Embedded Files
Over the years, the NFL quarterback position has seen a huge shift as more quarterbacks have developed the ability to make plays with both their legs and their arms. Modern quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, and Jalen Hurts have shown time and time again that their rushing ability helps them extend plays and make big plays that other quarterbacks cannot. In 2014 quarterbacks rushed for a combined 6,707 yards. Ten years later, quarterbacks rushed for 11,035 yards, showing the growth of quarterback rushing over the past decade. These trends would make you think that being a rushing quarterback would help improve playoff success, but we have seen top rushing quarterbacks, such as Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen, struggle in the playoffs despite great regular seasons. So this makes you think, does being a good rushing quarterback actually improve playoff success?
To analytically analyze the question I have selected 10 NFL quarterbacks from the 21st century and compared their rushing stats to their playoff success. These 10 quarterbacks were selected from a variety of playstyles from pocket passers like Tom Brady and Joe Burrow to mobile quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. The full list of quarterbacks includes Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Joe Burrow, Russel Wilson, Cam Newton, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Dak Preacott. I collected these quarterbacks average rushing yards per season, average rushing touchdowns per season, playoff winning percentage, and total Super Bowl appearances.
After calculations I found interesting results. I found that the two highest rushers were Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts with 815.25 and 592.33 yards per season. As well as the two lowest rushers Tom Brady and Joe Burrow with 48.83 and 141.17 yards per season. I also found that the quarterback with the highest win% is Patrick Mahomes with a win% of 80.95% and the lowest quarterback sitting at a low 29% is Dak Prescott. To find the relationship between rushing yards and playoff success I created a scatter plot to help show the data. The scatter plot showed a decreasing trend showing that the more rush yards per season you get the lower your playoff win% is. I also calculated the correlation coefficient between average rushing yards per season and playoff winning percentage was -0.416, showing a moderate negative relationship.
This all shows that a quarterback's rushing ability seems to have a slight negative effect on the quarterback's playoff success or at the very least does not benefit the quarterback in the playoffs.
To further prove my results I grouped all 10 quarterbacks and put them in groups of Low Rushers, Mid Rushers, and High Rushers. I then calculated the playoff win% of each group and I found similar results. Low Rushers had a win% of 65.58%, Mid Rushers had a win% of 51.33%, and High Rushers had a win% of 50.28%. This continues to prove that being a good rushing quarterback does not benefit playoff success.
These results do seem to suggest that quarterback rushing ability does not improve playoff success.However, this study is not without limitations, and there are several ways it could be improved. This study only includes 10 quarterbacks so perhaps if there were a lot more quarterbacks results could be different.It is also important to note that football is a team sport, so a quarterback's playoff success is influenced by many factors beyond their individual rushing ability. Players like Lamar Jackson have had great games in the playoffs but other factors have ended in a loss for the quarterbacks. In conclusion, even though there is a moderate negative correlation between rushing ability and playoff performance, it would have been better to conduct a bigger study with other variables to make the research more reliable.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse