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Offensive/Defensive Line Performance Ratings!
The game "in the trenches" often determines the outcome, and yet until now, grades for actual performance of the OL and DL units have not been available. Our *new* line ratings can be produced game-by-game for each team to really get to the bottom of line play.
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It has long been our ambition to chart the efforts of individual linemen in the NFL wars, and create some kind of comprehensive rating scheme that gets to the bottom of which players are the best at their position.
It's a tricky business, perhaps as difficult as anything we try to do since we are limited in our vision of the plays to the available camera angles you will see on the broadcast of the games. This can often make it next to impossible to see whether the linemen are making the blocks effectively, and sometimes even identifying the particular players on the field!
As a first pass then, we are releasing our preliminary ratings for line play for the collective line units of the teams. These initial numbers will be smoothed and adjusted as we devote more time in the off-season to establishing the relevant formulas we will use going forward for blocking performance. In addition, at a later date we will release some individual line player rankings and performance measures, which should prove to be good conversation numbers, if not the ideal statistical measures that we ultimately are aiming for.
The table below (sortable by clicking on the different column headers) shows the ratings for offensive line and defensive line play for each team over the course of the regular season, and again only reflects the play of the linemen (so a running back could break tackles in the backfield en route to a big gain, but the offensive line performance rating for that play would likely be low). The defensive ratings are likewise based on a similar "head to head" matchup between opponent's offensive line and team's defensive line, so a passing play for a touchdown can be rated as a good effort by the defensive line should they get quick pressure on the QB.
There are known weaknesses to these numbers, which we are addressing in the continuing evolution of these ratings. As an example situational adjustments seem necessary in that the score of the game can have a significant effect on expectations. A team that holds a commanding lead is likely to be running the football, which means the defense will key on the run, which means it will be harder for offensive linemen to successfully execute their blocks. Some adjustments have already been implemented, but we recognize we are some ways from the fully fleshed out system we envision.
The scale goes from 0 to 10, although realistically it would be hard to imagine a team being outside the 4.0 to 8.0 range, with a higher number being better on offense, a lower number being better on defense.
