Sam Ehlinger: Better, but Not Good

Thanks to the nflFastR project and NFL NextGen Stats for the timely sources of data.

For those of you new to this, I will publish key QB stats each week judging how well the Colts passing game performed. Yes, O-Line, receivers, and play-calling impact these numbers but they are primarily QB measures. I will probably modify the charts throughout the season. Commentary will be brief but feel free to let me know in the comments that stats aren’t everything. (click charts for larger view)

HOW WELL?

Due to the interceptions, Ehlinger had really poor overall efficiency (worse than what Matt Ryan averaged). But even ignoring the picks, his passes just didn’t add positive value. A 39% success rate is below average.

His first down conversion rate was above average, but all his other numbers were poor. Basically, he managed to move the chains OK, but his passes prior to those conversions were not good.

On the week, he was bad. On the season, all the Colts QBs combined were bad. I know, shocker, right?

HOW FAR?

His completion rate was good, but they came on short passes that didn’t accrue compensating YAC.

TO WHO?

When it comes to target depth, Alec Pierce was Sunday’s winner, but Deon Jackson killed him with YAC.

HOW ACCURATE?

Accuracy was actually good this week.

HOW FAST?

Sam took a long time to throw short passes. That usually means 2 things:

1. Not a lot of pressure
2. No open receivers

TO WHERE?

Passes between 0 and 10 yards actually did well.

On the year, the Colts QBs liked the middle of the field.

DASHBOARD

Ok, the season is over, so let’s make this quick.

For the last game, the Colts had a run-first offense that was actually successful (25th edp, 9th arsr). Sam threw short passes with good accuracy but only got average YAC (22nd adot, 13th cpoe, 18th yac). That will get you below average YPA, but it isn’t god-awful.

He wasn’t pressured as much (15th pr%), which allowed him to avoid sacks (17th sck%) and increase his relative yardage efficiency from 24th YPA to 19th Net Yards per Dropback.

He threw a lot of first downs and managed some TDs (10th 1st%, 11th td%), but the turnovers killed his efficiency (9th to%, 26th epa/d).