[30gut]

Originally Posted by That Guy

which teams are paying them? and how much? are they giving one guy in the brown's scouting department a $1/year subscription just so they can say that an nfl team actually uses them? they can't say, cause "secrets" right? so it's an unverified fact reported on by the self-interested.

I don't know which teams use them nor how much it costs them. But I have no reason to doubt their claim that 19 NFL teams use their service. If that were a false claim I'm sure they would be held accountable. Also, I'm pretty sure they would gladly list which NFL teams use them but I would guess it more a matter of non-disclosure/confidentially then 'cuz secrets'. But again, to each their own.

Here's is a Gunther Cunningham anyhow...

.....Cunningham still records some of the same statistics on his own, including time to throw or defensive targets (mostly out of habit), but he and defensive quality control coach Matt Raich lean on Pro Football Focus to shave time off their research. Before the Cowboys game, for instance, it took them less than 30 minutes to pull up all the shotgun plays Dallas had used during its previous five games. They were able to discern the personnel groups, in part, by looking at the play diagrams and corresponding video footage. “As soon as you get an idea what the team is doing, it helps with guys like Ndamukong Suh and Ezekiel Ansah, because you can say, when they’re in shotgun, pin your ears back and go get ’em,” Cunningham says. “It’s not guesswork.” If the Lions were playing New England, Cunningham adds, he could quickly sort the PFF database for all offensive plays with unbalanced lines to help prepare for the Patriots’ eligible/ineligible gambit......

....Cunningham agrees with some of Zimmer’s criticism. Even after spending five seasons as the Lions’ defensive coordinator, Cunningham found it initially difficult to wrap his head around what everyone is supposed to be doing in Teryl Austin’s new system. So PFF analysts grading players without knowing the defensive call is one area, he says, “where they are a little bit short.” But Cunningham has also seen the reverse: coaches grading favorite players more easily, or giving themselves too much credit for placing a player in the correct position when he makes a play. When one Lions player raised a stink about how Pro Football Focus graded him this season, Cunningham checked the PFF grades against his own analysis. “I wanted so much to tell him,” Cunningham says, “that they were right on the money.”

outsiders does a better job, and draftscout does an even better job (but they don't do advanced metrics, they mainly grade/rank college players).

I like Football Outsiders and nfldraftscout/cbs too but they offer different services then PFF.