Camp Buzz: Blitzing Drew Brees not a bad idea

TheOak · 08-16-2012, 08:35 AM

Blitzing Drew Brees worked in 2011. This goes against conventional wisdom, but it's also undeniably true. According to the Football Outsiders' Almanac, Brees produced an NFL-high 8.3 yards-per-pass play when opponents rushed three or four defenders last year. The average dropped to 7.2 yards (still good) against five defenders, and down to 6.8 yards against a big blitz of six defenders or more.
This is not what we expected. It is not what opposing defensive coordinators expected either, or they would have blitzed more. No quarterback saw fewer "big blitzes" in the NFL than Brees. This is not a new trend either; Brees has been better against four rushers than a blitz for three years running.

(Aaron Rodgers, on the other hand, was more effective last year the more pass rushers you sent at him.)
These sort of surprising revelations are why Lions coach Jim Schwartz, Seahawks G.M. John Schneider, and other NFL personnel read the Football Outsiders Almanac. Anyone that loves football is going to learn a lot from it. A few other fun nuggets I learned:

Rest of the story:
Camp Buzz: Blitzing Drew Brees not a bad idea - NFL.com

Please blitz... Open up PT and Sproles in the screen.

08-16-2012, 08:35 AM	#1
TheOak 10000 POST CLUB Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Cypress Tx. Posts: 19,039	Camp Buzz: Blitzing Drew Brees not a bad idea Blitzing Drew Brees worked in 2011. This goes against conventional wisdom, but it's also undeniably true. According to the Football Outsiders' Almanac, Brees produced an NFL-high 8.3 yards-per-pass play when opponents rushed three or four defenders last year. The average dropped to 7.2 yards (still good) against five defenders, and down to 6.8 yards against a big blitz of six defenders or more. This is not what we expected. It is not what opposing defensive coordinators expected either, or they would have blitzed more. No quarterback saw fewer "big blitzes" in the NFL than Brees. This is not a new trend either; Brees has been better against four rushers than a blitz for three years running. (Aaron Rodgers, on the other hand, was more effective last year the more pass rushers you sent at him.) These sort of surprising revelations are why Lions coach Jim Schwartz, Seahawks G.M. John Schneider, and other NFL personnel read the Football Outsiders Almanac. Anyone that loves football is going to learn a lot from it. A few other fun nuggets I learned: Rest of the story: Camp Buzz: Blitzing Drew Brees not a bad idea - NFL.com Please blitz... Open up PT and Sproles in the screen. Attached Thumbnails
	It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. ~ Henry David Thoreau Last edited by TheOak; 08-16-2012 at 09:57 AM..

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