2011 Pass Blocking Efficiency: Running Backs

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Each and every year I begin my breakdown of running backs in pass protection by reminding everyone that there’s more to the position than just rushing. Sure, it’s more important what they do with the ball in their hands, but having a back who can pick up the blitz and keep pressure off his quarterback is an invaluable tool that provides offenses with an extra level of protection and versatility.

Normally, this article would give me an opportunity to wax lyrical about Clinton Portis (the 2008-2010 king of the pass-protecting backs), but with him taking the year off, who would step up and establish themselves as the new man to beat?

Let’s break down those pass blocking backs!  

(For the purpose of this article, we only looked at running backs who stayed into pass protect at least 50 times and note that we do not count chip blocks as a pass block).

 

Staying In

The place to start when looking at backs in pass pro, is to see which of them are doing it most frequently. If nothing else, it shows as which teams either have faith in their guy … or which just need an extra body in there to make up for what’s on the offensive line. Rather interestingly, it’s Michael Bush, formerly of the Raiders, who led the league in staying into pass block in 2011, doing so on 144 occasions. That was four more times than every-down back LeSean McCoy of the Philadelphia Eagles, and six more times than Frank Gore. The conclusion? If you’re going to be an every-down guy, you’re going to need to earn the trust of your coaches in pass protection.

 

Rank	Name	Team	Pass Block Snaps
1	Michael Bush	OAK	144
2	LeSean McCoy	PHI	140
3	Frank Gore	SF	138
4	Steven Jackson	SL	122
5	Ahmad Bradshaw	NYG	105
6	Beanie Wells	ARZ	103
7	Ray Rice	BLT	102
8	Kregg Lumpkin	TB	97
9	Jonathan Stewart	CAR	96
10	Adrian L. Peterson	MIN	83

 

It’s All Relative

A number of greater significance than how many times a back stayed in, is what percentage of times a back stayed in relative to the number of passing plays they were a part of. There are a number of possibilities why backs Jackie Battle and Daniel Thomas spent nearly half of their passing plays blocking, be it a lack of faith in their work as a receiver or a lack of faith in their offensive lines’ blocking. However you want to spin it (and it should be noted both men gave up little pressure), you can’t ignore that they spent a significantly higher percentage of time blocking than other backs, which probably has a little something to do with cautious coaches doing everything they can to keep their quarterback upright.

 

Rank	Name	Team	Passing Plays	Pass Block Snaps	Pass Block %
1	Jackie Battle	KC	136	64	47.1
2	Daniel Thomas	MIA	177	79	44.6
3	Isaac Redman	PIT	194	77	39.7
4	Frank Gore	SF	352	138	39.2
5	Ahmad Bradshaw	NYG	281	105	37.4
6	Michael Bush	OAK	385	144	37.4
7	Felix Jones	DAL	207	74	35.7
8	Beanie Wells	ARZ	293	103	35.2
9	Joseph Addai	IND	216	74	34.3
10	Adrian L. Peterson	MIN	248	83	33.5

 

Feeling the Pressure

So we’ve looked at who is staying in the most often, now how about who is giving up the most pressure? In sheer numerical terms, that man is LeSean McCoy who gave up a sack, three hits, and 14 hurries. You have to feel for McCoy, he’s not helped by having nobody to spell him, nor by having a quarterback who is always going to hold onto the ball more than others. That number is still alarmingly high, but at least McCoy is a feature back. Imagine being Kregg Lumpkin, a third-down back who gave up 16 combined sacks, hits, and hurries. If you’re on the field in obvious passing situations, you simply need to do better than that.

 

Rank	Name	Team	Sacks Allowed	Hits Allowed	Hurries Allowed	Total Pressure Allowed
1	LeSean McCoy	PHI	1	3	14	18
2	Kregg Lumpkin	TB	3	3	10	16
3	Jonathan Stewart	CAR	1	1	10	12
4	Frank Gore	SF	2	0	8	10
5t	Reggie Bush	MIA	2	4	3	9
5t	Michael Bush	OAK	2	2	5	9
5t	Ray Rice	BLT	2	1	6	9
5t	Steven Jackson	SL	1	2	6	9
5t	Matt Forte	CHI	1	1	7	9
10t	Chris Ogbonnaya	CLV	4	0	4	8
10t	Beanie Wells	ARZ	2	1	5	8

 

Pass Blocking Efficiency

But so what if you gave up some pressure, if you were staying into block a lot? That’s where our Pass Blocking Efficiency signature stat comes in handy. A simple enough formula, we take the combined number of sacks, hits, and hurries (where hits and hurries are worth three quarters that of a sack), divide it by the number of pass blocks and take that away from zero. Like this:

Pass Blocking Efficiency = (1– ((Sacks + 0.75*(Hits + Hurries)) / Pass Blocking Snaps)) * 100

What this tells us is that there isn’t a better back in the league (at least in 2011) than Fred Jackson. But then you don’t need a fancy formula to figure that out as the Bill was the only running back not to give up a single QB disruption all year. That was one less than the Atlanta Falcon duo of Jason Snelling and Michael Turner who each gave up just one piece of pressure to finish second and third.

 

Rank	Name	Team	Pass Block Snaps	Total Pressure Allowed	PBE
1	Fred Jackson	BUF	83	0	100.0
2	Michael Turner	ATL	72	1	99.0
3	Jason Snelling	ATL	57	1	98.2
4	Roy Helu	WAS	78	2	98.1
5	Donald Brown	IND	68	2	97.8
6	Dexter McCluster	KC	65	2	97.7
7	Jackie Battle	KC	64	2	97.7
8	James Starks	GB	71	2	97.5
9	Ahmad Bradshaw	NYG	105	4	97.1
10	LeGarrette Blount	TB	58	2	97.0

 

Down at the other end of the scale, there’s no surprise that Lumpkin finished at the bottom, though at least he didn’t give up the most sacks of any running back. That dubious honor went to Chris Ogbonnaya who was responsible for four sacks, and finished second from the low end in the PBE rankings. Sometimes teams just end up asking too much out of limited talents and that was certainly the case with Ogbonnaya.

 

Rank	Name	Team	Pass Block Snaps	Total Pressure Allowed	PBE
32	Ray Rice	BLT	102	9	92.9
33	Peyton Hillis	CLV	73	7	92.5
34	DeAngelo Williams	CAR	57	5	92.5
35	Justin Forsett	SEA	55	6	91.4
36	Matt Forte	CHI	75	9	90.7
37	Jonathan Stewart	CAR	96	12	90.4
38	LeSean McCoy	PHI	140	18	90.2
39	Reggie Bush	MIA	74	9	90.2
40	Chris Ogbonnaya	CLV	67	8	89.6
41	Kregg Lumpkin	TB	97	16	86.9

 

It will not (nor should it) ever be as important a part of playing running back as rushing the ball, but there’s something to be said for a running back that can prevent pressure from getting to his quarterback. Each unnecessary hit a quarterback takes could be the one that puts them out for the season, so we here at Pro Football Focus can only doth our collective caps to the Jacksons, Turners and Snellings of this world for preventing that. Their thankless task need be thankless no more.

 

 

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