+- International Simulation Football League (https://forums.sim-football.com)
+-- Forum: Community (https://forums.sim-football.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=5)
+--- Forum: Media (https://forums.sim-football.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=37)
+---- Forum: Graded Articles (https://forums.sim-football.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=38)
+---- Thread: *Rapid Eagle - Who Had The Most Similar NFL Career? (/showthread.php?tid=36488)
*Rapid Eagle - Who Had The Most Similar NFL Career? - rapideagle - 12-09-2021
Introduction
This will probably be a shorter article, but having recently recreated I wanted to take some time and take a look at the career of Rapid Eagle. Retiring after 10 years Rapid Eagle accrued 154 games played, 403 total tackles, 76.0 sacks, 13 forced fumbles and 6 fumbles recovered. One idea that came to mind was to see how my simulated career lined up with the career of NFL players. So with the help of Statmuse I took a look at a list of players with 350+ tackles, and 70+ sacks and selected a few to directly compare to Rapid Eagle. Using percent change difference of all 5 stats previously mentioned and the average of all of them I made a list of 8 players who had the most comparable careers.
8. Greg Ellis (+20.24%)
176 games, 398 tackles, 84.0 sacks, 20 forced fumbles, 11 fumbles recovered
Greg Ellis played 12 seasons in the NFL, drafted 8th overall by the Dallas Cowboys in 1998. A one time pro bowler in 2007, also the comeback player of the year in 2007, Ellis had very similar tackle numbers to Rapid Eagle but had significantly more sacks, forced fumbles and fumbles recovered throughout his career. The increase in turnovers inflated his percent change over Eagle's career to over 20% taking him out of contention for most similar career.
7. Patrick Kerney (+18.54%)
159 games, 408 tackles, 82.5 sacks, 20 forced fumbles, 11 fumbles recovered
Patrick Kerney played 11 seasons in the NFL. drafted 30th overall by the Atlanta Falcons. Kerney was as better player than Ellis being a 2 time pro bowler, but also made the all pro team twice, as a 1st and 2nd teamer. In 2007 Kerney lead the NFC in sacks which helped him win the NFC Defensive Player of the Year award, something that eluded Rapid Eagle for his entire career. Kerney beat out Greg Ellis as more comparable due to having closer numbers in games played, tackles and sacks but again Kerney created turnovers at a much higher rate than Eagle which leaves him at 7th on this list.
6. Leonard Little (+17.25%)
147 games, 351 tackles, 87.5 sacks, 32 forced fumbles, 9 fumbles recovered
Leonard Little played 12 seasons in the NFL, drafted 65th overall by the St. Louis Rams. Little played his entire career with the Rams, being named to a single pro bowl in 2003, also being named to the all pro team that season. Little also won a Superbowl with the Rams, something Eagle was never able to do with the Otters unfortunately. Looking closer at the stats Little was most similar in games played but outproduced Eagle in sacks and forced fumbles while trailing in tackles only giving him a slight edge over Kerney.
5. Aaron Schobel (+12.67%)
133 games, 483 tackles, 78.0 sacks, 20 forced fumbles, 8 fumbles recovered
Aaron Schobel played 9 seasons in the NFL, drafted 46th overall by the Buffalo Bills. Schobel was named to the pro bowl twice, in 2006 and 2007, being named to the second team all pro as well in 2006. Schobel was most well known for starting in 116 consecutive games for the Bills. His stats were closer to Eagle's all around outside outproducing him significantly in tackles with 483, giving him a 5% edge over Little.
4. Willie McGinest (-11.26%)
212 games, 403 tackles, 86.0 sacks, 5 forced fumbles, 17 fumbles recovered
Willie McGinest played 15 seasons in the NFL, drafted 4th overall by the New England Patriots. He won 3 superbowls with the Patriots in his time there, something the Otters were only able to do before drafting Rapid Eagle when they threepeated seasons 18, 19 and 20. McGinest was named to the pro bowl in 1996 and 2003, but his biggest accomplishment was being the NFL career leader in postseason sacks with 16. McGinest played much longer career and was significantly better player in the playoffs but the regular season numbers line up pretty well. Both had 403 tackles but McGinest was able to collect more sacks in his longer career.
3. Andre Carter (+4.34%)
184 games, 517 tackles, 80.5 sacks, 18 forced fumbles, 4 fumbles recovered
Andre Carer played 12 seasons in the NFL, drafted 7th overall by the San Francisco 49ers. Carter was named to a single pro bowl in 2011 with the Patriots the same season he set their franchise record of 4 sacks in a single game. Entering the top 3 most similar careers we see a much bigger silimarity in all five statistics across the board. Carer's biggest discrepencies are in games played and tackles where he out produced Rapid Eagle.
2. Shaun Ellis (+1.26%)
184 games, 515 tackles, 73.5 sacks, 12 forced fumbles, 5 fumbles recovered
Shaun Ellis played 11 seasons in the NFL, drafted 12th overall by the New York Jets. Ellis was named to two pro bowls in 2003 and 2009, most remembered for being selected by the first of the picks received by the Jets from trading Bill Belicheck to the Patriots. The 2nd Ellis on this list is way more statistically similar to Eagle, besides having more games played and tackles they are extremely similar in career sacks, forced fumbles and fumbles recovered.
1. Everson Griffen (+0.47%)
170 games, 403 tackles, 85.5 sacks, 11 forced fumbles, 6 fumbles recovered
Everson Griffen has played 11 seasons in the NFL so far, drafted 100th overall by the Minnesota Vikings. Griffen is the only active player on this list so he could technically be passed up by Shuan Ellis if he continues to produce. So far this season Griffen has played in 9 of the 12 games so far playing about 80% of the defensive snaps when he plays. Griffen was a 2nd team all pro player in 2017 and a 4 time pro bowler, the same amount of pro bowls as Rapid Eagle, fitting for the most similar career even though that was not accounted for. Griffen so far in his career has the same amount of tackles at 403, and fumbles recovered at 6. While his numbers will likely improve as he keeps playing he is still sa full 1.2% more similar than Shaun Ellis is currently, so its a matter of how much he has left in the tank.
The Stats
![[Image: unknown.png]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/767859053552074792/918248296823271434/unknown.png)
Conclusion
Overall Rapid Eagle had a successful 10 year career but seems like when compared to the NFL careers of similar calibers he is just under the tier of being remembered as a truly elite player. But at the end of the day having a similar career to Everson Griffen is a win in my book.
Code:
1107 WordsRE: Rapid Eagle - Who Had The Most Similar NFL Career? - KoltClassic - 12-09-2021
This is awesome! It reminds me of a similarity score calculator I was working on quite a while back. Took quite a few factors into account to try to map sim football scores to NFL seasons.
Here's an old screenshot I could find. Maybe I should dig that back up...
![[Image: xBowVB8.png]](https://i.imgur.com/xBowVB8.png)
RE: Rapid Eagle - Who Had The Most Similar NFL Career? - rapideagle - 12-09-2021
(12-09-2021, 02:14 PM)KoltClassic Wrote: This is awesome! It reminds me of a similarity score calculator I was working on quite a while back. Took quite a few factors into account to try to map sim football scores to NFL seasons.
Here's an old screenshot I could find. Maybe I should dig that back up...
Yo that looks sick, I wanted to put some more factors in but TFLs seemed too inconsistent from IRL in sim, would be more interesting for other positions like WR in your screenshot!