Examining Pressure: QB Play

Steve Palazzolo shares even more data as he continues his examination of pressure. This time the focus is on the quarterback and how they perform when faced with various forms ...

Steve Palazzolo | 4 years ago

Examining Pressure: QB Play

Steve Palazzolo 4 years ago

After diving into the effects of pressure as it comes from various positions and going further in-depth on the overrated left tackle position, it’s time to take a look at how individual quarterbacks are affected by different types of pressure. The first two pieces consist of a more general view of the NFL, and perhaps they’ve already helped influence at least one team’s NFL Draft strategy, but this breakdown is looking for trends in specific quarterback performance.

Are some quarterbacks more vulnerable from the inside? Off the edge? From a particular side? We’ve called upon our five years of extensive data (2008-2012) to answer some of these questions.

As you read and digest the numbers, please keep in mind that certain charts may be skewed by small sample sizes. For instance, much more pressure comes through the tackle positions than does from center so quarterback numbers when facing edge rush pressure may be more indicative of future performance than pressure that comes from center.

Enough of the caveats, let’s take a look.

When Facing No Pressure

Let’s start with the easy stuff. Who are the top quarterbacks in a clean pocket? As expected, the league’s best perform well when given time to throw:

Quarterback	Dropbacks	Att	Comp	Comp%	Yds	Yds/Att	TD	INT	PFF Grade	QB Rating
Drew Brees	2584	2567	1860	72.5%	21766	8.5	177	56	211.9	111.7
Aaron Rodgers	2346	2233	1584	70.9%	19144	8.6	157	36	181.8	113.6
Matt Ryan	2177	2110	1433	67.9%	16126	7.6	109	44	141.9	99.1
Philip Rivers	2008	1978	1399	70.7%	17252	8.7	120	47	137.1	107.7
Peyton Manning	2045	2040	1451	71.1%	15777	7.7	127	35	137.0	107.2
Tom Brady	2021	2006	1404	70.0%	16611	8.3	126	31	123.0	109.4
Ben Roethlisberger	1913	1876	1243	66.3%	15091	8.0	85	39	107.0	97.3
Matt Schaub	1828	1805	1291	71.5%	15420	8.5	85	41	101.3	103.5
Eli Manning	2056	2034	1347	66.2%	15884	7.8	114	47	100.0	98.9
Joe Flacco	2153	2122	1375	64.8%	16233	7.6	92	42	95.0	94.2
Tony Romo	1797	1773	1242	70.1%	14573	8.2	98	37	68.7	104.4

Sorry Arizona fans, but this list of the worst with no pressure is dominated by current and former Cardinals:

Quarterback	Dropbacks	Att	Comp	Comp%	Yds	Yds/Att	TD	INT	PFF Grade	QB Rating
Brady Quinn	400	386	232	60.1%	2440	6.3	8	10	-10.2	74.6
Matt Leinart	121	120	76	63.3%	687	5.7	1	5	-10.5	64.1
JaMarcus Russell	443	430	243	56.5%	2846	6.6	13	11	-10.7	76.2
Daunte Culpepper	198	187	109	58.3%	1140	6.1	3	6	-12.5	68.0
Curtis Painter	219	214	122	57.0%	1366	6.4	5	7	-13.0	70.3
Brandon Weeden	403	395	246	62.3%	2799	7.1	12	10	-14.3	83.1
Ryan Lindley	139	138	77	55.8%	610	4.4	0	7	-14.8	45.9
Marc Bulger	576	568	340	59.9%	3560	6.3	15	15	-18.7	75.9
Blaine Gabbert	530	518	290	56.0%	2955	5.7	14	13	-19.1	71.1
Derek Anderson	584	572	305	53.3%	3538	6.2	15	19	-23.1	67.2
John Skelton	434	427	250	58.5%	2829	6.6	12	17	-25.2	71.3

When Facing Any Pressure

Now who are the best quarterbacks when pressured?

Rodgers is the best in the league when under heat and it’s not all that close. It’s certainly impressive to see a number of rookies on this list despite having the small sample of only one season under their belt. Notice the quick drop-offs into negative PFF grades – pressure has a major effect on the quarterback.

