Contrary to what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach thinks, stats are not for losers. We have writers here like mgrex03 (who runs his own stats system) and shake n bake (who is a Football Outsiders DVOA cult member) who provide us with great insight into football stats. Stats are not the be-all, end-all of football, but they do provide a small window into how good (or bad) are team really is.
Recently, some of our football writers got pointed to a new and interesting site: Pro Football Focus. Here is a bit from their About Page:
Why do we Grade?Quite simply to help us determine, in all facets of the game, who played well and who didn't. We want to understand not just how many yards a player gained or how many sacks they conceded but also how well they blocked, how effectively they rushed the passer or how they played in coverage. So, to this end, we measure not only a lot of additional information about the play such as Yards after Catch, Missed Tackles, Dropped Passes etc., we also analyze every player to determine if an Offensive Linemen made a key block, a Defensive Tackle stopped a Guard getting to the second level or if a linebacker kept outside contain on a run. We are not so much interested in how many tackles a Safety made but where he made them, when he made them and what obstacles he overcame to make them.
Interesting idea, and I have to admit the site is very user friendly. They have stats for linemen, safeties, wide receivers on running plays, and more. While I'm not ready to proclaim this site the greatest football stats site out there, it does seem to provide a fairly accurate assessment of line play. without even looking at their grading method, take a look at their assessment of Colts guard Mike Pollak:
Yep, that looks pretty accurate to me, and that kind of production is likely why Pollak was recently benched for Kyle DeVan, who last year was playing Arena Football.