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There’s more to playing cornerback than just covering receivers. Granted that’s the most important skill they possess, but playing corner comes with other responsibilities too.

It’s these responsibilities that we’re turning our attention to now as we look at which cornerbacks made the biggest impact in the run game using our “Run Stop Percentage” Signature Stat for the spot. That means not just looking at who made how many tackles, but sifting out only those that came against the run. Then we decipher whether or not those tackles constituted defensive stops and relating all of that to how much they were on the field for rushing plays.

So let’s get to it.   Read the rest of this entry »

Numbers. They can jump out at you and make an immediate impact. When you see that Roman Harper ended the year with 7.5 sacks, you can’t help but think wow. After all, defensive backs aren’t meant to produce that many sacks.

But numbers without context are just part of the picture, and with all due respect to the Saints’ safety, his sack numbers don’t tell the whole tale. A blitzing defensive back is likely to generate bigger sack numbers based purely on the number of times they blitz, so before praising Harper we need to look at how often he rushed compared to his peers and the results they all produced.

That’s where our Pass Rushing Productivity study comes in pretty handy. It looks at how often a player rushes the passer to see how productive they are by using the simple formula:

((Sacks + 0.75*(Hits+Hurries)) / Pass Rushes) * 100 = Pass Rushing Productivity

So let’s see how the defensive backs did in 2011.   Read the rest of this entry »

Through a collection of pieces, we’ve put together the Official Pro Football Focus Top 101 players of the 2011 year. If you want some in-depth explanation of why these players made the list then click on the following individual posts to find out why:

101-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1

If you just want a look at the order of the Top 101, then read on below. If you want to comment on the list, email mailbag@profootballfocus.com

For what it’s worth, no team had more representatives on the list than the Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans, Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles, and San Francisco 49ers, each contributing six players. Only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts had no players make the list.

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We’re almost there–today’s the day we’re going to tell you who we thought was the NFL’s best player in the 2011 season.

But before we get there we need to reach the Top 10, and that leaves us a little ground to cover: our selection for No.’s 20 to 11. If you’ve missed any of the countdown so far, you can catch up here: 101-91, 90-81, 80-71, 70-61, 60-51, 50-41, 40-31 and 30-21.

Our analysis team decided on the list using some select criteria which is important to remember:

• It was based solely on 2011.
• It was based on an ethos of all positions created equal. This isn’t about the most valuable players; otherwise there would be a lot more quarterbacks. This is about looking at what is expected from a position and who most exceeded that.

Time to start the countdown from 20.

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The Pro Football Focus Top 101 will finally be complete tomorrow, but today we still need to get ourselves down to the Top 20. After we released our 40-31 rankings earlier today (to add to the previous 101-91, 90-81, 80-71, 70-61, 60-51 and 50-41), we’re now counting down from 30 to 21.

As per the norm, we’ve used some specific criteria to help us select our players:

• It was based solely on 2011.
• It was based on an ethos of all positions created equal. This isn’t about the most valuable players; otherwise there would be a lot more quarterbacks. This is about looking at what is expected from a position and who most exceeded that.

Let’s count down to 20.

Read the rest of this entry »

Day 4 in the unveiling of our Top 101 NFL players from the 2011 season, and that means we’re kicking off the first of our two parts for the day by looking at those who finished between 40 and 31.

If you’ve missed it, you can catch up with the previous countdowns (101-91, 90-81, 80-71, 70-61, 60-51 and 50-41) by clicking on their nicely highlighted links. If you’re new to what our Top 101 is all about then know this criteria:

• It was based solely on 2011.
• It was based on an ethos of all positions created equal. This isn’t about the most valuable players; otherwise there would be a lot more quarterbacks. This is about looking at what is expected from a position and who most exceeded that.

Let’s count down from 40.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’re now over halfway through our Top 101 players of the 2011 NFL season, and we’re about to move a step closer to the top. After unveiling our No.’s 60-51 earlier today (to go with the already-published 101-91, 90-81, 80-71 and 70-61 ), we’re now heading into the Top 50.

Our analysts (who created the list after one of the lengthier discussions of each man’s life), used some select criteria to help create the list:

• It was based solely on 2011.
• It was based on an ethos of all positions created equal. This isn’t about the most valuable players; otherwise there would be a lot more quarterbacks. This is about looking at what is expected from a position and who most exceeded that.

Let’s kick off the second half of our Top 101.   Read the rest of this entry »

Four pieces down, and on to day three we go: counting down from 60 to 51 in the fifth installment of the Pro Football Focus Top 101.

If you’ve missed any of our previous pieces, you can catch them at 101-91, 90-81, 80-71 and 70-61 as we work our way toward our top player of 2011. As ever, our analysis team used some important criteria to help them create the list:

• It was based solely on 2011.
• It was based on an ethos of all positions created equal. This isn’t about the most valuable players; otherwise there would be a lot more quarterbacks. This is about looking at what is expected from a position and who most exceeded that.

Now let’s complete the first half.

Read the rest of this entry »

Day 2 of the countdown to our top player of 2011, and time for today’s second piece as we get nearer to the top. You’ve already read the parts that looked at 101 to 91, 90 to 81, and 80 to 71, so up next we’re breaking down the players who were judged to be between the 70th- and 61st-best players in the NFL in 2011 by our analysis team.

As ever, it’s important to remember some of the criteria used:

• It was based solely on 2011.
• It was based on an ethos of all positions created equal. This isn’t about the most valuable players; otherwise there would be a lot more quarterbacks. This is about looking at what is expected from a position and who most exceeded that.

Let’s continue counting down.   Read the rest of this entry »

The fun started yesterday as we kicked off our Top 101 players of 2011 with a look at numbers 101-91 and then 90 to 81. Well today, in the first of two installments, we’re going be looking at the guys who finished between 80 and 71 as we get ever closer to naming our best player in 2011.

As ever, there are some criteria to remember when looking at these rankings:

• It was based solely on 2011.
• It was based on an ethos of all positions created equal. This isn’t about the most valuable players; otherwise there would be a lot more quarterbacks. This is about looking at what is expected from a position and who most exceeded that.

Now let’s get part three done!   Read the rest of this entry »