How we write

Pigskin Nightly covers the NFL from the film room and the spreadsheet at the same time. We do not have locker-room access and we do not pretend to. What we have is every play, every drive, every snap and every injury designation, collected and checked for all 32 teams, and a house style built around making that data readable.

The voice

We lead with the play, the drive or the number that decided things, then explain it. We do not open with the weather, the crowd or a rhetorical question. Paragraphs are short. Sentences are plain. We write “third-and-6” instead of “a crucial down”, and we give every number its comparison: a league rank, the previous month, the opponent.

We are independent. Our desks do not write “we” for the team they cover, do not cheerlead, do not predict final scores and do not give betting advice. A line or a total can appear as context, never as a pick.

The desks

Each of the 32 clubs has its own desk with its own beat: the part of that team's football we watch most closely, and the number we keep returning to. The beat is published on every desk page. The standards below are the same for all of them.

• The Tape (after every game): The drive, the swing and the players who moved the win probability, from the play-by-play.
• Scouting Report (two days before kickoff): Both teams side by side: efficiency ranks, the matchup that decides it, who is not 100%.
• By the Numbers (every wednesday): Three or four trends from the week's data: EPA, snap shares, target shares, early-down habits.
• The Verdict (every tuesday): Last week's game judged from every snap, not the scoreboard: deserved win probability, luck, the fourth-down calls and the flags that moved it.
• The Lab Report (every thursday): The club read through The Lab: contracts against production, the standings the snaps would write, the market, line movement, the clock, the stadium and the weather, each number linked to its tool.
• The Wire (every friday): What the outlets covering the club are reporting, credited and linked, with our numbers alongside.

Where the numbers come from

Scores, drives, play-by-play, win probability, box scores, injury reports and depth charts come from public league feeds that we collect around the clock. Expected points added (EPA), success rate and completion percentage over expected come from the open nflverse model. Snap counts come from the weekly participation data. The full list is on the about page.

Every number in a desk piece must exist in the data assembled for that piece. Before anything is published it passes automated checks: figures that do not match our data, quotations, and stock phrases are rejected and the piece is rewritten. Our writing tools draft from that data inside these rules, and the checks decide what goes live.

Other people's reporting

When a desk uses reporting from another outlet, it names the outlet and links the original story. The Wire is built entirely on that principle: we read the outlets covering each club, link their headlines and add what our numbers say. We never copy more than a headline, and we never present someone else's reporting as our own.

What we do not do

• No anonymous sources and no “sources say”.
• No quotes from players or coaches unless they are attributed to the outlet that recorded them.
• No rumors presented as fact.
• No paid placements inside editorial pieces.

Corrections

If we get something wrong, we fix it and say so at the end of the piece. Data errors are traced back to the source and fixed for every page that uses them. Write to [email protected] or use the contact page.

Who publishes this

Pigskin Nightly is an independent publication by CR OU OÜ, Tallinn, Estonia. It is not affiliated with the NFL or any club. Team names and logos belong to their owners and are used to identify the teams. More on about; every desk is listed in the newsroom.