Posted by Mike Lynch on November 11, 2022
Getting into the 2022 NFL season, the NFL File and Truth E-book (the official report e-book of the Nationwide Soccer League) listed Ben Roethlisberger because the all-time chief in ‘Most Time Sacked, Profession’ (as it’s listed within the information) with 554. Tom Brady was listed second with 543. Above this checklist is the observe ‘Occasions Sacked has been compiled since 1963.”
Subsequently, Brady made a bit of reports when he lately handed Huge Ben to grow to be the ‘all-time’ chief in Occasions Sacked.
Getting into the season, Professional-Soccer-Reference would have listed the identical leaderboard because the File and Truth E-book, although our statistics for this class went again to solely 1969. Nonetheless, due to the skilled analysis of T.J. Troup, and a few session with the nice John Turney, our up to date all-time ‘Occasions Sacked’ leaderboard additionally has a brand new chief. However it’s not Tom Brady. It’s Corridor of Famer Fran Tarkenton.
Troup has supplied PFR with game-by-game Time Sacked totals for all NFL passers from 1963-68 and in addition protection for most video games from 1960-62. Moreover, he has supplied us with Sack Yards Misplaced for all participant video games from 1960-68. We now have Tarkenton with 572 Occasions Sacked in his profession, 15 forward of the 557 Brady has as of in the present day. Tarkenton can also be our chief in Sack Yards Misplaced, the place he’s the one participant with over 5,000 yards (nobody else is even over 4,000).
There are just a few caveats and wrinkles with this information, because the sack statistic has had a little bit of a protracted, unusual journey over time. We’ll try to put out some related ones beneath:
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- As you may be conscious, participant sacks (for defensive gamers) have solely been formally tracked since 1982. Nonetheless, there may be enough proof to determine participant sacks again one other couple many years.
- Workforce sacks, alternatively, have been formally tracked on a sport and season degree since 1963. The official statistics didn’t, nevertheless, explicitly say what number of occasions every particular person QB was sacked and for what number of yards (although this was oftentimes apparent if the group used one QB in a given sport, and may be corroborated through play-by-play).
- The NFL first began explicitly itemizing Occasions Sacked and Sacked Yards misplaced as a QB statistic in 1969. Till now, we by no means had it for any earlier seasons.
- Previous Vikings media guides credited Tarkenton with 44 occasions sacked in 1961. We really feel comfy with 42 based mostly upon overview of gamebooks and play-by-play. However there isn’t a ‘official’ right quantity for any of this pre-1969 and, particularly so, pre-1963. Nonetheless, ‘official’ merely means ‘of the workplace’ and doesn’t connote infallibility. Our mission is to current essentially the most correct statistics accessible. Generally this warrants ignoring ‘official’ designations.
- Though Occasions Sacked wasn’t added as an official statistic till 1963, Yards Misplaced Trying to Move (which is what Sack Yards Misplaced was referred to as in earlier occasions) was tracked. Our information on that’s full for the NFL game-by-game again to 1960, however in some instances from 1960-62 we do not know what number of occasions a given QB was sacked. We now have Sack Yards Misplaced for a lot of video games again to the late Nineteen Forties, but it surely was not persistently recorded till 1952.
- As a humorous apart, sacks (a time period which hadn’t but been coined) counted as working performs in 1946. From 1947-49 the yards misplaced have been added up however not subtracted from internet yards passing.
- This new information from 1960-68 applies to the NFL solely. We now have not added AFL information on this. The AFL was clearly a separate league till the leagues merged in 1970, however AFL statistics do depend as NFL statistics as a part of the merger settlement. We could attempt to add AFL information again to 1960 if it may be discovered.
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This new information additionally permits us to compute some helpful statistics for older seasons:
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- Sack%: Beforehand we may solely calculate this again to 1969, however now we are able to calculate it again to no less than 1963 for all NFL QBs (and in some instances again to 1960)
- Web Yards per Try: Beforehand we may solely calculate this again to 1969, however now we are able to calculate it again to no less than 1963 for all NFL QBs (and in some instances again to 1960).
- Adjusted Web Yards per Try: Beforehand we may solely calculate this again to 1969, however now we are able to calculate it again to no less than 1963 for all NFL QBs (and in some instances again to 1960)
- Adjusted Passing Statistics: Web Yards per Try Index, Adjusted Yards per Try Index and Sack Proportion Index can all be calculated again to 1963 for all NFL QBs (somewhat than 1969).
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