Hey everyone! I received a lot of positive reaction to my last post about Wins Above Replacement, so I decided to make another quick post about it whilst I work on doing the same for offensive players, which will come out next week. This post is about the Top 5 defensive players by WAR from last season and talking a little bit about their season. At the end I will also provide a small update about the formula I use and a surprise!
• 118 Tackles
• 5 Tackles for Loss
• 4 Forced Fumbles
• 16 Sacks (!!)
• 1 Interception
• 14 Pass Deflections
• 2 Defensive Performances of the Week (W2 and W3)
• 113 Tackles
• 1 Forced Fumble
• 4 Interceptions (!!)
• 39 Pass Deflections (2nd most among all players)
• 134 Tackles (2nd most among all players)
• 7 Tackles for Loss (4th among all LBs)
• 2 Forced Fumbles
• 9 Sacks
• 7 Pass Deflections
• 1 Safety
• 120 Tackles (3rd most in the league (!) and most among secondary players)
• 4 Forced Fumbles (Tied 5th among all players)
• 7 Interceptions (Most among all players, Tied 4th most in any ISFL season)
• 26 Pass Deflections (Tied 7th most among all players)
• Nomination to Cornerback of the Year
• Nomination to Defensive Player of the Year
And finally, I present you:
Throughout the 16 games of the regular season Desmond managed:
• 139 Tackles (Most among all players)
• 10 Tackles for Loss (Tied 3rd among all players, best by a Linebacker, only player in his position to get double digits in TFL in S27)
• 5 Forced Fumbles (Tied 2nd among all players in S27)
• 12 Sacks
• 1 Interception
• 9 Pass Deflections
• 3 Defensive Performances of the Week (Most among all players in Season 27)
• Nomination to Defensive Performance of the Year
• Nomination to Defensive Player of the Year
Thank you for the read! The list stops here, but I’ll give a small update about the WAR Formula and a surprise for all of you.
Here’s the link for the table!
5. Derred de Ville – Linebacker – Sarasota Sailfish
As if being Ultimus champion wasn’t enough, de Ville also managed to enter the exclusive list of 5 players in Season 27 to managed a WAR larger than 0.2, with an amazing 0.218. A huge piece of the Sailfish championship winning season, this player showed the true power of Linebackers in this league, the true “do it all’s” of the league.. Throughout the 16 games of the regular season, Derred managed to accomplish:
• 118 Tackles
• 5 Tackles for Loss
• 4 Forced Fumbles
• 16 Sacks (!!)
• 1 Interception
• 14 Pass Deflections
• 2 Defensive Performances of the Week (W2 and W3)
4. Desmond Scarlett – Cornerback – Arizona Outlaws
There’s a reason why the Outlaws had the 2nd best Pass Defense in the league and the best in the ASFC. His name is Desmond Scarlett. Despite a 1st Round loss in the playoffs, Arizona showed a commitment to stop opposing quarterbacks every game they faced, and Scarlett was a huge part of it. With a WAR of 0.2183, the Georgia CB manages to just about beat de Ville and get the 4th best Wins Above Replacement in Season 27. Throughout the 16 games of the regular season Desmond managed:
• 113 Tackles
• 1 Forced Fumble
• 4 Interceptions (!!)
• 39 Pass Deflections (2nd most among all players)
3. Jack Banks – Linebacker – New York Silverbacks
Despite an underwhelming season for both defense and offense in New York, Banks managed to show why some people call the Silverbacks defense “The New York Sack Exchange”. The LB with the 2nd most WAR in the league, Banks had an amazing Season 27 and was among the top of most stats. Throughout the 16 games of the regular season Desmond managed:
• 134 Tackles (2nd most among all players)
• 7 Tackles for Loss (4th among all LBs)
• 2 Forced Fumbles
• 9 Sacks
• 7 Pass Deflections
• 1 Safety
2. Andrew Witten – Cornerback – New Orleans Second Line
Is anyone surprised with this? One of my major fears when creating the formula for WAR was that it undervalued players in the secondary because of how low passing defense stats were. Witten proved me wrong. New Orleans surprised many by going all the way to the finals in S27, but Andrew knew it all along. Part of the 5th best passing defense in the league, Witten has the 2nd most Wins Above Replacement among all players with an amazing 0.224. Throughout the 16 games of the regular season Desmond managed:
• 120 Tackles (3rd most in the league (!) and most among secondary players)
• 4 Forced Fumbles (Tied 5th among all players)
• 7 Interceptions (Most among all players, Tied 4th most in any ISFL season)
• 26 Pass Deflections (Tied 7th most among all players)
• Nomination to Cornerback of the Year
• Nomination to Defensive Player of the Year
And finally, I present you:
1. Douglas Quaid – Linebacker – Yellowknife Wraiths
With the 2nd best passing defense in the league, 11th best for rushing, and 10th best overall (yards wise), you would expect a secondary player here. But this is far from the case. Quaid is the definition of a statistical freak. All players I showed here had a WAR of about 0.22. He has a WAR of 0.293. He has twice as many Wins Above Replacement as the 13th player in the list. The Yellowknife’s quick passage through the playoffs wouldn’t have been close to possible if it weren’t for this player. You’d imagine that a 29-year-old champion would have his prime past him both motivation and playing wise. Douglas proved all wrong. He was only 1 PD away from managing double digits in 4 different stats, something no player in Season 27 came close to accomplishing. I respect Melvin-Murder Moose’s DPOY, but for me, that award had one name written all over it: Douglas Quaid.
Throughout the 16 games of the regular season Desmond managed:
• 139 Tackles (Most among all players)
• 10 Tackles for Loss (Tied 3rd among all players, best by a Linebacker, only player in his position to get double digits in TFL in S27)
• 5 Forced Fumbles (Tied 2nd among all players in S27)
• 12 Sacks
• 1 Interception
• 9 Pass Deflections
• 3 Defensive Performances of the Week (Most among all players in Season 27)
• Nomination to Defensive Performance of the Year
• Nomination to Defensive Player of the Year
Thank you for the read! The list stops here, but I’ll give a small update about the WAR Formula and a surprise for all of you.
As for the update, I said in my initial post yesterday that my formula was
and
With PAperW = Points Allowed per Win (for each team). Whilst it was an interesting idea, it didn’t work out. Most teams have about the same PAperW, with 3 teams being between the range of 17-21 Points Allowed per Win. Out of those 3 teams, 2 had very troubling PAperW:
• Berlin: 9.8 PAperW
• Baltimore: 0 PAperW
Berlin managed to win half of their games by conceding less than 10 points, which really eschewed the formula, which heavily favored Berlin players for no real reason. And since PAperW is a divisor, it could not be 0. However, Baltimore’s nightmare season made it mathematically impossible to calculate AV for their players and, consequently, their WAR. So I changed PAperW to a number that is constant (if you look back at past seasons). It now represents the average Points Allowed per Win throughout the whole league. For season 27, that number is 16.15 and was used for these calculations and will be used for future ones.
Now my surprise: I decided to make the Wins Above Replacement table available to all! For now (04/17), it only includes defensive players. Since it is hosted by Google, it will be further updated with any changes my formula might include, WAR for offensive players, and eventually a table with both defense and offense (just as a sidenote, I only calculated it for players who played all 16 regular season games, as I thought it would be unfair to those who didn’t).
Here’s the link for the table!