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QBs in Focus: McGloin & Pryor

qb-month-mcgloin-pryorThough we certainly miss football during the offseason, it’s always a good time to take a step back and analyze our plethora of data.

We’re often so busy grading and collecting data during the season that we’re unable to put a lot of the information to good use. With that said, we’ve decided to declare June as “QB Month” as we break down NFL quarterbacks every which way.

We’re going to examine quarterbacks from a number of situations before looking at each of them individually. The grades and numbers should reveal each quarterback’s strengths and weaknesses from the 2013 season.

As we go through this series, it’s important to understand the relationship between QB Rating (NFL’s version) and PFF Grade.

While QB Rating is obviously supposed to be a QB statistic, it’s actually a better gauge of what the entire offense did in a given situation. This is the type of information that is actually extremely valuable to our NFL team customers as their game planning efforts must go towards stopping an entire passing offense, not just the quarterback.

If the quarterback throws an easy dump off pass to the RB who then weaves through the defense for the touchdown, it’s certainly not a great indicator of quarterbacking skill as it is the running back and defense accounting for the majority of the work on the play. Of course the QB Rating will look quite shiny in that situation.

On the other hand, PFF Grade is a good indicator of how well the quarterback actually performed in a given situation. Whether they throw an accurate pass that was dropped, or perhaps an inaccurate one that should have been intercepted and the defense dropped, the PFF grade will account for those situations with a positive and a negative grade respectively while QB Rating will simply reflect the 0-for-1 passing.

It’s important to distinguish between QB Rating and PFF grade, though there’s a good chance they’ll match up in most situations.

After taking a look at the entire league in various situations, it’s time to break down each quarterback individually.

Matt McGloin

Matt McGloin

Matt McGloin (2)

Matt McGloin (3)

All categories with a * are normalized so that the league average is 0.0.

Positives

•  Graded at +1.0 on passes traveling at least 20 yards in the air.
•  Showed well on passes thrown outside the numbers to the right (+5.4).
•  Graded at +1.4 on passes lasting 2.6 to 3.0 seconds.
•  Graded at +3.0 on go routes.

Negatives

•  Fifth-lowest grade on passes thrown in the 1-to-10-yard range (-7.3).
•  Struggled on throws in between the numbers (-7.0).
•  Graded at -9.0 when pressured.
•  Graded at -4.2 on drop-backs lasting two seconds or less and -3.1 on passes lasting 3.1 to 3.5 seconds.
•  Graded at -7.0 when throwing to the slot (by alignment).
•  Struggled on crossing routes (-4.4) and hitches (-2.3).

Tendencies

•  17.8% of passes traveled at least 20 yards in the air; second-highest in the league.
•  Faced the blitz on 38.6% of drop-backs; third-highest in the league.
•  40.5% of drop-backs went at least 9 yards; fourth-highest in the league.
•  Threw to the slot only 21.8% of the time (league average: 29.2%).
•  Threw 29.9% of passes to running backs; second-highest in the league.
•  17.3% of attempts were go routes; highest in the league.

 

Terrelle Pryor

Terrelle Pryor

Terrelle Pryor (2)

Terrelle Pryor (3)

All categories with a * are normalized so that the league average is 0.0.

Positives

•  Graded at +4.5 on 3rd-and-medium
•  Graded at +2.8 on drop-backs lasting 2.6 to 3.0 seconds.
•  Posted positive grade when using play action (+0.1).

Negatives

•  Graded at -9.1 on third down including a -8.4 grade on 3rd-and-long.
•  Fifth-lowest grade on passes thrown in 1-to-10-yard range.
•  Graded at -6.0 on passes thrown at least 20 yards in the air.
•  Graded at -7.5 on passes thrown outside the numbers to the right.
•  Fourth-lowest grade when pressured (-17.2).
•  Graded at -10.3 on 7-to-8-yard drop-backs.
•  Struggled on drop-backs lasting 2.5 seconds or less (-11.7).
•  Graded at -5.3 on post routes.

Tendencies

•  83.7% of drop-backs came out of the shotgun or pistol; seventh-highest in the league.
•  Used the pistol on 13.1% of drop-backs; fourth-highest in the league.
•  10.7% of drop-backs were designed rollouts and a league-high 16.6% of drop-backs broke the pocket.
•  2.8% of passes traveled at least 30 yards in the air; fourth-lowest in the league.
•  Faced pressure on 46.9% of drop-backs; highest in the league.
•  39.5% of drop-backs lasted at least 3.6 seconds; highest in the league.
•  Threw to tight ends only 14.5% of the time; lowest in the league.
•  Threw go routes only 6.8% of the time; third-lowest in the league.

 

For the entire set of “Quarterbacks in Focus” posts, click here.

 

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