Anthony
11-23-2000, 07:44 AM
Is Donovan McNabb the 23rd best quarterback in the NFL right now? He is if you go by the NFL's "official" quarterback rating system. There are several things wrong with this system: First, it penalizes mobile quarterbacks (like McNabb) for avoiding sacks and gaining rushing yards and second, it rewards a quarterback who takes a sack rather than throw the ball away. To remedy these inequities, a few changes should be made, including:
1. Include both rushing plays by the quarterback and sacks in calculating the "yards per attempt" component of the rating. Example: Through Week 12, Elvis Grbac is 238 for 397 for 3114 yards, with 23 TDs, 11 INTs, has been sacked 25 times for 193 yards worth of losses, and has rushed 16 times for 20 yards. Under the current system, Grbac's yards per attempt works out as 7.84 (3114 divided by 397). Under this proposed change Grbac's average per attempt would become 6.71 - 2941 divided by 438, the 2941 arrived at by taking the gross passing yardage (3114), subtracting the yards lost on sacks (193) and adding the yards gained rushing (20); and 438 equalling the number of pass attempts [397] plus the number of times sacked (25) plus the number of rushing attempts (16).
2. In cases where a quarterback throws an interception that gets returned by the opposing team for a touchdown, one TD is to be deducted from the total TDs thrown in calculating the "percentage of touchdowns" component of the rating. Continuing with the above example, Elvis Grbac has had three interceptions returned for touchdowns against him this season. Hence he has thrown 20 "net" touchdowns (he has scored 23 and "allowed" three). And since sacks and rushing plays would also be included in the calculations - and Grbac has scored one rushing TD in 2000, he would be credited with a net of 21 touchdowns in 438 attempts for a TD percentage of 4.79, instead of the 5.79 he gets credit for under the current system (23 TDs in 397 pass attempts, with neither the 3 INTs returned for opponents' TDs or the one rushing TD counting).
It is my belief that the above changes would provide a vastly superior way of ranking the relative performances of the NFL's quarterbacks. It's fair, it's more accurate, and should be adopted.
1. Include both rushing plays by the quarterback and sacks in calculating the "yards per attempt" component of the rating. Example: Through Week 12, Elvis Grbac is 238 for 397 for 3114 yards, with 23 TDs, 11 INTs, has been sacked 25 times for 193 yards worth of losses, and has rushed 16 times for 20 yards. Under the current system, Grbac's yards per attempt works out as 7.84 (3114 divided by 397). Under this proposed change Grbac's average per attempt would become 6.71 - 2941 divided by 438, the 2941 arrived at by taking the gross passing yardage (3114), subtracting the yards lost on sacks (193) and adding the yards gained rushing (20); and 438 equalling the number of pass attempts [397] plus the number of times sacked (25) plus the number of rushing attempts (16).
2. In cases where a quarterback throws an interception that gets returned by the opposing team for a touchdown, one TD is to be deducted from the total TDs thrown in calculating the "percentage of touchdowns" component of the rating. Continuing with the above example, Elvis Grbac has had three interceptions returned for touchdowns against him this season. Hence he has thrown 20 "net" touchdowns (he has scored 23 and "allowed" three). And since sacks and rushing plays would also be included in the calculations - and Grbac has scored one rushing TD in 2000, he would be credited with a net of 21 touchdowns in 438 attempts for a TD percentage of 4.79, instead of the 5.79 he gets credit for under the current system (23 TDs in 397 pass attempts, with neither the 3 INTs returned for opponents' TDs or the one rushing TD counting).
It is my belief that the above changes would provide a vastly superior way of ranking the relative performances of the NFL's quarterbacks. It's fair, it's more accurate, and should be adopted.