* Backer Battle

[HalfEatenOnionBagel]

Welcome to Backer Battle, sponsored by Toleso. This will be a one time article, unless of course I find it necessary to make it otherwise. Today we will be comparing two high profile rookie linebackers in the National Simulation Football League: Perry Tucker of Philadelphia and Kevin Cushing of Yellowknife.

Let’s start by congratulating both of these players on great seasons in their first years. Linebacker was an extremely crowded position in the league with a ton of great ones already playing from S1, but these two have made a name for themselves so far.

Before diving in, here is a quick statistical reference for each linebacker:

Tucker, P. LB PHI 14 87 3 1/1 4 3 5 0 0 0/0/0
Cushing, K. LB YKW 14 88 1 0/1 5 1 1 0 0 0/0/0

Now, every linebacker has numbers, but these are all just numbers unless we have some other numbers to compare these numbers. Tucker and Cushing had a bet throughout the season using their own scoring system and Perry Tucker by far came out on top. But, we’re now going to use out patented Bagel Linebacker maTrix (BLT) to compare their performances and really get to the bottom of this.

I didn’t compare EVERY stat, just most of them. After some internal debate, I completely discarded tackles. My thinking was this: every linebacker gets a lot of tackles. Show me a reason to consider tackles, and then I won’t reconsider it because these are my opinions and therefore your logic should be thrown by the wayside. But, I have statistics so my logic is infallible.

Here is the BLT process. Each linebacker has 20 categories to be graded on. Those categories are:
TFL
% of team TFL
% of Conf TFL
% of League TFL
FF
% of team FF
% of Conf FF
% of League FF
Sacks
% of team Sacks
% of Conf Sacks
% of League Sacks
Int
% of team Int
% of Conf Int
% of League Int
PD
% of team PD
% of Conf PD
% of League PD

For each category where a linebacker was above the average of the two in consideration, I awarded one point. For each category where a linebacker was the highest, I awarded an additional point. For each category where a linebacker was lowest, I subtracted a point. Here were the scores:

Perry Tucker: 28
Kevin Cushing: -8

Here are some noteworthy observations:
Even after comparing so many categories, these scores are still pretty close.
So…it looks like we are all done, right? Stuck in basically a two-way tie? If only there were some OTHER ways we could compare these players…..oh that’s right the BLT has so much more to it that we have left to cover!
We next need to apply the BLT Bust Index to compare relative value of these players in the draft for their teams. This is important to consider because of the opportunity that it afforded for each team to improve at other positions. Cushing was taken at pick 13 in round 2, while Tucker was taken at pick 21 in round 3. Taking the difference in draft position and deducting it from Cushing’s score will give us a better sense of how much relative value these players have generated for their teams in terms of draft capital to go along with the comparison we have already done of their stats.

But, we’re not quite done yet. The linebacker position tends to be the face of the defense and the BLT factors that in quite literally. As the great Yogi Berra once said: “90 percent of the game is half mental.” You need to have a face for your defense that inspires fear in an opponent and provides confidence for your own team. When it comes to who you want as the face of your defense what image do you want people to have of your’s:





OR





To the naked eye, the choice is nearly imperceptible, but according to the calculations of the BLT it’s clear that Tucker is the face you want for your defense out of these two and that is indicated by an additional 5 points applied to Tucker’s score.

Finally, we must remind ourselves that Tucker initially started as a tight end, but ended up switching to linebacker, a position he had no experience or the correct physical build for, at the beginning of the season. As such the BLT will apply the optional Positional Midcareer Switch bonus. Tucker did catch on and start performing quickly, so the score adjustment shouldn’t be too much. For this reason, the BLT only rewards Tucker with a modest 10 point PMS bonus for the setback this position change caused him at the beginning of the season that likely affected some of his early stats.

Combining all of these components of the BLT, we can finally reach a delicious and satisfying conclusion by looking at the final scores:

Perry Tucker: 43
Kevin Cushing: -16

Now, the results seem a little more clear. Twice now Cushing’s performance on the season has been compared to Tucker’s using various methods and has been found to be deficient. For all the talk before the draft and complaining after about how he could have saved the Liberty perhaps even from themselves, it appears that Philadelphia found a much more suitable, valuable and palatable option in Tucker.

But, maybe everything I have told you is just a bunch of baloney. Maybe I’m just pretending to be some authority on the subject who can just throw away relevant statistics as I like to create an end result satisfying to myself. Maybe my arbitrary scoring system simply undermines players I don’t like and elevates the players that I want to all while tricking you, the reader, in to believing that what I say must be true with statistics (ooohhhh ahhhh). Or maybe the truth is that Cushing really is the bust we all saw that he would be and that his team clearly saw him for as well, leading them to make a move for Hackett, a true coverage linebacker, not just some LB/S tweener that just talks too much.



((1036 words, ready for grading))

Code:

Graded
$1 636 000

[Bzerkap]

Fighting words son

[tlk742]

This read have me quite a chuckle. Thank you.

[Perry87]

But, maybe everything I have told you is just a bunch of baloney.

Such a tease.

[kckolbe]

@HalfEatenOnionBagel
"I didn’t compare EVERY stat, just most of them. After some internal debate, I completely discarded tackles."

Said it before, but you are the king of the piggyback troll article. I laughed my ass off at that.

[adam2552]

Cushing and Matthews look so uncomfortable in that picture. They have no idea what to do with their hands.

[Bzerkap]

Cushing and Matthews look so uncomfortable in that picture.  They have no idea what to do with their hands.

What are you talking about? Gripping the imaginary football and jazz hands are the only answer

[Daybe]

what bout leuchly though

[HalfEatenOnionBagel]

Cushing and Matthews look so uncomfortable in that picture.  They have no idea what to do with their hands.

Yeah I'm curious what the context surrounding this photo was haha

[HalfEatenOnionBagel]

what bout leuchly though

Oh yeah great player as well no doubt, this was more a comparison of two players drafted near each other and in the same conference that also were actively competing throughout the season.