PatsCanDoIt

The most important stat for pass offense is yards per pass attempt. You can get away with a lower completion percent if your Yds/att is high enough. That stat also roughly correlates to winning football. Most know that teams throw more when behind. They often accumulate more passing yards than the winning team. The winner on the other hand amasses fewer yards through the air but usually has a higher yards per pass.

Why is this relevant?

I decided to mess around with some stats this evening after seeing another Ryan Mallett thread. College football doesn't track this particular stat so I decided to check out the active leading quarterbacks in this area. Just so you know I edited out Ryan's Michigan stats because the other guys got to play for the same team throughout.

The results are amazing! Ryan Mallett blew all these dudes out of the water. Even the small school gun slingers! He played in the most competitive conference and lit it up more than any QB in the country.

The stat is all the way at the end to the right.

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Synovia

No, its absolutely not.

The most important thing for any offense is the ability to consistently get first downs. I'd rather have a guy who throws for 4 y/a but has a 100% completion percentage than a guy who has a 10y/a but has a 10% completion percentage.


Why? The first guy scores every drive. The second guy scores every third or 4th drive.

Dufflebagz

Althought if the OP put that table together I thank him for making it, it was still an interesting read.

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Synovia

Oh, its a great post by the OP. And thanks for the chart, but people need to not state their opinions as absolutes unless they're ready to prove them.

Wolfpack

I don't think you can take any one single stat and call it the "most important" for quarterbacks.

High YPA is great, but not if it accompanies a lot of INT's. The QB rating stat tries to take into account all those factors, but that statistic has a few flaws as well.

However, assuming we're talking about a guy with an established minimum number of attempts, I'd say QB rating is the best single stat.

eom

how do you figure that?

see above

also, what the op should do now is give it some historical context with some other hyped guys coming out of school in previous years.

DarrylS

Cam Newton did not make the list.. interesting.

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Synovia

Because if you gain 4 yards on every play, you get a first down on every series. If you get a first down on every series, you end up in the endzone on every drive. If you get 100 yards on 10% of your attempts, you go 3 and out on most drives.

Attempts aren't a limiting factor, possesions are. Converting those possesions into points is whats most important. Not getting yards in the least amount of throws.



Football Outsiders has done a couple of studies on college stats for quarterback. Pretty much the only things that correlate with NFL performance are completion percentage and the number of starts a guy has. Lots of starts proves he was good enough to bet everyone out of the roster spot with just raw talent (and also means that the scouts have plenty of video). Completion percentage is pretty self explanatory.
Like anything else, nothing is foolproof, and its more usefull for weeding out busts than it is picking stars. There's basically no correlation between YPA and NFL performance though.

eom

if I throw for 4 yds, run for 0, throw for another 4 --- that is a punt, but I threw for 4 every time.

then I throw for 4 and turn the ball over on a fumble -- that is another busted possession.

then I get sacked, throw for 4, throw for 4 --- busted possession.

you are 0 for 3 on possessions while throwing a 4 yd completion each time.


meanwhile, offthemarcus russell throws 2 incompletes and a pick.

second possession throws another 2 incompletes and a pick.

third possession throws a 5o yd bomb (in the air) for a score.

offthemarcus just outpointed you on a 1 for 7 performance --- live with that.

emoney_33

Your unrealistic hypotheticals don't prove your case. In a world of realistic peripherals (i.e. 40-70 % comp percentage) YPA might be much more telling than in a world of unrealistic peripherals (i.e. 0 or 100 % comp. percentage).

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