I am of the belief that we as fans don’t think about, talk about, learn about, or even hear about the earliest years of the NFL. Sure, we’ll see some grainy footage of Johnny Unitas throwing a bomb to John Mackey or Bart Starr sealing the deal with a QB sneak, but most pre-Joe Namath events are out of sight out of mind.1 Today, I’m going to go back to the decade in which Unitas and Starr were born and look at the offensive performances of…
Earlier this week, I looked at the would-be NFL champions if the league never changed its 1920 rules for awarding titles. There were 74 years in league history that produced an undisputed champion. However, there have been 21 seasons that require some tiebreakers. Tiebreaker Champions Under the Original Title Format The next table shows every year in which at least two teams tied for the league’s best record. They are ordered, left to right, by SRS score. The champions (as explained below) are in bold. In 1941,…
Depending on your perspective, the use of a playoff system to crown a league champion is either a great idea or a terrible idea. If you are of the belief that the title should go to the best team, you may not like the playoffs. After all, the more playoff games a number one seed has to play before the Super Bowl, the lower that team’s chances are of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy at season’s end. Alternatively, you may pull for underdogs and love dramatic…
In this year’s NFL draft, Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston was drafted first overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Only four years ago, Auburn quarterback Cam Newton was drafted first overall to the Carolina Panthers. What do these two men have in common? That’s right, they both led their college teams to a national championship. Newton has thus far proved to be a very good young quarterback, often thriving in spite of his surrounding offensive talent. Winston, for his part, looks to have the makings…
Sometimes when I am bored, I make football lists or rosters in my head (what is the all-time Steelers team, what is the current all-NFC South team, what is the all-time Hispanic team, etc.). Of all the whimsical thought experiments in which I have engaged, the one with the most decisions and revisions has been my all time 53 man NFL roster (with coaching staff). The purpose of building an all time 53 man NFL roster is not to simply pluck the best 53 players…
If you read my previous website or have read Football Perspective, you are likely familiar with the concept of adjusted catch yards. Essentially, ACY is a stat that boils the receiving stat line down to a single number. Where first down data is available, first downs are used. Where it is not available, one half of receptions is used as an estimate for first downs.1 Chase Stuart uses the league passing environment, as well as unique team passing climates, to adjust receiving totals. For example,…
If you’ve checked out the table for quarterback kneels, you’re probably also interested in quarterback spikes. I find this information useful when I am looking at QB completion rates, passer rating, ANY/A, or any other stat that has attempts in the denominator. Sure, Ben Roethlisberger may spike the ball too often in comeback attempts, but I don’t think that should count against his rate stats. Chase Stuart has already published my research on quarterback spikes, but I wanted to include it on my own site…
After poring through play-by-play data from various sources and crosschecking them against one another, I have been able to find data for quarterback kneels dating back to 2002 (regular season and playoffs). There are miscellaneous games here and there that have useful PBP prior to 2002, but the information gaps have kept me from feeling confident in publishing any of that data. Season By Season Quarterback Kneels The below table contains the relevant data on a seasonal basis and is sorted alphabetically by year. Read it thus:…
Welcome to GridFe, where we’ll seek to explore all things gridiron. I am the former owner of the now-defunct semi-daily blog NFLsGreatest.co.nf. I retired the site to devote more time to family and less to football, but I couldn’t shake my desire to write about the sport I love. You may have read some of my posts at Football Perspective. If you’re familiar with the format, I’m hoping for something similar – a blog where we can discuss stats, players, coaches, techniques, or just bizarre…
