1) Ok, why do announcers keep quoting rushing yard leaders?
Sure, if your team runs more than average, you'll have lots of rushing yards, but it seems pretty clear to me that yards/carry matters more than raw yards, right?
Or, really carry-yards above average.
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Current NFL rushing yards leader: Derrick Henry. Current leader in yards per rushing attempt: Marcus Mariota. Football fans will know from this example why total rushing yards paint a far better picture of the better runner than yards per attempt alone does.
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You can easily factor this in by setting a minimum amount of attempts. Most stat leaderboards do, for example a minimum amount of at-bats required for batting average
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Absolutely, I was using extremes to illustrate the point. Minimum # attempts helps but doesn’t completely scratch the itch imo bc of the nuances of the game. Let’s take the top 2 rushing leaders in the league rn for example
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1. Henry has more rushing yards but 2. Chubb has more yards per carry. At first blush Chubb seems more impressive but when you consider that Henry has 57% more attempts that becomes less clear. The additional attempts = more control of the clock.
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Could you devise a better metric for determining the more valuable running back than “total rushing yards”? Certainly, but “yards per carry” ain’t it.
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I think yds/carry is better (with some min) but yds above average (yds/carry - league average)*carries is prob better.
Though really you also want to look at conversion % etc.
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