"Sunday Night Football" is going to look slightly different in 2026. No, they didn't change the scoreboard, broadcast duo, or sideline reporters. NBC instead decided to ditch the folks over at Pro Football Focus — removing the company's player rankings from player intros and replacing them with the players' hometowns -- and debuted the look during the season opener between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks on Wednesday.
Rodger Sherman provided an example of the new graphics package in a post to X. PFF grades have been a fixture of NBC’s broadcast for years, appearing on screen next to player names throughout the game. Cris Collinsworth, the lead color analyst for the network, was the owner of the sports analytics company from 2014-2026.
Teamworks purchased the company earlier this year and will operate it under its own name and brand, while the consumer-facing side was spun off into a separate company. Collinsworth stayed on in an advisory role as part of the deal, but that wasn't enough for him to keep those numbers on the screen during the biggest games of the regular season. PFF grades themselves have never been without controversy, as we saw CBS analyst J.J.
Watt go on "The Pat McAfee Show" last season and dump all over the methodology. NBC washed its hands of that criticism this season, which will surely open the door for something else.
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