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PFF ALL-DECADE TEAM: THE BEST OF 2006–2015
After 10 seasons of grading NFL games, PFF founder Neil Hornsby assembles our first All-Decade Team.
Ten years of grading. That’s the breadth of data now amassed in the Pro Football Focus system, and it’s a milestone worth commemorating. When we started the site, it was all about player evaluation: Who had played well, but went unnoticed? Who had unfairly received hype without the associated production?
Therefore, what better way to mark a decade of grading than with a PFF All-Decade team (2006 to 2015 seasons)?
Selection criteria was always going to be the trickiest thing. When you have as much data as we do (more than anyone else by an order of magnitude), you should be able to compare players pretty accurately. But how do you balance longevity with production? In the end, beauty was in the eye of the beholder, and that (for my sins) turned out to be me. I did ask a couple of the longer-tenured PFF analysts (Ben Stockwell and Khaled Elsayed) for their opinions, but a democracy this was not. What you see is ultimately my view of our first 10 years, and for that, I accept all the criticisms (and maybe a few scattered plaudits).
Right guard: Marshal Yanda (Ravens)
Here’s how ridiculously good Marshal Yanda is: if he’d stayed at tackle, Yanda would probably have made this team at that position, too. Early on with Baltimore, he was in fact a right tackle. In 2007, he was our third-ranked tackle with a 90.3 grade, and he was still moved inside—such are the vagaries of the NFL. It didn’t matter, though, because in the last five years, he’s averaged a 90.7 grade and been our top-graded guard the last two seasons.
