Every stat on this site comes from a named source, and this page is the list. I run Gridiron Decoded on my own, so I can’t ask you to trust me on a reputation I haven’t built yet. What I can do is show you exactly where each number came from and let you check it for yourself. Here is everyone whose work the site relies on, what I use each one for, and why.
Pro-Football-Reference
This is where the stat tables come from. When you see a passing table or a team defence (US spelling: defense) table on the site, those numbers were pulled from Pro-Football-Reference, which keeps a clean, complete record of every NFL season back to 1920 and marks the league averages that let you tell a good number from an ordinary one.
Facts can’t be copyrighted, so reusing a figure with credit is fair, and that is all I do: a small table, the season and the source named underneath it, and a link straight to the page it came from. I don’t copy their database or run bots at their site, both of which they ask people not to do, and both of which would be taking rather than borrowing.
Read them: Pro-Football-Reference.
NFL.com
For the official version of a result or a season total, I go to NFL.com. It is the league’s own site, so when a figure needs to be the settled one rather than the quick one, this is the check. I use the facts, the scores and the stats, not the league’s articles or branded graphics, which are theirs to publish and not mine to lift.
Read them: NFL.com.
NFL Next Gen Stats
Some of the newer numbers you’ll meet, like how much separation a receiver had at the catch or how likely a pass was to be completed, don’t come from someone watching and counting. They come from chips in the players’ shoulder pads and in the ball, tracked many times a second. That tracking is the NFL’s own system, Next Gen Stats, and it is the genuine origin of those advanced figures, so when the site explains one, this is what it points to.
Read them: NFL Next Gen Stats.
ESPN
A couple of specific numbers live at ESPN. Total QBR, the quarterback rating that tries to account for the situation of each throw rather than just the throw itself, is ESPN’s own metric, so when the site explains it or quotes it, ESPN is the source. Beyond that I use ESPN as a second pair of eyes on a result or a stat, and I link to their page rather than rehosting their tables or graphics.
Read them: ESPN NFL.
SumerSports
When the site goes past the basic box score into models and advanced metrics, SumerSports is one of the places I read. It is a football analytics company built by NFL people and data scientists, and a fair amount of their explanation, along with some of their numbers, sits outside the paywall in a free section they call The Zone. Their full toolset is a paid product, so I link to what they publish openly and credit them for it, rather than lifting from behind the subscription.
Read them: SumerSports.
Sam Hoppen, Hoppen to Conclusions
Not every source is a company. Sam Hoppen writes Hoppen to Conclusions, an independent newsletter that turns NFL numbers into plain charts and honest analysis, including a weekly composite power rating that folds several ranking systems into one. When a piece here draws on his work or one of his graphics, it is named and linked to him, never quietly absorbed. Independent analysts are the easiest people to borrow from and forget to credit, and I would rather do the opposite.
Read him: Hoppen to Conclusions.
Quotes, posts and data people share with me
Sometimes the thing worth showing you belongs to someone else: a fan’s breakdown on Reddit, a chart or a clip in a post on X. When I use one, I embed the original post rather than screenshotting it and passing it off as mine, so the credit and the link travel with it and you can go straight to the person who made it.
And if you have your own data, something you tracked or built that isn’t out there anywhere else, I would genuinely like to see it. Share it and I will use it with your name on it and a link to wherever you want readers sent. Owned data is exactly the sort of thing this site should point to, and it will never appear here stripped of who made it.
How I source, and how to correct me
Two habits hold across the whole site. Every table names its season and its source and links to it, so you’re never asked to take a figure on faith. And every number is checked at the source when it goes in, and again when the season’s data updates, rather than copied from an older version of my own page.
I get things wrong sometimes, and I would genuinely rather know. If a number here doesn’t match what you’re seeing at the source, tell me through the about page and I’ll fix it and say what changed. Admitting the mistake is worth more than hiding it.
Common questions about my data
Where does Gridiron Decoded get its stats?
The stat tables come from Pro-Football-Reference, and official results and season totals are checked against NFL.com and ESPN. Advanced tracking figures, like separation or completion probability, come from the NFL’s own Next Gen Stats. For deeper analysis I read and link to SumerSports and the independent newsletter Hoppen to Conclusions. When I quote a Reddit or X post I embed the original and attribute it, and if someone shares their own data I use it with their name on it. Every table on the site names its source and links to it.
Can I trust the numbers on this site?
You don’t have to trust them, you can check them, which is the whole point of this page. Every figure is pulled from the named source, shown with the season it covers, and linked so you can open the original. If one is ever wrong, I would rather you told me and I corrected it than have you take it on faith.
Where to go next
The guides those numbers live in are all here: NFL Stats Decoded for the full map, or go straight to NFL QB Stats Decoded and NFL Defense Stats Decoded. If you want to know who is behind the site, that is the about page.