Quote:
Originally Posted by htismaqe
It means the Chiefs, as a team, are 5th-best in the league at allowing pressure. Kind of hard to believe but like DJ said, maybe we are overselling it.
|
Yeah, I don't think I believe it.
But as I've said several times about PFF -- when it comes to fine grading, I don't think it's useful.
When it comes to
tiering, especially over large sample sizes (i.e. a team grade) I think it can be pretty useful.
I don't think that it means that Mahomes has gotten the 5th best protection in the league. But what I would be comfortable saying as that, even with a little fudge factor built in, he'd be no worse than mid-pack.
I mean lets compare it to Burrow.
Burrow's line has 497 graded pass plays (which appears to be a pass play that isn't a screen pass). They've surrendered 163 total pressures. THAT'S getting strafed. That's 33%.
Now would I go to war over 33% over 35%? Or 30%? No, no I would not. Just as I wouldn't go to war over the 25% on Mahomes vs. 22 or 28%.
But I would say that those figures diverge enough to say "Man, Mahomes has had much better protection than Burrow has had this year..." and be awfully confident in making that statement. We think of Goff as getting exceptional protection and that's what's making him so efficient but Goff's line, in 388 graded reps, has given up 115 pressures. So roughly 30%. Build in a margin 3% either way (which is probably too much margin given the sample sizes) and I still think it's pretty safe to say that at WORST Goff has had similar protection to Mahomes and in all probability it's probably been worse.
Now again, the last 2-3 weeks have been a different animal. Last week especially. A change is clearly needed going forward. But over the course of the season, we can't just chalk up the offensive struggles to poor pass blocking - relatively speaking, it's average at worst and it might actually be pretty dang decent.