Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports Today’s question of the day looks at a statistic that doesn’t really tell us anything. The NFL’s statistical landscape has been rapidly evolving over the last 10 to 15 years. Advanced analytics is here to stay, and teams and media members are constantly looking for better ways to explain the game of football numerically. As these new statistics continue to emerge, the traditional ones tend to get pushed aside, some for good reason, others more than they should. But with how we understand the game of football today, that brings us to today’s question: Question of the Day: What is the most overrated statistic in the NFL? This question piqued my interest. There are plenty of ways to go with this answer. I think passer rating is one where people understand the flaws in it more and more. I think people understand why volume passing numbers aren’t the best way to analyze a quarterback’s play. But beyond quarterback statistics, there’s one statistic to me that always pops up as a largely useless statistic, but it’s constantly used in today’s game, just as it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago, or 40 years ago. My answer: tackles. I don’t understand why we continue to get worked up over tackles for defensive players. This continues to be the most overrated statistic we use when looking at defenders. Let’s compare tackles to scoring in an NBA game. If the worst team in the NBA was tanking their season for draft position, that team would still score 100 points a game. Therefore, someone on that roster is going to emerge and average 25 points per game. Does that mean player X who scored 25 points per game on a team that won 15 games has the same value as Kyrie Irving scoring 25 points per game on the Dallas Mavericks? On the scoresheet, they are worth the same, but we know that Kyrie is a far better scorer of the basketball than player X, but player X is getting a volume of opportunities to increase their points per game. In the NFL, tackles are a similar issue. An average NFL team runs about 65 offensive plays a game. The best defense in the league may allow a score on three of those plays? The worst defensive team in the league is going to allow a score on maybe six of those plays? That means defenses that could be giving up as much as a 20-point difference in points allowed per game, the team, as a whole, totals a similar number of tackles whether their defense is elite or porous. In the NBA, somebody has to score. In the NFL, somebody has to tackle. A player could have an 8-tackle game but all of those tackles could be made 5 or 10 yards past the line of scrimmage. They can be tackles that came on the wrong side of the first down marker. There are plenty of tackles that get a defensive player a statistic but they don’t mean a thing. There is information to be had within tackles that shows actual added defensive value: tackles for loss, stuffs, sacks—all these have value and show when a defensive player is making a tackle that impacts the game. But for me, just seeing total tackles does very little for me. Every defense has to make tackles, total tackles just show how your particular defense splits up the pie. What do you say Chicago Bears fans? Do you agree that total tackles is a pointless statistic? What other statistics in football hold little to no value? Sound off in the comments! https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2024/ ... les-rating
