10 Statistics That Would Make the NFL Better

I love statistics. Absolutely love them. I've always been a numbers guy, dating back to when I was a kid.

I spent much of my childhood poring over numbers in my Total Baseball Encyclopedia, memorizing Hank Aaron's year by year home run totals or the top-10 all-time single-season stolen base leaders. I am a huge fan of baseball statistician Bill James, who has completely revolutionized the game of baseball.

While casual baseball fans know a player based on his batting average, home runs, and runs batted in, I found myself more interested in the ratios and percentages.

James and the guys at Baseball Prospectus have invented countless useful statistics, such as offensive winning percentage, batting average on balls in play, and power speed number. Those little-known stats are the ones that fascinate and intrigue me more than any others.

I wish the NFL had statistics like these.

I know football isn't as much of a numbers game as baseball is. Stats don't always tell the whole story in the NFL. There's more to the game, like intangibles, leadership, and so on. In my eyes though, stats can do a pretty good job of measuring a specific player's talent.

Nearly half the offensive starters (the five linemen) have no official statistics by which to judge their performance.

The only way to know how well your team's left guard did this past season is by taking the word of the NFL experts who watch and break down the film of each and every game. It's tough to know for every player though.

Take Jon Runyan as an example. The right tackle of the Eagles for the past nine seasons, Runyan has been a Pro Bowl-type player for his whole career. He has been one of the best right tackles in the NFL and instrumental in paving the way for All-Pro back Brian Westbrook. That said, I don't have a clue how he did in 2008.

I have no access to the few stats that exist for offensive linemen (sacks allowed) and no basis for which to make my judgment—and I watch and dissect every single Eagles game. There needs to be a way that we as fans can have a more accurate understanding of the effectiveness of offensive linemen in the NFL.

I compiled a list of 10 NFL statistics I would like to see. These are statistics I want to see on ESPN.com, next to the household numbers like passing yards, tackles, and sacks.

Some of these stats are probably in use by Elias Sports Bureau or the Pro Football Prospectus writers, but they're not readily available to the general public. I want to be able to go on NFL.com or ESPN.com and find these stats to use in my arguments.

Running back rating

Everyone knows about quarterback rating. No one knows how to calculate it, but football fans like myself know 80 is average, 100 is great, and 158.3 is perfect. It's a measure of a quarterback's efficiency in a given season or game.

How about running back rating?

This stat could be a measure of a running back's success carrying the ball. It could somehow factor in yards per carry, rushing yards per game, touchdowns, and fumbles. I have played around with the numbers trying to figure out the formula for running back rating but have been unsuccessful.

Admittedly, it would be difficult to calculate. And there would definitely be some flaws, just like QB rating, which doesn't account for a quarterback's rushing yards or lost fumbles, as well as the ability of his supporting cast.

I would place the most emphasis on yards per carry and touchdowns, with fumbles also playing a big role.

For a running back like Brandon Jacobs, who gets all the team's goal-line carries, his touchdown rate would be higher, which would thus boost his RB rating. In the same way, this would hurt a player like Derrick Ward, who is not normally given the ball in goal-line situations.

RB rating wouldn't factor in receiving yards, which again would be a flaw, because a player like Brian Westbrook receives no extra credit for his receptions compared to a player like Ricky Williams.

However, I think this would be a good way to measure the performance of running backs, just like that of quarterbacks.

It could use the same numerical scale as QB rating (although I don't know why whoever invented QB rating didn't just make it so the maximum was 100, instead of an obscure number like 158.3), and the statline for running backs could now include the position's own sort of rating system.

Broken tackles

I love a big, power back like Brandon Jacobs, Marion Barber, or LenDale White, who can break tackles and pick up the tough yards.

I think the NFL should keep track of broken tackles, average broken tackles per rush, average broken tackles per game, and average broken tackles per attempted tackle as official statistics for running backs.

I remember watching a run by Marion Barber in '07 against the undefeated Patriots in which he gained just two yards, but broke six tackles before the seventh defender finally pushed him out of bounds.

For a run like that, Barber would be credited with six broken tackles. His six broken tackles divided by seven tackle attempts would give him an astounding broken tackle rate of 0.857.

For that game, Barber rushed for 49 yards on nine carries. Let's assume as a hypothetical example that Barber broke an additional three tackles in that game, giving him nine broken tackles for the day.

Barber would be credited with nine broken tackles. His average broken tackles per rush would be the number of broken tackles divided by the number of rushes—exactly 1.0.

And his average broken tackles per attempted tackles would be the nine broken tackles divided by however many attempted tackles—say there were 16, which would give him a rate of 0.625.

Rush success rate

I wouldn't be surprised if this stat exists somewhere, but I have never seen it in use. This stat would break down every single carry by a running back and grade it as either successful or unsuccessful.

Then the number of successful carries would be divided into the number of total carries for a successful rush percentage.

It's tough to classify a carry as successful or not, and a lot of it would depend on the situation. Here are some generic examples:

Successful Rushes:

• Rushes for a touchdown
• Rushes for a first down
• Rushes that gain at least half of what is needed for a first down (Example: A three-yard run on 2nd-and-6 or a five-yard run on 2nd-and-10. Obviously if the three-yard run came on 3rd-and 6, it would not be considered successful, because the team would then be faced with a 4th-and-3, and most likely have to punt).
• Any run of positive yardage that comes with a lead and under five minutes to play, because it runs the clock down
• A big run on third-and-long (Example: It is 3rd-and-23, and a team hands off the ball. They're obviously just trying to pick up some yards to get better field position, so if the back gains 17 yards, it would be considered successful, even though he didn't pick up the first down).

 Unsuccessful Rushes:

• Any loss of yards
• Any fumble, regardless of how many yards are gained on the play
• Any failed attempt on third or fourth down
• Any run of three or fewer yards on first down, since four yards is expected for a run
• Any rush that gains less than half of what is needed for a first down (Example: A three-yard run on 2nd-and-7 or a five-yard run on 2nd-and-11 because if that run were reproduced, the team would not get a first down).

I think this would be one of my favorite statistics to see the NFL use. I would love to see a hypothetical scenario like Adrian Peterson led the league in '08 with a 72 percent rush success rate.

There would be some flaws in this system for sure. A goal-line back would do better than a regular back, because there are fewer opportunities and a greater chance of success. And there are times when it would simply be difficult to measure the success of a run.

Say it's 3rd-and-23, and the back gains 17 yards. That is successful, as I stated. What about 14 yards though? What about 10? What about seven? At what yardage does a run become successful? It would take some time to create a realistic working formula and it would always be debatable, but I would love to see the results.

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