Examining Texas A&M's player analytics with PFF's Vinnie Ronca

Key quotes from Vinnie Ronca

"We cover all the basis. As far as our team clients, that's our largest client group and target. We have 23 NFL teams signed up right now and around 15 college teams going into the year. This will be our third season collecting college data. I'm really excited to see us continue to build that database. What it offers the teams is just a chance to scout themselves using our data and to scout their opponents as well. What we can do that is really cool is tie in the mass amounts of data we have into their film system. If they want to pull up every time this wide receiver faced press coverage, we can pull up all those plays and how they graded on those plays. If we want to see every time a corner faced a go route and how they preformed, you can pull up the actual film of those plays as well. It really just makes things a lot more efficient for the teams not having to put together their own scouting notebooks or reports. We provide it for them on a really timely basis."

"For the media clients it gives them access to the premium stats for pro and college. For the Aggies for instance, it would allow you to see, on a weekly basis, how they're preforming and what the grades look like. Stuff like who actually had the highest graded game on offense or defense for A&M, and also how the opponents are looking as well. It kind of gives you an insight into the whole database and those mulitlevel stats that we've been talking about."

"At PFF we grade literally every player on every play of every game. So for that player on every play we give them a grade on a scale of -2.0 to +2.0. Those grades accumulate throughout the game and throughout the course of the season as well. That +22.2 as a grade is a matter of that player's positive and negative grade adding up over the course of the season, giving him is total grade. There is some normalization in there as well for snap counts and things like that. That's really the basis of it. It's an objective look at how a player preformed his role on that play, regardless of the outcome. So if a quarterback throws a great pass and the receiver drops it, the QB is going to get a good grade for that throw and the receiver is going to get docked for the drop. rather than the traditional statbook going down as an incompletion and nobody knows any different. It adds a little more color to the stat and tells a more true story of what happened on the play."

"Exactly, his (Daylon Mack) overall grade will be different than that posted +22.2 most likely. I don't think he, for example, graded out as high as a pass rusher, so that will go into play. I don't think he was a negative grade as a pass rusher but if he was, that negative grade would pull down that 22.2 and his overall grade would be different from that. There are different areas that go into it. There's the overall grade, there's pass rush, run defense, coverage, things like that. It all accumulates and totals into that overall grade."

"Daylon (Mack) was our second highest graded freshman defensive tackle in the nation last season. He had a great freshman year. Terry Beckner Jr. from Missouri as well, I think he was the top graded. The SEC is loaded on the defensive lines. Daylon ended up being the highest graded run defender on the A&M team. He only played about 400 or 500 snaps, so that says a lot. He is the highest graded run defender at defensive tackle returning in the SEC, in the whole league. I think he's going to continue to build on that this season and apparently he's looking more trim. If he gets any quicker off the line I don't know what's going to happen. He's already a beast coming off the line. With Daylon, Zaycoven Henderson and Kingsley Keke both also graded positively last year at defensive tackle. I think with those three A&M is pretty set on the line and of course add in the defensive ends which in my opinion are the best duo in the nation. This defensive line is going to be scary for offenses in the SEC this year."

"Overall, I'm really excited about this season. On offense, probably the biggest question mark, to start with negative, is the offensive line. What has been a strength in the past was a little troublesome last year. Of all the lineman that played at least 25% of the snaps on offense, only one graded positively. It was Mike Matthews and he's gone. With three new starters on the O-line, I think there's a lot of talent there, but that's just a question going into the season. It may take a few weeks for them to gel, but ultimately I think we'll be alright. Receivers, we're just loaded at the wide receiver position between Christian Kirk who was the highest graded freshman receiver for PFF last year and Josh Reynolds who led the SEC in deep pass yardage. He just has a great wide receiver rating which really means when the quarterback throws him the ball good things happen. Skill position wise I think we're set. It's just a matter of can the O-line gel and then Trevor Knight as well."

"We're looking back at 2014 data for Trevor. That's his last full year as a starter. Things could've changed since then but that's what we have to go off of. Looking at the positive with Trevor, I looked at his passing chart and it breaks down each quadrant of the field and how he graded there. It's very clear to see that in the intermediate range is where he excelled. It's definitely a comfort level there. I think he posted a 11.8 grade on those routes. He's definitely at ease throwing in that range. Another thing is that he gets the ball out quickly. On average it took him 2.45 seconds to get the ball out from snap to pass attempt and that was one of the quicker rates in the nation. Going back to the offensive line concern going into the season, I think that's a good sign. I think that will blend well with Mazzone's offense. If Trevor can get the ball out quickly and make decisive throws, that should bode well for the offense."

