Lies, damned lies, statistics, and PFF

[Kray007]

I’ll start out by saying I’m not a big fan of analytics were applied to pro football, but… I’m paying PFF good money, so I figure what the heck, dive right in.

That having been said, they just released their power rankings for 2026, and the Colts ranked 22nd. Now, I’m a great believer in the proposition that everyone is entitled to an opinion, even if it is stupid.

What I can’t figure out is how an organization like PFF, built on a foundation of numbers, can make that calculus. To me, it should be simple. Take the grades for every projected starter, add them up, and see what you’ve got. Easy, breezy, lemon peasy.

But, no. Nowhere does PFF deign to do anything resembling that. Instead, their statistician cleared off a corner of his desk, pulled out a crystal ball and gazed deep into its murky depths.

So, being the all around helpful soul that I am, I did it for them, using Ourlad’s depth charts, for what I consider the cream of the AFC...I tossed in Tennessee because they’re in the division, excluded Pittsburgh and New England because one is washed up and the other overrated, and left out Denver and the Chargers because, frankly, I tired of the tedium.

So, in inverse order, from 8 to 1…

8) Tennessee 1,487 points
7) Cincinnati 1,536
6) Buffalo 1,540
5) Baltimore 1,562
4) Jacksonville 1,579
3) Houston 1,622
2) KC 1,637
Indianapolis 1,653

The numbers seem, to me, to validate the team’s pre Jones injury rise to the upper reaches of the league, a fact seemingly ignored by the nattering nabobs of negativity among the sporting press.

Of course, as always, past results do not guarantee future…