convertedpatsfan

NY Life Protection Index | New York Life Insurance Company - The Company You Keep

The New York Life Protection Index was created by sports information leader STATS to provide a composite gauge for this undervalued component of the game. While the New York Life Protection Index is calculated using a proprietary formula, the fundamentals are comprised of the length of a team’s pass attempts combined with penalties by offensive linemen, sacks allowed and quarterback hurries and knockdowns. The New York Life Protection Index is updated weekly throughout the regular season.

Never seen this one before, and without knowing exactly how they calculate it and how much weight they give the various factors, it's hard to evaluate.

But for what it's worth, it seems to be a pretty decent indicator. The Colts are first by a wide margin in terms of protecting Manning, which seems right to me. Pats are 5th. The Steelers and Bears are in the bottom 5, which also seems correct.

Joker

heh...if I'm the Jets I let that coverage lapse and let Sancheese melt and get squashed between two D lineman like a melted cheese sandwich

TheGodInAGreyHoodie

I barely understand the DVOA....I can't even figure out if that chart says we are the 5th best or the 5th worst and at what.

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PatsWickedPissah

Interesting. The vast majority of franchise QBs are well protected. Rthlsbrgr's and to a lesser extent Cassell's performances are notable given their poor protection. And the index gap between the 2nd best protection team, NO and the Colts is huge. In comparison, take the Pats at 5th, you;d drop down to 16th to equal the index gap.

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convertedpatsfan

Well, it's from an insurance company, what did you expect?

I believe the chart says we are 5th best in terms of protecting the QB. Then again, I've made mistakes with the insurance world before...

Elijah

I thought Colts fans were always complaining about how Peyton has no time in the pocket...

patchick

Actually, it's the other way around. It seems to me that the clear message of this here stat is that the best "pass protection" you can get is a franchise quarterback.

Notice how the Patriots are reliably near the top, year after year, except 2008? See how the Saints' "protection" ranked in the bottom half of the league in 2005, then shot up to #2 the very next year when they acquired Drew Brees, who must play both tackle positions and center for good measure?

IMO the stat is pretty silly, except as a reminder of the interaction of QB and OL...and as a pointer toward QBs who are significantly UNDERperforming, given what their lines give them. Like Eli Manning.

NEGoldenAge

It sounds like this formula uses total passing yards instead of air yards. If this is true, YAC can really mess up this stat.

Deus Irae

When they start gaging the amount of actual time a QB has in the pocket, this sort of stat will have some meaning.

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convertedpatsfan

Good point. I didn't even realize they had tracked earlier years.

Big Ben does have a tendency to hold the ball a bit long as well, probably his faith that he can fight off a guy or two at times to make a big play, which he often has. The Steelers OL has been terrible at times, but there have been plenty of times Ben could throw the ball away and doesn't.