"Running back is a bit of a question too. Again, definitely talent there. Keith Ford, looking back at 2014 data, he graded positively with a +2.4 with about a 4.5-yard average a carry. Again not a huge sample size to go off of. James White as well. Two years ago he showed a lot of promise and then just couldn't stay healthy last season. I think the most snaps he played was 32 in a game last year. In the SEC you want to get your running back more than 32 carries throughout the game, he only had 32 snaps. You definitely want to see him stay healthy and I think there's ability with both of them. Trayveon Williams excites me in the back field. I think he showed a lot of burst and explosiveness in the spring game. If he can get going in the offense, I think he could be a great weapon for Mazzone."

"I think (Justin) Evans had a great first year in Aggieland. I really like his style of play. He's not afraid to make a hit. We saw those highlights of him going up against Derrick Henry and hitting him in the hole and taking him down. Evans did a great job. He had the highest run stop percentage of all of the safeties on the team. He was good in the run game and I think he made some plays in coverage as well. This is kind of similar to all of our safeties, I would say is kind of boom or bust. He makes big plays but there's also a lot of miss tackles. He and Armani Watts, I think, were top three in the SEC in tackles at the safety position. They made a lot of tackles, not necessarily a good thing because that means running backs are getting to the second and third level of the defense. But they're there and they made the play. I think he graded out fairly well, kind of in the middle of the pack in the SEC. I think there is definitely tons of room for him to improve this season."

"I think the way it went was (Donovan) Wilson was the highest graded A&M safety. He was the fourth highest graded safety in the SEC. Then Armani was behind him and then Evans."

"(Wilson) was the fourth highest graded safety in the SEC. He graded positively in every category on defense. He was just all over the place making plays. I think he had five interceptions and good amount of pass breakups. He was also a really good pass rusher. A&M used him to break up pass rushing quite a bit. He was just making plays from all different angles and had the highest pass rush productivity in the league from the safety position."

"Richard Moore came in and just killed it. He didn't come in until week seven but made the most of those snaps. He was just very efficient when he was in there during the game, definitely the best run stopping linebacker A&M had last season. The bottom three run defenders on the team were all linebackers. It was much needed when he came in and helped strengthen that linebacker corps. I'm really excited for his potential this year as he continues to grow into that role."

"No doubt about it, Alaka looked good. He had about 102 snaps last year and had a +4.6 run defense grade. Great grades in that small sample size, just a matter of staying healthy and the same with Moore. I know he's a little slighter in frame but if he can hold up over the course of the season it should be great."

"Harvey played 446 snaps last season. We have a number of different measures to grade corners. He looked really good in a lot of those measures.  Quarterbacks only completed 30.8 percent of throws into his coverage which was number one in the country. Projecting that into that starter role, I'm excited to see how that plays out it he can continue that pace. Also in the NFL rating, he only allowed a 30.3 NFL quarterback rating when thrown into his coverage. That was third best in the country so there is a lot of potential there. That's what I'm hoping to see. It's a little bit of an unknown. 440 snaps is a good sample size so I feel pretty good about those projections. We'll see how he does in the starters role and being out there full time."

"With the PFF 101, it's a projection based on who we think is going to be the best college players going into 2016. Using our grades and the different measures we have, we put that list together. Really Steve Palazzolo was the senior analyst who put the list together. He did a great job of it. Looking at the list, there is a ridiculous amount of talent at the SEC. I think there are about 27 players from the SEC on the list. At that, nine of those were edge players, either defensive ends or outside linebackers from the SEC. The conference is just loaded at that position. There were two Aggies on the list, Myles Garrett came in at number two. We're projecting him to be the best defender in the nation going into this year. And Christian Kirk I think came in at 65. He was our highest graded freshman receiver last season. That's good representation on the list and I think we'll see some big things out of those two players this year."

"Big fans of Corey Davis (from Western Michigan). He had our fourth highest wide receiver grade last season in the country. There is a lot of potential, a lot of deep speed and a lot of yards after the catch. He preformed well against power five competition. Also I think versus Michigan State he put up 150 yards. It's not just a matter of weaker competition, he stepped up to the plate when it mattered."