Its interesting and sometimes very revealing when you look through both your team stats and the league stats. Here are a few that stood out to me from last season.
1. Sack leader was MLB Richard Davis of Pitt, the team that won the LC. Davis had 29 sacks in the regular season, the closest to him was 10 sacks back, WLB Frank Lott and guess what? he is also on Pitt. What can you take from that? Pitt probably used a lot of 2 LB blitz plays, that's what! Another thing about those stats is that they show that you dont need "elite" players to produce top results. Davis has a default rating of 64/65 with average attributes for a LB and OK speed of 74. Lott's default value is only 61/62!! but his speed is 89 with 81 acceleration. How about their pass rush attribute you might ask.... Davis is 68/69 and Lott is 52/53, basically average to below, nothing to indicate that they would be good pass rushing LBs.
In this case, it's a good bet that those results are about the gameplanning and defensive play calling, and the mix with the def line. Both teams that went to the LC, Pitt & SF, lead the league in sacks. What does that indicate?
2. Best average per carry among the top 10 ground gainers was put up by Harry "No" Funderburk of SF at 4.2 per carry. Harry also finished with the 2nd most yardage gained with 1250 yards. His AI default rating is only 57/58, my weights have him at 76/78. Look at his attributes to get a good idea of what is working in his case. He has consistently averaged over 4 yards per carry for the 2 seasons he has been on the team. Two things you can take from his stats, 1. you can get great results at RB from a mid level rated player. 2. you dont need to use a high draft pick or trade for a RB, you can usually get a good one right out of the FA pool.
3. Best CB1 in the league goes to Charlie Fox of Carolina, who allowed 39.7% catches on 121 thrown ats, and had 7 interceptions which tied for first in the league. The stats dont tell how he did in yards per catch, which is a stat I hope to see used in the future please JDB. But based on the stats we have, he was the best. Charlie has good speed (83) and very good, 90+ cover skills and has an overall rating of 88, so he is no surprise as far as his ratings go. He was an excellent 3.29 pick in the allocation draft.
4. The only catch allowed % lower than Fox's among DBs who were thrown at more than 115 times was put up by Michael Farley. Farley was on Indy for the 2018 season as their CB3. He only allowed 35.3% catches and had 2 picks. The amazing thing is that his ratings are practically the complete opposite of Fox's. He only has 39 speed, but good acceleration of 76. His default rating is 66. His punish is a low 37, but his M2M is a decent 76. He was let go by Indy and picked up out of FA by LA, will be interesting to see how he does for that team. Farley is another good example of players that outperform their attributes, how does that happen? good "rolls"? good play calling in addition to matchups? all of the above?
5. Top 5 starting QBs (more than 200 attempts) by their performance rating were:
1. Carrol Young, Ten. 124.69, 39 TDs/12 ints. His default value is 73, his passing skill attributes are average, all 60s and one 74 (arm strength), his top passing attribute is release of 94. He has great speed 91 and scramble 84.
2. John Fox, ARZ, 120.2, 16 TDs/1 int. Overall rating is 69/70. His passing skill ratings are 83 pass accuracy, 83 release, only 54 FOV, and 67 arm & look off.
3. Lewis Bond, CIN, 108.35, 27 TDs/7 int. Overall rating is 69/70. 98 pass accuracy, all other skills are average to low.
4. John Chisolm, SF, 107.45, 27 TDs/9 int. Overall rating is 70. Same as Fox & Bond, his passing skills would be considered average, other than pass release of 91.
5. Charles Knowlton, JAX, 106.27, 24 TDs/10 int. Overall rating is 90/91 (first "elite" rated QB in the top 5).
What can you gather from this info? QB performance many times does not match their ratings, both up and down, and you can get league leading stats/performance from 70 raters.
Anyone else have player and/or team stats of interest from last season?
Last edited at 12/30/2017 2:17 pm
