What are numbers without context? That was the driving force behind our signature stats section and it’s why I’m able to write about things like the Pass Blocking Efficiency.
It’s a simple enough concept. If you judge an offensive linemen just by how many times they get beaten for a sack, then you’re really not judging them at all. You need to take into account how much total pressure they give up, how many snaps they’re in pass protection for, and how quickly the pressure comes.
Now this stat doesn’t take into account how quickly the pressure comes (that’s what our grading is for), but it does the other things so I can, without any doubt, say that this stat beats all the others when it comes to measuring the performance of offensive linemen in pass protection.
The formula is simple enough. You add all sacks with three quarters the worth of hits and hurries, divide by snaps in pass protection, take away from 100 and just like that you’ve got an efficiency formula.
Let’s see who the best and worst are.
No Ordinary Joe
It’s easy to forget with Joe Thomas playing for a perennially losing team like the Cleveland Browns, but he’s a lockdown left tackle. He’s given up just two sacks, two hits and eight hurries, averaging out to just one quarterback disruption per game. It helps he’s had four games where he hasn’t given up a single pressure and only four where he’s given up more than one. You can question how much a left tackle should earn, but you can’t question that right now none deserves to be paid more than Thomas.
One man who may test that is Ryan Clady. He’s ranked number two after giving up his first sack of the year this past week. Still with only 14 quarterback disruptions allowed on 431 dropbacks, he’s benefited at exactly the right time from the switch to Peyton Manning. Last year Clady was only 40th of all tackles while blocking for the unorthodox Tebow.
The sack Clady allowed this week meant that D’Brickashaw Ferguson is now the only tackle in the league not to have surrendered one. But it’s all the offensive line’s fault for the struggles of Sanchez right? Ferguson is a player who never gets his due as a consistently top notch tackle. Here’s the top 20.
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One of the things that stands out there is that rookie left tackle Matt Kalil finds himself up in 8th spot. That’s an impressive achievement for any player, let alone a rookie. It should be noted that he is coming off his worst game of the year after giving up six hurries to the Bears.
The implication of some of the performances we’re seeing this year could have a huge bearing come the end of the year. We’ve mentioned Ryan Clady, and he, along with others, will find themselves at the negotiating table once the season is done. He’s helping his stock in much the same way that Duane Brown already helped his, and Branden Albert is helping his. But for the former first overall pick from the same draft class? Well Jake Long (21st) is raising questions with his performance right now and it’s fascinating to see how his contract situation plays out. Will he get a contract based on his play since the beginning of 2011? Or will his deal recognize his ceiling and how good he was before that?
Turn over the page for the worst
The Bad
You have to feel sorry for Philip Rivers. He went from Jared Gaither to an undrafted rookie free agent in Mike Harris. To say he felt the impact is an understatement with Harris allowing 46 quarterback disruptions on 283 pass blocking snaps. That’s been a big part of the Chargers struggles and not what they envisaged when they locked up Jared Gaither in free agency.
Behind him we’ve got three guys who have been benched this year with none worse than D’Anthony Batiste, though the work of former first round pick Gabe Carimi shouldn’t go unnoticed. He’s given up 44 quarterbacks disruptions on 347 pass blocks. Not the kind of efficiency you expect from someone you take with the 29th overall pick of the 2011 draft.
Elsewhere in the bottom five it only seems right to mention the improvement of Bobby Massie, especially after this piece about him. He may have the fifth lowest score now, but in his past four appearances he’s given up only seven QB disruptions on 189 pass blocks, which would give him a PBE rating of 97.1, good for fifth best overall. That’s some serious improvement.
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As with all numbers stats will all only tell you so much. The grading does a better job of adding even more context and includes things like plays nullified by penalty which can be just as important. But if you’re looking for a number to tell you about the performance of offensive linemen in pass protection then this is the one for you.
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