Ohio State football: Fields top QB according to analytics

The former Ohio State football player is going to be a good and these stats show just how good he will be.

For years statistics were fairly simple. How many passes did a quarterback complete? How many yards did a running back rush for? Sacks were added by the NFL in 1982. Yards after catch was eventually used for receivers. All of these were simple and straightforward. Then somebody decided to show everyone how smart they were and created analytics (also known as advanced stats or metrics).

These are stats that consider multiple factors and require complex formulas. You can interpret these as you wish. Some cling to them as gospel truth. Some roll their eyes at the results. Some used them to ruin my favorite NFL football team (In what universe was it better to draft Jabrill Peppers than Malik Hooker?). But, when you see analytics which point out how good one of your favorite players has performed, it is a glorious thing and you’ll tell anyone who will listen.

According to Pro Football Focus’ CPOE metric, Justin Fields is the highest rated quarterback in the website’s college era (2014-present). CPOE is completion percentage over expected.

PFF says it takes into consideration pass depth, target yard line, pressure, target width, down, RPO, and blitz to “rate a quarterback’s accuracy based on the likelihood of them completing a pass in the given circumstances and whether they actually completed the pass.” Got that? Me neither, but I’ll trust they know what they’re doing.

They point out Fields was by far the most accurate of the five quarterbacks drafted in the first round this year while playing for the Ohio State football team. It is also pointed out Fields did not have a down year in 2020 like most believe. His PFF grade actually went up from 2019 and they say their CPOE formula backs up that increase. The article points out Draft Network’s Benjamin Solak said Fields, according to their analytics, faced the toughest defenses of all quarterbacks in 2020, “No FBS quarterback drafted in the last 10 years has had a more difficult defensive schedule than Fields.” Ohio State football doesn’t play any cupcakes!

Tej Seth, who wrote the article for Pro Football Focus, said this,

"“In all, Fields is a rare quarterback prospect, and the Bears were gifted him at No. 11 overall. A prospect as accurate as he is has never come around in the PFF College era. Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Joe Burrow were the only first-round quarterbacks close to Fields, and they have all shown signs of being long-term franchise quarterbacks.”"

After seeing what was said about him leading up to the draft, it is great to see Fields get some much-deserved praise.

You can read that Pro Football Focus article here.