanwhile Pro Football Reference says Diggs gave up 907. He was targeted 103 times and gave up 54 receptions and four touchdowns, but also had 11 interceptions, 10 pass deflections and two touchdowns of his own.

The discrepancy in narrative led to creating the ANY/CS metric, adjusted net yards per coverage snap.

It applies a well-respected advanced stat formula used to evaluate QBs and applies it to corners by adding in over of PFF’s objective stats, snaps in pass coverage.

ANYA/CS: Adjusted net passing yards allowed per target = ((Passing Yards Allowed-Return Yardage) + (Passing TDs Allowed – Return TDs)*20 – (INTs)*45)) / (Coverage Snaps)

The formula gives touchdowns and interceptions a yardage value (not decided by me, but by renowned data scientists) and then tallies how well a corner does on a passing play-by-play basis. It incorporates the impact of interceptions; whether the CB dropped to the ground or actually produced yards and points for his team once he got the ball in his hands.

And Diggs shined in this light, ranking fourth overall and sandwiched between New England’s J.C. Jackson and Cleveland’s Denzel Ward.

Ward was ranked No. 4 by Madden, Jackson No. 8.

Now admittedly, coverage isn’t the only aspect of a corner’s game that matters, as run support is vital. But in a league where analysts are constantly decrying how unimportant rushing the ball is, a corner’s value should be heavily dependent on his ability to make plays when thrown at.

Based on his 2021 season, there’s no question that Diggs was one of the 10 best CBs in that regard.

ANYA/CS 2021 CB Rankings

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Story originally appeared on Cowboys Wire