Blindsided: Why the Left Tackle Is Overrated and Other Contrarian Football Thoughts - Hardcover

Joyner, K. C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470124091 ISBN 13: 9780470124093

Verlag: WILEY, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

"This book will change the way you think about professional football—in much the same way that Bill James revolutionized the analysis of Major League Baseball. The research is impeccable. The approach is irreverent. You will be 'blindsided' by what you think you know about the NFL, but don't. Warning to fantasy football lovers: You won't be able to put this book down." —Sal Paolantonio, ESPN reporter and author of The Paolantonio Report: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players, Teams, Coaches, and Moments in NFL History

"KC Joyner's theories will completely revolutionize football, cure baldness, save the whales, and bring total peace and harmony to all nations. That's why you must read Blindsided!" —Gregg Easterbrook, ESPN's Tuesday Morning Quarterback

"Too much of football literature is just tedious hagiography, but Blindsided is a book for those of us who enjoy the complex game on the field and football conversation that goes past 'my team rules.'"—Aaron Schatz, lead author and editor of Pro Football Prospectus

Pro football’s statistical iconoclast, K.C. Joyner, challenges conventional wisdom with fact-based and film-based responses in Blindsided: Why the Left Tackle is Overrated and Other Contrarian Football Thoughts. If you love sports statistics or find excitement in fantasy football, you will enjoy the detailed insights and carefully researched information in this book. Scrap the typical media hype and hoopla for the real, straight-from-the-fields-and-films scoop, including information on free agents, parity, NFL business practice, Hall of Fame standards, coaching practices, historical iconoclasm, and a thorough statistical review.

ESPN.com Insider KC Joyner, “The Football Scientist,” explores and explodes many of the myths of NFL football

Have free agency and salary caps put an end to football dynasties? Does it take an elite running back to win a Super Bowl? Which players belong in the Hall of Fame? What defense is the greatest of all time? Does playing creampuffs work for NFL teams? Do coaches have a ten-year shelf life?

In Blindsided, pro football’s statistical iconoclast™ challenges conventional wisdom with fact-based and ? lm-based answers to these and many other key NFL questions. Whether you’re a devout fantasy football player, a football fanatic, or a fan who wants the real, straight-from-the-fields-and-films scoop instead of the typical hype and hoopla, this book will inform and transform your thinking about the game.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

KC Joyner is a regular contributor to ESPN.com's NFL Insider section, a football columnist for ESPN The Magazine, author of the annual Scientific Football, and Webmaster of the associated site TheFootballScientist.com. His works have been touted by many of the biggest names in football, ranging from Dr. Z to Steve Sabol, and featured in numerous national periodicals, including Slate.com and Playboy.

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“When I found that the research proved that a significant portion of the big-name players weren’t nearly as good as they were touted as being by many members of the media and NFL coaches, I knew that I was onto something.” —KC Joyner

When sportswriters and commentators toss around superlatives as easily as quarterbacks toss short passes, how do you distinguish the hype from the facts? How can you get beyond the publicity and propaganda to objectively assess actual on-field performance? How do you refute conventional football wisdom? 

You run the numbers. But wait; time-out. As this book laments, you can’t get access to game footage, which is one of the reasons so many myths and misconceptions about pro football persist. Fortunately, KC Joyner (a.k.a. ESPN’s “Football Scientist”) does have the films—and the numbers. Joyner is pro football’s premier game-tape analyst, using game ? lm to track, tabulate, and analyze nearly every measurable statistic in an NFL game. Now he shares it all with you in Blindsided, as he examines and debunks some of the game’s biggest myths and legends. He analyzes stats for various positions, players, and teams as well as offering surprising insights into key football issues and concerns that range from the true value of the left tackle to who should or shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame. 

He discusses coaching and coaches at length. He delves into their background demographics, classifies them into four strategic/philosophical alignments, and explores their impact on the past and future of the game. He also takes a revealing look at current NFL business policies, including the current DirectTV and NFL Network deals, the financial disincentive of salary capping, and why the NFL’s blackout rules make no economic sense. 

Equipping you with both hard facts and an insider’s insight, Joyner’s in-depth, statistics-based analyses will help you understand and appreciate NFL football as never before.

Aus dem Klappentext

"When I found that the research proved that a significant portion of the big-name players weren't nearly as good as they were touted as being by many members of the media and NFL coaches, I knew that I was onto something."
?KC Joyner

When sportswriters and commentators toss around superlatives as easily as quarterbacks toss short passes, how do you distinguish the hype from the facts? How can you get beyond the publicity and propaganda to objectively assess actual on-field performance? How do you refute conventional football wisdom?

You run the numbers. But wait; time-out. As this book laments, you can't get access to game footage, which is one of the reasons so many myths and misconceptions about pro football persist. Fortunately, KC Joyner (a.k.a. ESPN's "Football Scientist") does have the films?and the numbers. Joyner is pro football's premier game-tape analyst, using game film to track, tabulate, and analyze nearly every measurable statistic in an NFL game. Now he shares it all with you in Blindsided, as he examines and debunks some of the game's biggest myths and legends. He analyzes stats for various positions, players, and teams as well as offering surprising insights into key football issues and concerns that range from the true value of the left tackle to who should or shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame.

He discusses coaching and coaches at length. He delves into their background demographics, classifies them into four strategic/philosophical alignments, and explores their impact on the past and future of the game. He also takes a revealing look at current NFL business policies, including the current DirectTV and NFL Network deals, the financial disincentive of salary capping, and why the NFL's blackout rules make no economic sense.

Equipping you with both hard facts and an insider's insight, Joyner's in-depth, statistics-based analyses will help you understand and appreciate NFL football as never before.

