Ryan and Flacco

Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco are squaring off tonight. Both QBs were taken in the 1st round in 2008 and they're often compared. Their performance is amazingly similar this season in many different measures, but each player has taken a very different path to get where they are.

Both QBs improved over the course of their rookie seasons, and you can even see it clearly in their stats.

While Flacco rode his defense to success his rookie year, Ryan's play in 2008 was the reason for the Falcons' success. Since then, however, Flacco has improved, making the standard jump from his first year to his second.

Ryan is said to have regressed slightly in his second year, but his apparent decline was due primarily to situational factors. His EPA in 2008 and 2009 was nearly equal, but his WPA was cut in half.

This year both players have about 50 points of EPA at 0.15 EPA per play, 5.5 Adjusted YPA, 45% success rate, 61% completion percentage, 14 sacks, and 6 interceptions.

Open both of their career pages and tab back and forth between them for an interesting way to see just how they compare.

Flacco
Ryan

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5 Responses to “Ryan and Flacco”

  1. Anonymous says:

    I'd be interested in seeing an analysis of just how much Matt Ryan contributed to Boston College's success in his senior year ('07-'08) - without looking at any numbers, it sure seemed like he was a huge reason they reached number in the nation for a couple of weeks!

    My apologies for possibly sparking a debate on the college football ranking system...

  2. Anonymous says:

    Edit - *number 2 in the nation

  3. Anonymous says:

    The Falcons should have went for two early in the fourth, right? Seemed like a no-brainer.

  4. Ian Simcox says:

    Well done Atlanta. How many times do you see teams get into ‘field goal range’ and then decide that they’ve won the game, even though it’s really 50:50 kick from that far out?

    Interestingly it seemed like BAL had decided the FG was a given, hence the big blitz to knock ATL out of field goal range, whereas ATL realised the kick wasn’t certain and were quite prepared to pass deep for either the TD or an easier FG. BAL might complain about pass interference but the safety was miles out of position to defend that pass. They defended as though they expected ATL to only try to gain a few ‘safe’ yards and then attempt the kick.

    So often coaches forget that you are allowed to score a TD when you’re only a point down. I know it sucks if you’re a BAL fan, but they were out-thought at the end there.

  5. Jonathan says:

    Agreed...once you're at the 35 yard line, you just need to gain or 20 more yards to turn a 50% proposition to a 90%+ proposition.

    The incremental benefit of going 45 yards from your own 20 (0% to ~50%) is not much bigger than the incremental benefit of going from the 35 to the 15 (~50% to ~90%)

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