I’ve put so much of my focus on understanding nerdy baseball stats, that I really haven’t even acknowledged the existence of them in football.
Aaron Shatz of FootballOutsiders.com gave his week 10 DVOA rankings (a stat that “takes every single play during the NFL season and compares each one to a league-average baseline based on situation”) and acknowledged the success of Baltimore Ravens rookie kicker Justin Tucker.
The Ravens are slightly below average on punt returns, but excellent in every other aspect of special teams. If kickers had more marginal value, we would be considering Justin Tucker for Rookie of the Year. He leads all kickers this season in both field goal value (7.65 points above average) and gross kickoff value (6.5 points above average).
Shatz is going to be pissed when Miguel Cabrera wins MVP.
