Pro Football Focus majority owner Cris Collinsworth invited detractors of his company’s player grading system to come to their offices and learn more about the process after criticism of the evaluations arose this week.

“Thanks for the attention, you’re helping our sales,” Collinsworth said during a Thursday interview on “The Up & Adams Show.” “It’s easy to criticize if you haven’t seen how the potato chips are made, but an open invitation to all those guys. Anybody who wants to come in and take a look, debate, argue, sit down, pound the table. We’ve had a lot of people do it in the past, and we’ll have a lot of people do it in the future.”

PFF is a sports analytics company used across college football and the NFL. Player grades are one of PFF’s many statistical data points. The grades are particularly recognizable to fans because they are shown under player bios during NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcast, where Collinsworth works as a color commentator.

Although it wasn’t during an SNF game, some player grades shown during Pittsburgh’s 23-9 win over Cleveland last week drew attention, particularly those of Browns defensive end Myles Garrett and Steelers defensive end TJ Watt. Garrett finished with one pressure and two assisted tackles, while Watt finished with six pressures, two pass break-ups, five tackles and 0.5 sacks. Despite a statistically less showy game, Garrett finished with a higher PFF grade than Watt.

Cris Collinsworth on @PFF grades.

In a PFF hat.

Inviting @JJWatt to PFF. @UpAndAdamsShow @CollinsworthPFF pic.twitter.com/xb0z51WOqS

— Kay Adams (@heykayadams) October 16, 2025

On Wednesday, Watt’s brother and former NFL defensive end JJ Watt joined ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” and voiced his grievances with the system.

“I’ve had my issues with PFF for a very long time,” JJ Watt said. “The No. 1 issue with PFF by far, bar none, hands down is their player-grading system and the fact that they project it everywhere, including nationally televised games on Sunday night where everybody’s watching.”

The former Houston Texans star was a three-time PFF Defensive Player of the Year and three-time PFF Best Player of the Year. And while he acknowledged PFF has other beneficial tools, he called the player grades “completely made up.”

“I know defensive line play unbelievably well. I could not go and grade a game for a player and give him a definitive grade without speaking to him, his coach, (learning) the scheme, everything,” Watt said. “PFF has a ton of great stuff; player grading sucks. Stop putting it out.”

PFF lead NFL draft analyst Trevor Sikkema explained the reasoning behind Garrett’s higher evaluation on PFF’s NFL podcast and said it was largely a credit to the Steelers for neutralizing a game-changer like Garrett.

“I thought it was an excellent job from the Pittsburgh Steelers, game planning around Myles Garrett to make him a non-factor in this game,” Sikkema said. “That doesn’t mean that Myles Garrett did not have a good game. I thought he was a presence, he was impactful, he was still winning a lot of his assignments, but by the time he was able to win versus a tight end and versus an offensive tackle, that ball’s gone and Aaron Rodgers knew that.”

Criticism of PFF’s grades is not new, with some arguing the grades lack context. Former NFL defensive end Chris Long made that argument on his podcast “Green Light with Chris Long” this week. In it, Long spoke about seeing Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes ranked 13th of 32 during the Chiefs’ win against the Lions on SNF.

“I want the PFF scores off the TV as bad as I want political ads off the television because God forbid there’s somebody watching the game who doesn’t know who Patrick Mahomes is,” Long said. “They’re going to be badly misguided.”

GET. PFF. GRADES. OFF. TV.

Sincerely, former NFL’er’s pic.twitter.com/T8IkJslve0

— Green Light with Chris Long (@greenlight) October 14, 2025

Collinsworth defended the ranking of Mahomes, pointing to the quarterback’s 98-yard pick six against the Jaguars as a data point that skews his ranking. The Chiefs lost to the Jags 31-28 in Week 5, and Collinsworth added context that after Week 5, player data from the previous season is scrapped from the grading system and replaced with information from the current season only.

“People only want to know what they’re doing this year,” Collinsworth said. “After five games, is Patrick Mahomes where he should be? I would argue, yes.”

Rankings are commonplace for debate and disagreements, and Collinsworth said he understands why players can be offended or frustrated with their grades. He added that PFF is discussing more detailed rankings that go beyond merely position-based, such as listing the best run stopper or best player at pass breakups.

“JJ (Watt), I welcome you, create your own system, I swear to you I’ll put it on the air,” Collinsworth said. “But I doubt anybody else is going to spend the money I have to make this work.”