Elusive Rating

We’ve been taking a look at some of the unique Signature Stats that we keep here at Pro Football Focus to bring everybody, not just PFF Premium subscribers, some of the good stuff.

Last time around we returned for another look at Accuracy Percentage, showing you yet more statistics that prove that Aaron Rodgers is playing, you know, pretty well. This week we’re going to cast our eye over the Elusive Rating once again, where there is no longer a runaway leader, but rather a competition heating up for the top spots.

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Continuing our look at the NFL over the past three seasons, it’s time to turn our attention to the running backs and our Elusive Rating.
 
Already in the books and up on the site are the Elusive Rating studies for 2009 and 2010, so the first task was to run the numbers for 2008, which threw up some interesting stats. If you cast your mind back to the 1,500 yard season that DeAngelo Williams put up that year, it won’t surprise you that he topped the list overall. What might surprise you, though, is that his stable mate followed him as the No. 2 that year as the Panthers packed a formidable one-two punch. Something else worth noting is that Williams’ score of 83.4 is the second best score over the past three seasons (only topped by the ridiculous 89.8 posted by LaGarrette Blount this season.) Read the rest of this entry »

No, this isn’t a write-in letter to an antiques publication or poaching journal, but rather a discussion of a certain Saint, Chris Ivory.
 
Due to some unlikely quirks of the numbers and unmet thresholds involved in last month’s Elusive Rating article (or the fact that I screwed up, whichever doctrine you subscribe to), Chris Ivory didn’t appear in it. When you crunch the numbers though, Ivory would have ranked 2nd only to LaGarrette Blount on the season after he burst on the scene for New Orleans.
 
Not only that, but Ivory’s ER total of 74.1 would have topped the NFL in 2009, and was a full 15.6 higher than anybody not named Blount in 2010. In short, it was a pretty impressive score to fail to appear on the list.
 
Yet the Saints went out of their way to trade the farm in this draft in search of Alabama running back Mark Ingram. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the hardest things in football to achieve is an evaluation of a running back’s performance independent of the blocking in front of him.

Filtering out the play of the other ten guys on offense – as well as the coaching and playcalling – is incredibly difficult to do. Nevertheless, we’ve had a stab at it here at PFF.

You may remember last season we ran an Elusive Rating article. In it, we broke down some interesting numbers from our database and concluded that Seattle’s Justin Forsett, in a limited role for the Seahawks, narrowly edged Jonathan Stewart as 2009’s most elusive back. This season, we’ve crunched the numbers again, and once more, they make for some interesting reading. Read the rest of this entry »

In PFF’s ongoing quest to present the world with unique, insightful statistics, Sam Monson presents the Elusivenessness Rating. The goal of this stat is to filter out the performance of back’s blockers and solely focus on a runner’s contribution… Read the rest of this entry »