treetown

February 2nd, 2023 at 3:22 PM ^

It is an interesting article and presents some historical details most readers of this blog would know (e.g. Teddy Roosevelt's intervention into college football). The stats analysis may offer some insight into importance of the QB, passing game and the lack of value in a 'top' RB.

Deeper inside the article, the authors look at the impact of missing games by position and how it could affect the team. Five positions were presented in a graph. 

Not unsurprisingly, losing the QB could end up representing a 5-6 game downward swing - the most important position (assuming this is the starting QB) to have out is the QB. This swing was more than three times more than the next position, WR.

There follows LB, followed by OL and last (on this graph) was RB. LB as the only defensive position was interesting - perhaps it is where edge rushers and pass rushing LB are listed. If you accept that idea, 4 out of 5 most influential potential injuries relate to the passing game: QB, WR, OL and pass rush LB.

RB had hardly any effect. While they are clearly a major factor in college ball (e.g. Kenneth Walker III) in the NFL, it seems it is possible to plug in many good runners without losing too much. Maybe that is the take away: If college programs want to attract top RB talent and IF top RB talent really want to play in the NFL for longer than 3 years, they both really need to think about developing receiver and pass blocking skills.