Ranking The Athleticism Of The Cowboys' Offensive Line: Why Analytics Only Tell Part Of The Story

[RS12]

Over at Pride of Detroit, our sister blog for the Lions, writer Kent Platte took a detailed look at NFL offensive lines. He was searching for answers as to why Detroit is struggling up front. Seeking an analytic indicator, he examined a number called Raw Athletic Score (RAS), which uses combine and pro day numbers to try and quantify the talent of the players. He built a chart of the starting offensive line for every NFL team in 2015, which I have reproduced here. And you may notice some things that are rather surprising.

http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2016...line-travis-frederick-tyron-smith-zack-martin

 

[Irvin88_4life]

Philly number 1 and Dallas number 13 haha ya ok lay the pipe down

 

[Hardline]

Let's see a show of hands of you that would take the eagles oline over the Cowboys.

 

[boyzjunkie]

Are the Beard and Frederick two different people?

 

[roughneck266]

Simply means that this chart means absolutely nothing. Dont understand why they would even put it out there if they even know it proves nothing at all.

 

[AsthmaField]

It just means that measured athleticism doesn't mean an OL is going to be good.

Really nothing new to people who know that combine tests can't measure heart, smarts, will, toughness, nor ability to play football. Leverage, balance, instincts... these things are either there for a player or they aren't.

 

[Maxmadden]

Simply means that this chart means absolutely nothing. Dont understand why they would even put it out there if they even know it proves nothing at all.

They showed to just to prove, that it proves nothing.

 

[roughneck266]

They showed to just to prove, that it proves nothing.

Yeah, I get it, just seems to me they are writing stuff just for the sake of putting something out there.

 

[Seven]

Are the Beard and Frederick two different people?

On Sunday, yes.

 

[Nova]

Johnson, Peters and Kelce are all extreme athletes.

Well, Peters WAS. He's 35 now or about to be 35.

So it makes sense.

Doesn't mean their better and I think that's what this study was trying to show.

 

[JD_KaPow]

Oy. When you make up a stat and it doesn't correlate to on-the-field performance, the correct conclusion is not, "see, analytics don't tell the whole story." The correct conclusion is, "maybe this stat we made up is a really bad metric."