Former MN Vikings Lineman Calls PFF “an Absolute Joke”

Every week, NFL fans of all types look for ways to assess the performance of their favorite team. Everyone starts off with what they see with their own two eyes. Most are also influenced by the voices around them, whether that’s family and friends in the same living room or social media, like Twitter.

Depending on a variety of variables (background, football knowledge, self-confidence and self-awareness) some people trust their own initial reactions more than others. But at the end of the day, you can’t see everything from the game broadcast and the boxscore only reveals so much.

So from there, a lot of fans and media members will go to places that offer more than standard statistics, the gold standard of which is Pro Football Focus. Throughout the season, we’ve seen PFF look fondly upon the Minnesota Vikings.

They loved Donovan Jackson in Week 1 against the Chicago Bears. PFF also offers collegiate grades and rankings, and they are huge fans of MN Gophers quarterback Drake Lindsey. But there are other times where PFF is not so friendly. In fact, there are football people out there who downright despise Pro Football Focus.

Jeremiah Sirles has had enough of Pro Football Focus

See, Pro Football Focus grades usually come from their “experts” watching games live or, later in the week, via all-22 film, where they use subjective judgement without all context that is oftentimes needed.

Oftentimes, depending on the who is assigning the grade, player performances can swing wildly. But for many positions, specifically those that do not lean as much on standard statistics (OL, DL, S, etc).

For former Minnesota Vikings lineman Jeremiah Sirles, that’s not good enough. He wants PFF to be better, calling their process in grading offensive lineman as “an absolute joke”.

I’m so done with PFF and how they score OLine. It’s an absolute joke.

You can have 39 pass blocking attempts and give up 0 sacks, 0 hits, 0 pressures. They determine how many “beaten by defenders” and you somehow get a 43.5% grade.

Absolutely F******* joke.

— Jeremiah Sirles (@Jsirles71) October 7, 2025

Following Sirles’ tweet, Minnesota Vikings broadcaster Paul Allen responded, “Preach.” Others in the media business, like local beat writer and podcaster, Matthew Coller, lives by them.

There’s probably a pretty safe middle ground to be had where PFF grades need to be taken with a grain of salt, but that they can be trusted to tell part of the story. They can also help tell a long-term story better than it does short-term.

It’s hard for me to believe that Sirles, a guy with 42 NFL games under his belt, isn’t able to discern what solid line play looks like. He seems specifically upset with the grades received last week by emergency center Blake Brandel, who made his first start since grade school, at the position.

Sirles upset over Blake Brandel’s PFF grade in week 5

Most who watched Sunday morning’s came away thinking Blake Brandel held up incredibly well. He had one inconsequential low snap, but he didn’t stick out in pass protection or in run blocking, at least not with the naked eye.

When his PFF grade came out on Tuesday, however, his final grade was a brutal 41.0, ultimately dragged down by a 54.2 pass block and abysmal 42.5 run block. Sirles has been on SKOR North talking about how well Brandel performed on Sunday in London, especially in communication pre-snap, something PFF doesn’t take into account.

Well, I still have yet to figure out how PFF grades [work] because I go look at grades and it’s like, okay, this dude had 58 pass attempts. He had one hit, one hurry. Okay, how does he have a 47 passing grade? Like, I don’t understand the metrics in which they use.

And maybe that’s cuz I’m a moron but I talk to my guys in the league who I watch film with. I’m like,’Hey, how’d you grade out by coach?’ They’re like, ‘Oh, I grade out an 88.’ I pull up PFF and they gave him a 56. Right? Because there’s a difference between getting the assignment done and then looking pretty while you do it.

Jeremiah Sirles – Purple Daily (SKOR North)

At any rate, Pro Football Focus isn’t going anywhere, and their grading system has become a significant money-maker. Many of the numbers are paywalled behind a premium subscription, and digger further into their accuracy requires investment.

For now, let’s just hope the MN Vikings can get the roster back to a healthy state and perform at a level that helps them go on a run.