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Blindsided

Why the Left Tackle is Overrated and Other Contrarian Football ThoughtsBy K.C. Joyner

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2008 K.C. Joyner
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-12409-3

Chapter One

What Is the True Value of the Left Tackle?

Most of you are probably familiar with Michael Lewis's book The Blind Side. It recounts a young player's struggles to adapt to his new environment, but from a football sense Lewis paints a very compelling picture of how valuable the left tackle position is for NFL teams.

As excellent as Lewis's research was, after reading the book I was still left with some doubt as to the real value of the left tackle. I understood how much it meant to Bill Walsh to have someone capable of blocking Lawrence Taylor. I also had a better understanding of why left tackles are paid so much. But I still didn't get a good sense as to how much more valuable a left tackle was than, say, a right guard.

So what is the real value of the left tackle? We are told that the position is crucial in pass blocking, but where does run blocking fit into the equation? And when it comes to pass blocking, is the left tackle just an airbag (saves you from catastrophe in an accident) or is it antilock brakes (prevents the catastrophe and then some).

I believe the best way to find this out is to gauge both the run- and the pass-blocking value of left tackles by asking questions such as:

How many sacks does the typical left tackle give up versus sacks given up by other linemen?

How often do most teams run behind their left tackle versus running behind other linemen?

How many yards per attempt are gained on running plays behind the typical left tackle versus runs behind other linemen?

Let's start with the running game. In researching Scientific Football 2006, I broke down every running play in the NFL with a system that centered around which offensive linemen were being run behind on a particular play. It took four months of breaking down tape to get the database built, but at the end I had a very clear picture.

Here are the numbers by positional type:

POSITION ATTEMPTS % OF TOTAL ATTEMPTS

Tackles 4,888 32.6% Guards 6,602 44.1% Centers 3,494 23.3% Total 14,984 100.0%

(These attempts don't include certain types of plays such as kneeldowns or fumbled handoffs, as those plays would not have any run blocks to account for. There can be multiple blockers on each play as well, so the total number of carries is higher than the total number of runs during the NFL season.)

Tackles as a whole accounted for just under one-third of all run blocks. Here is how the numbers divided up between left and right tackles:

POSITION ATTEMPTS % OF TOTAL ATTEMPTS

Left Tackles 2,458 16.4% Right Tackles 2,321 15.5%

(Tackles who alternated between playing the left and right side were not included in either total.)

So from a running standpoint, left tackles accounted for only 16.4 percent of all run blocks in the 2005 season. This number shows that they really don't occupy an extra-special part of the running attack. That isn't entirely surprising, but it does give evidence as to their value in the running game.

In addition to tracking which lineman plays were being run behind, I also tracked the number of yards that were gained on those runs. Here are the numbers:

POSITION ATTEMPTS YARDS GAINED YPA

Tackles 4,888 23,079 4.7 Guards 6,602 31,288 4.7 Centers 3,494 16,064 4.6 Total 14,984 70,431 4.6

And here are the totals for left and right tackles:

POSITION ATTEMPTS YARDS GAINED YPA

Left Tackles 2,458 11,644 4.7 Right Tackles 2,321 11,000 4.7

When I first saw these numbers, I was a bit perplexed by the similarity of the yards per attempt (YPA). Each position had a wide range of yards per attempt from the best to the worst. For example, the best left tackle had a YPA of 7.8 yards, while the worst came in at 2.6 yards. There were similar variances at the other positions.

What I realized after thinking about it for a short while was that these metrics show what coaches have been saying for years: it takes an effort by the entire offense to make the running game work. Even though there are wide variances from lineman to lineman in yards per attempt, the overall YPA indicates that positional success in this category typically occurs when a group of linemen is successful. That indicates that even the best run blockers are dependent on the success of their offensive line mates.

The run studies confirm what we really already knew: left tackles aren't paid the big money to be anchors in the running game. Their perceived value is in the passing game, so let's take a look at that area.

The starting point in this discussion will be how many sacks the left tackles in the league gave up in 2005 (the season that was studied in Scientific Football 2006). Here are those numbers:

[TABLE OMITTED]

These totals look remarkably similar to the individual defensive sack totals from the 2005 season in that the worst linemen gave up 15.5 sacks, while the best pass rusher, Derrick Burgess, totaled 16 sacks. This means that a bad left tackle can lose a team as many games as a great pass rusher can win.

That poor tackle play can hurt a team really isn't a compelling argument for the position's value, because bad players at any position can cause a team to lose games. For example, the center position is often manned by an offensive line's weakest blocker, but if a team has to put in a backup center who isn't used to making the line calls, it will equal a loss just as quickly as a mediocre left tackle.

The next set of numbers I reviewed was the percentage of overall team sacks that each left tackle allowed. Putting the total in a percentage format will help put each left tackle's individual performance into perspective with the rest of the pass blockers on his team. I have included these totals below as sorted by the number of total sacks allowed by the team (for reasons that I will explain in a moment):

[TABLE OMITTED]

When I ran these figures, I noticed a trend, but the trend really only shows up when the previous list is sorted by the left tackle sack percentage, which I have done below:

[TABLE OMITTED]

The rankings in this chart are carried over from the total sacks allowed chart because I believe they make a great point: The left tackles with the fewest sacks allowed oftentimes play for the teams that allow the highest number of sacks.

For proof, consider that of the bottom fourteen left tackles on this list (starting with Miami's Damion McIntosh), nine played for teams that finished in the top ten in overall sacks allowed. If the six multiple left tackle pairings are removed from the bottom fourteen, seven of the remaining eight tackles still come from teams that ranked in the top ten in overall sacks allowed.

So what does this mean? In a nutshell, I think it means that defensive coordinators know the old adage that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. If a team has a weak offensive line, a...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: WILEY
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0470124091
• ISBN 13: 9780470124093
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 266
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland