TMW is proud to introduce our individual defensive player Playmaker ratings for the 2001 NFL regular season.
View players by Position:
Defensive Ends |
Defensive Tackles |
Linebackers |
Cornerbacks |
Safeties
or view by Team: (slow to load)
All Players
We begin by tracking how many "plays" a player makes -- this can be anything from a tackle to a deflected pass to recovering a fumble. Then we check whether the play is a "stop" and/or a "defeat". From there we can calculate "stop rates" and "median yards" and then produce a final "Playmaker Rating".
Okay, all well and good, but now let's talk about the flaws:
the numbers do not reflect the "opportunities" a player has to make the play. This is particularly significant for some of the big-name players -- the story used to go that when Deion Sanders was playing teams wouldn't throw a pass his way for a whole game. Clearly then his opportunities would be less than a CB who was constantly challenged.
Another weakness is that the "degree of difficulty" of the play isn't quantified -- if Warren Sapp is being double-teamed all the time, then for him to make a play will be harder than a like DT being "single-teamed".
the rating is also effected by position, with linebackers having more opportunities than linemen and thus generally higher scores. Beyond that, middle LB's also typically get more shots than an outside LB.
Finally, these numbers as shown are not adjusted for injury, which is easy to do: divide the PM Rtg by games played. A player like Michael McCrary of Baltimore earned a 74 Rating in just ten games of action -- project that performance over a full sixteen games and he would have a 118 Playmaker Rating, good for #1 standing among Defensive Ends!
These numbers will be refined over the coming season as we include more data, but we couldn't resist handing out the 1st Annual TwoMinuteWarning.com Defensive MVP Awards.