Quarterback	Drop-backs	Comp%	Yds/Att	TD	INT	Sack%	Knockdown%	PFF Grade	QB Rating
Aaron Rodgers	979	49.0%	6.8	31	14	22.3%	43.1%	29.0	78.1
Russell Wilson	212	45.5%	5.8	5	3	18.9%	37.7%	10.9	67.2
Peyton Manning	665	54.6%	6.6	14	25	10.5%	34.3%	10.2	65.3
Ryan Tannehill	163	50.8%	7.1	3	4	21.5%	43.6%	4.6	68.6
Robert Griffin III	168	54.6%	7.6	5	2	19.0%	46.4%	4.4	86.9
Cam Newton	412	46.5%	6.8	10	10	17.2%	36.7%	4.3	66.3
Ben Roethlisberger	935	52.6%	7.0	30	21	23.5%	44.1%	2.5	77.0
Shaun Hill	283	47.6%	5.3	3	5	20.5%	44.5%	1.1	58.7
Colin Kaepernick	117	48.1%	6.4	0	3	17.9%	35.9%	-1.3	52.4
Trent Edwards	252	52.2%	5.9	5	6	22.2%	57.1%	-1.5	65.6
Andrew Luck	289	39.4%	6.1	7	8	14.9%	43.6%	-1.6	56.0
Eli Manning	961	49.3%	7.0	29	36	13.4%	34.8%	-2.2	65.7
Nick Foles	108	50.0%	6.3	1	1	18.5%	46.3%	-4.9	68.9
Tyler Thigpen	147	36.5%	4.9	3	5	22.4%	35.4%	-5.7	41.7
Jon Kitna	133	55.6%	5.6	3	2	27.1%	39.1%	-6.1	73.5

This list of the worst performing QBs when pressured is littered with former first round picks including three who went No. 1 overall in Russell (2007), Stafford (2009), and Bradford (2010). In addition to the youngsters, there’s a nice mix of veterans who found themselves at the tail end of their respective careers during the PFF era.

Quarterback	Drop-backs	Comp%	Yds/Att	TD	INT	Sack%	Knockdown%	PFF Grade	QB Rating
JaMarcus Russell	252	40.8%	4.7	3	8	23.8%	44.4%	-27.5	42.9
Brett Favre	415	47.5%	5.8	15	22	21.0%	50.6%	-27.9	53.0
Sam Bradford	555	41.5%	4.7	11	9	18.6%	43.8%	-28.8	55.9
Matthew Stafford	541	42.0%	5.8	15	17	16.5%	42.3%	-32.1	56.4
Donovan McNabb	644	44.3%	5.5	13	12	18.6%	40.2%	-32.8	60.4
Matt Schaub	803	47.5%	5.9	22	16	15.3%	42.0%	-34.0	67.1
Tony Romo	842	50.7%	6.7	26	23	16.7%	40.6%	-36.8	70.7
Jake Delhomme	273	39.2%	5.0	2	20	19.4%	47.3%	-37.4	19.4
Kyle Orton	558	44.8%	5.5	12	19	17.7%	36.2%	-39.9	53.2
Matt Hasselbeck	535	47.6%	5.2	10	22	21.1%	46.9%	-42.3	49.0
Josh Freeman	753	46.8%	5.2	22	25	13.4%	34.1%	-46.3	57.5
Joe Flacco	977	45.7%	5.6	30	22	20.7%	44.9%	-53.5	64.7
Matt Cassel	727	41.0%	5.0	17	25	21.5%	46.6%	-56.1	47.9
Ryan Fitzpatrick	672	41.5%	4.6	10	27	19.5%	46.6%	-62.1	38.8
Mark Sanchez	602	37.7%	4.9	11	21	20.8%	43.5%	-70.9	42.9

Now that we have a general background, let’s take a look at the best and worst quarterbacks when the pressure comes from a specific position.

Go to Page 2 for breakdowns of QB play when pressure comes from left tackle, right tackle, etc.

Steve Palazzolo | Senior Analyst

Steve is a senior analyst at Pro Football Focus. His work has been featured on ESPN Insider, NBC Sports, and 120 Sports.
Follow @PFF_Steve

Fintasy

Strange how Ryan Tannehill is better under pressure than without
- Richard
  
  Tannehill was hampered by a poor cast of receivers last year. Not a Dolphins fan, but I caught several of their games. I think Tannehill does better against the blitz because that made it easier for his receivers to get open.
  
  When teams hung back and only rushed 4 guys, his receivers couldn’t get open, so his numbers suffered (even when not pressured) because he didn’t have any open targets to throw to. I don’t think he’ll be a ProBowler this year or anything, but I do expect he’ll make the jump into a top-15 QB based on stuff like this and the upgrades his team made to their receivers.
- Richard
  
  Tannehill was hampered by a poor cast of receivers last year. Not a Dolphins fan, but I caught several of their games. I think Tannehill does better against the blitz because that made it easier for his receivers to get open.
  
  When teams hung back and only rushed 4 guys, his receivers couldn’t get open, so his numbers suffered (even when not pressured) because he didn’t have any open targets to throw to. I don’t think he’ll be a ProBowler this year or anything, but I do expect he’ll make the jump into a top-15 QB based on stuff like this and the upgrades his team made to their receivers.
  - lol
    
    when a team rushes 4 it’s pressure, when they rush 5 or more it’s a blitz.
jasoncongo

I don’t understand how Romo has such a low PFF grade, with no pressure every stat (except total yards) is better than Ben R, yet his PFF rating is nearly 40 points lower?

With pressure, he’s less than 1 point ahead of Jake D, who has 2 TDs and 20 INTs compared to Romo’s 26 TD to 23 INTs?!? Not to mention by his QB Rating (I know a flawed statistic) he would be top 5 under pressure.
- Warren
  
  Not a particular fan of Romo but someone at PFF dislikes the man. Every category where Romo scores near the bottom are better than everyone else’s in the bad category and comparable to the ones that score highest. Isn’t even close in some of them.
  - Steve Palazzolo
    
    I can assure you we have no bias against Romo.
    - Gainedm
      
      Thanks for the assurance, but an explanation would have been better.
    - targethead
      
      I’d like to see some math. Maybe the PFF grades are accurate, but a cursory glance at the numbers makes the grades extremely hard to buy.
      - Steve Palazzolo
        
        We grade based on every single throw, and stats have nothing to do with our grading. We separate the QB’s involvement in things like yards after the catch, so a WR screen that results in an 80-yard TD vs. one that goes for -2 yards is likely graded in a similar manner. We look beyond the stats and each throw is graded with no bias toward any player.
        Not all interceptions are created equal. Some are the WR’s fault. Again, we account for everything.
      - Not Amused
        
        So again, you get to rank players, grade them against all logic and just claim you have a formula that makes your “numbers” work? You have Jake Delhomme with 2 tds, 20 ints, 39% completion percentage and a 19.4 QB rating ranked over guys with MUCH better numbers. No matter how many passes/drops/or whatever you’d like to suggest, there is no way in the world you can have numbers that pitiful and have a better or comparable rating to other NFL Qbs(Romo is only 1 point better, Flacco is a few points worse)
      - PFF_Pete
        
        Keep in mind that these grade are from the last 5 seasons, in which Delhomme started just 31 games. Since our grades are cumulative, limited snaps are presumably the only thing that saved him from being even lower on this list.
      - lol
        
        Don’t be ridiculous, if a QB like ROMO throws to Dez and Dez does all the work, they make adjustments so ROMO doesn’t get all the credit.
      - jasoncongo
        
        Yes, but how do you account for everything? For example, in the bears game last season Romo threw 5 picks. The first 3 I think the blame could have been placed on the WR (Dez didn’t read the hot route, Ogletree had a case of the dropsies, and I can’t recall the 3rd) and the last 2 were all on Romo for trying to do too much to come back from the early deficit. Are you saying an inaccurate pass which falls incomplete is the same grade as a pick 6? How are you assured that it was the QB (or WR) who was at fault in a particular int where they clearly weren’t on the same page?
GBPFan

So basically, Rodgers has been lighting up the NFL in spite of being one of the most pressured QBs in the league?

Give him an oline that can block and see what he can do without that constant pressure.
vwclaymore

Another reason Geno needs to start and not Sanchez.
Matt

So in the “Interior Rush Combined” category, Romo vs. Hasselbeck does not compute. Romo has 10% higher completion percentage, far better TD/INT ratio (8-5>1-8 Hasselbeck), and over twice the QB Rating, yet Hasselbeck gets a higher score. How anyone can conclude Hasselbeck 40.7 Comp % 1-8 Td/INT ratio and 30.4 QB Rating makes you better than Romo 50.3 Comp % 8-5 Td/INT ratio and 76.1 Qb rating is beyond me. Apparently the knockdown/Sack % being lower means your better even though your far worse in every category. Makes very little sense lol.
- matt
  
  Sorry, this is about Jake Delhomme, not Hasselbeck, put the wrong name.
Kal

Very good information, but shouldn’t there be a normalization of the pff grade to drop-backs to give a more accurate comparison of the quarterbacks?
Jeff

So what you are telling me is that Sanchez sucks. Even with an All-Pro line for 2yrs he sucked, with a mediocre line in 2011 he was awful, and with an above average line in 2012 he was god-awful.

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