How important is the yards per attempt stat when evaluating a QB? Here are top 6 rated QB's (based on the traditional passer rating) and their ypa and rank: 1. Manning 9.52 (1st) 2. Romo 8.1 (8th) 3. Rivers 8.47 (5th) 4. Brees 8.57 (4th) 5. Rodgers 8.76 (3rd) 6. Ryan 7.56 (13th) How strong of a correlation in there between ypa and how well the QB is playing? To keep this Miami related, Tennehill is currently the 15th rated QB and is 11th is ypa at 7.6. I know there are a lot of knowledgeable members here, especially when it comes to interpreting statistics. This one always seems to have me scrating my head.
YPA is a great stat for interpreting team performance. Net YPA is a little better. Asking how well it represents a QBs play is opening pandora's box.
So you would equate it to more of a team stat as opposed to an individual stat? Like how I view wins for a pitcher is baseball?
Yes. There aren't really any good individual stats for football. Best bet would be EPA and WPA from Advancednflstats.com. Those are the best true individual stats at this point, but they still aren't that good for measuring individual performance. I actually have a theory on identifying an individual players contribution, and may explore it in the future. But as it stands, looking for individual stats isnt a great proposition IMO.
QB rating is better at telling you what happened. YPA or Net YPA is better at predicting what will happen, IMO. Passer rating essentially includes YPA, but also includes TDs and INTs, which tend to introduce noise.
Speaking of this, the discussion about YAC sent me looking for some other stuff, and I found this: http://www.footballperspective.com/yards-per-attempt-where-does-it-go-wrong/ I thought it was an interesting article.
