Last week, a reader suggested we perform a value-based statistical analysis (similar to our 2009
Player Grades) which could be used to determine the worth of one player over another. For example, how much better would the Cowboys be if Felix Jones played every snap at running back (disregarding fatigue)? How costly would an injury to Jason Witten be? Essentially, how much does each player contribute to a win?
This task is easier said than done (and since it isn’t even particularly easily said, it sure isn’t easy to do). As the reader points out, one would have to “normalize” the conditions outside of the player to determine his true worth. This is rather easy to do (relatively speaking) in a sport like baseball where the circumstances are basically always the same.
In football, though, no two plays are ever really identical. Statistical comparisons among players on different teams are rather pointless, as the nature of each player’s system plays an incredible role in his statistical capabilities.
Nonetheless, there have been some attempts to “normalize” outside factors and assign an objective value to players. In fact, we are in the process of making such an attempt right now. Until then, we wanted to take a look at the values of Cowboys players gathered by some other leading football statistics gurus (and compare them to our own 2009 Player Rankings).
One such source (and perhaps the most well-known) is Football Outsiders. The primary FO statistic with which we are concerned is DVOA, or…………..to read more, Click Here
