In a lot of ways we’re like an NFL team. Always looking for ways to improve, so that we can put out a winning product.
That means we’re never going to stop looking for ways to better ourselves, and one of those big areas is our signature stat area. With that in mind I’m proud to unveil the latest signature stat available to all PFF Premium members and updated as soon as we’ve analyzed games, and it’s all about Play Action.
That’s right, we have begun keeping track of how quarterbacks are performing on play action dropbacks and we’ve even offered some comparison to how they perform when it’s not used.
Consider this article a massive teaser.
Play Actioning The Most
A logical place to start is to look at which players are using play action the most. Now we’re not going to look at raw numbers, but rather as a percentage of all drop backs, where none other than rookie sensation Robert Griffin III tops the list, with the Redskin quarterback using play action on 37.4% of his drop backs. That was significantly more than fellow rookie Russell Wilson in second spot, and Christian Ponder in third.
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At the other end of the scale nobody uses play action as little as Tony Romo, despite a strong runner to work from in DeMarco Murray. Romo has used play action on just 10.7% of plays to be precise, with the Cowboy outdoing the Titan duo of Matt Hasselbeck and Jake Locker in their efforts to rid the NFL of the play action pass.
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But why? Romo actually has the sixth highest completion percentage (72%) using play action. Sure that’s not quite as successful as Cam Newton (74.5%) or RG3 at 73.2%, but it’s still mighty impressive. Rather than just looking at these numbers let’s take a look though at which players see their completion percentage rise the most when they use play action.
This where you really realize how much more effective a passer Newton is when he’s throwing after using play action. There’s an incredible 23.7% points difference in the two scenarios, and says just how important that running game is for the Panthers, all the more reason for Carolina to lean back on their traditional run game rather than the read-option they have been using. If they can get that going, and get Newton using even more play action than the 30% of dropbacks currently, they’ll start heading in the right direction. The other big benefactors are Jay Cutler and Ryan Tannehill who are among a group of six quarterbacks who see their completion rise by at least 10% when using play action.
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But not everyone gets better in this regard. Take Aaron Rodgers who sees his completion percentage drop 17% points when he uses play action. Indeed outside of the name of the underwhelming Matt Cassel, the bottom six in this regard are a list of guys who you wouldn’t expect to see near the bottom of any list. Drew Brees, Philip Rivers and both Manning brothers show that you can be successful, without being successful using play action.
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Supporters of these men will note that they all see an improvement in their yards per attempt when they use play action with Peyton Manning picking up an extra 3.3 passing yards for every throw he uses play action. This doesn’t compare to the likes of Alex Smith (5.9), RG3 (5.8) or Ryan Tannehill (5.3) but is still good enough for seventh biggest increase in yards per attempt.
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Indeed most players see their yards per attempt shoot up when they use play action as teams logically try and strike defenses over the top of defenders being sucked up by the run fake. There are only five guys who don’t, headed by Andy Dalton who sees his YPA drop by 2 yards every time he uses play action.
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At this stage of the season the numbers are still prone to some big fluctuations. But as the season goes on we’ll get a better and better idea of who the most productive and efficient play action passers in the league are. If you’d like to join us on this journey then snap yourself up a PFF Premium subscription. You’ll get access to this signature stat and many, many more that are all updated in less than 48 hours of games being played.
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