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Signature Stat Snapshot: Time To Throw

Continuous improvement.

It’s what we’re all about at Pro Football Focus and it’s why I’m happy to say we’ve been working this week to add a new Signature Stat for our Premium Members: Quarterback Time in the Pocket.

It’s a stat that is continuously updated as games go up and looks at a number of things: How long a quarterback has to throw, the average sack time, and difference in completion percentage depending on how long they have to throw.

So let’s give you a look at this. If you want some more info follow and contact @PFF on twitter and ask a question, or just make the smart choice and get yourself subscribed to PFF Premium.

*For this study we looked at all quarterbacks with at least 175 dropbacks, excluding spiked passes.

The best place to start is which quarterback has the longest time to throw. Now to explain what ‘time to throw’ is, we record the time from when the ball is snapped to the point where the quarterback has either thrown a pass or can no longer throw a pass (has been sacked or has scrambled past the line of scrimmage). While logic would say that Michael Vick would be the one holding onto the ball the longest, it’s actually rookie Russell Wilson who leads the way in this regard with Vick second (though the difference is negligible). Meanwhile, nobody takes less time to throw than Tom Brady who has a marginally lower mark than Matt Hasselbeck. Here’s the full list:

There’s a correlation between how long a player takes to throw and how high an average time to sack they have. Wilson not only leads the league in time to throw but also in average time to sack. That’s not going to help the Seahawks’ offensive line look better in much the same way as Alex Smith (second-highest time to sack) and Vick don’t help theirs. At the other end of things, nobody warrants your sympathy more than Kevin Kolb who was not helped by a pass protection unit that saw his average sack coming within 2.3 seconds of the ball being sacked. That’s a ridiculous number that explains how helpless Kolb often was. Again, here’s the full list:

Turn over the page for more interesting data

One of the most interesting things to do is look beyond the average time to throw. There are players who either get rid of the ball quickly or get flummoxed and hold onto the ball for an age. It’s also worth pointing out that pass protection is an easier job when your quarterback is spending a higher percentage of his dropbacks getting rid of the ball within 2.5 seconds of the ball being snapped. With that in mind which quarterbacks spend the highest percentage of their time getting rid of the ball quickly?

Well look no further than Matt Hasselbeck. 63.8% of his dropbacks feature a time to throw of 2.5 seconds or less.

And here’s the full list of quarterbacks who spend the majority of their time holding onto the ball for a time to throw of longer than 2.5 seconds:

Turn over the page to see some of the impact on performance

For some players there’s a clear disparity between when they have 2.5 seconds or less, or 2.6 or more, time to throw. Take a look at Tom Brady. His completion percentage is 19.8% higher when he attempts a pass within 2.5 seconds. There aren’t many players who get more accurate when they have more time to throw but rookie Ryan Tannehill leads the way with the biggest improvement (2.8%) when he attempts a pass after 2.6 seconds or more. He also experiences the biggest improvement in his quarterback rating (29 points) while Ryan Fitzpatrick has the biggest drop off (39.6 points) when he has a longer time to throw.

One more full list:

So there you go, a quick and dirty run down of our newest addition to the Signature Stat family. You can find this at PFF Premium where it will be updated within 36 hours of all games being played (and normally a lot sooner). Get involved and as always feel free to get in touch with our twitter account and we’ll deal with your questions.

Follow Khaled on Twitter: @PFF_Khaled