We’re deep into the offseason, and with training camp still about two months away, most of the talk around the Minnesota Vikings right now centers on what others are saying about the team. With that in mind, we came across a recent list from a well-known analytics site that left us scratching our heads.
Pro Football Focus (PFF) recently released its “All-PFF” team — a list highlighting the NFL’s best players over the past 25 years. If you had to guess which Minnesota Viking made the cut — even just as an Honorable Mention — who would come to mind?
Adrian Peterson? Nope.
Jared Allen? Not him.
Harrison Smith? Try again.
Randy Moss? Believe it or not, no.
The only Viking to make the list is…Antoine Winfield.
Winfield, whose NFL career began in 1999, posted stellar performances in the PFF era during his final seven seasons. He ranked among the top 10 cornerbacks five times and was the highest-graded cornerback in three seasons from 2006 to 2012. He holds a top-10 all-time coverage grade (92.3) and has the best run-defense grade (94.7) among 355 cornerbacks evaluated since 2006. His 107 run stops are tied for second all-time among corners, and his 2.47-yard average depth of tackle versus the run is the best since 2006.
As a longtime Winfield supporter, I’m glad to see him recognized. But the overall team list shows why relying solely on this kind of analysis can be confusing.
Let’s talk about the glaring omission: Randy Moss. Leaving Moss off a list of the best NFL players from the last 25 years — not even giving him an Honorable Mention — is, frankly, absurd. He was a first-ballot Hall of Famer. That alone should place him among the elite. But since this list is based strictly on PFF grades, Moss doesn’t make the cut.
The three wideouts selected were Julio Jones, Antonio Brown, and Tyreek Hill, with Calvin Johnson as the Honorable Mention. Honestly, Johnson belongs ahead of those three, and Moss is clearly above him. That’s where this list starts to go off the rails. Jones, Brown, and Hill are all-time talents, sure — but they aren’t on Randy Moss’ level.
As we often say about PFF, their data can be helpful, but it isn’t the be-all, end-all. If your grading system somehow excludes Randy Moss from a list of the best wide receivers of the past 25 years, it might be time to re-evaluate that system.