Great discussion. Here's where I think the stats don't tell the whole story. The QB usually is judged on passes attempted, completed, yards and interceptions. But, how about when no one is open and the QB correctly throws the ball out of bounds to avoid a negative play? That zaps him. What about a perfect pass that hits a receiver's hands but the WR let's it bounce off and it gets tipped for an interception? It was a perfect pass. He hit his target. He should've gotten a 1-1 with yards for him and now he has an 0-1 and an interception which kills his QBR. How is that fair? How about he is pressured in the pocket and the pass out is tipped by a rusher and that get intercepted. His blockers are supposed to give him time and create passing lanes but he get dinged. What about when he's sitting in the pocket waiting for someone to come open on a crossing pattern and a blindside rusher hits him for a sack/fumble? That goes against his turnover record and his record therefore gets dinged. Is it his fault that his receivers aren't open sooner? Is it his fault that a rusher bested his blocker? And this happens to all QBs. It should be a pass blocking stat for the OL only, but the QB gets a bad mark. Now, just to continue the nonsense stats let's go over to the RB stats that everyone cites to rank who's the best and worst. They are total rushing yardage, yards per attempt, receiving yardage and total yardage per game. If all the blockers do their job perfectly any RB or really my mother should be able to take it to the house and score on one attempt. Of course that's silly because the tacklers get paid because they are fast strong and can tackle. I let's attack each stat individually. Let's start with yards per rush. If our RB slams in a TD from the 1 yard line he gets a TD but probably harms his YPC stat. Sometimes the D is better at either stopping the run or pass and most OCs attack the weakness accordingly. So if a team is great against the run but can't stop the pass the RB won't get enough attempts to have a 100 yard day. If he doesn't get enough big days he won't be a 1,000 yard rusher. Also, with many teams using several runners the individual stats will suffer. Would you rather have two 80 yard backs in a game or one guy who runs for 100? Of course you would take the extra 60 yards with the coupled stat. Now, let's talk about their yards receiving. If the OL is terrific the team might set up a good screen and the RB might get some big plays off them. TG and MB both had big games off screens in past seasons. This year with lesser or at least greener OL not so much. I guess my overall take is that all stats are a little flawed. AD doesn't always lead the league in sacks but he gets the most pressures. They can be equally important. And Fantasy football has made every stat that more important. Oh, I got one kore for you and this is a receiver stat. If we throw a 60 yard bomb and our WR is interfered with he gets no positive stat for the play despite beating the defender and being in position to make his catch and get his yards. The team rightly gets all the yards for the penalty. It helps our team as we get 60 yards, but the QB who made a great throw and the WR get squat. Most stats are rather dim.
