2011 Elusive Rating
Which running backs did the best job with the ball in their hands in 2011? That question can be incredibly difficult to answer and is often based on some very misleading numbers.
Rushing yards and touchdowns are nice, but they can’t separate the job of the running back from the blocking in front of him, and many times are more indicative of the offense in general than the individual runner.
At Pro Football Focus we try and go deeper than that, and the Elusive Rating Signature Stat is our attempt at isolating the performance of a runner from his blockers by looking at what he does on each play.
...
Topping that list was Buffalo’s Fred Jackson, who managed 3.75 yards per carry after contact, the best mark in the NFL by a margin, and almost a full yard more per carry than most running backs.
...
The Elusive Rating
The magic formula:
(MTrush + MTrec) / (Rec + Att) * (YCo / Att * 100)
We’ve now been running the Elusive Rating numbers for four seasons, and there have been a few names that consistently appear near the top of the rankings, usually players that at one time or another have been classed as ‘underrated’. Pierre Thomas has showed consistently well, as have Fred Jackson and Jonathan Stewart. All three of those players again cracked the Top 10 in 2011, with Thomas in eighth position, again topping a crowded Saints backfield. Jackson and Stewart took things to another level and finished the season 1-2 in the NFL. Stewart had a rating of 81.2 and Jackson 80.7, as the pair were way out ahead of the pack.
...
Jackson’s season in particular deserves some focus, because he was leading the way in the Elusive Rating standings for much of the season until injury ended his year prematurely. He had been coming back to the pack a little before he went down, but it’s a pity that we didn’t get to see what he could have achieved had he stayed healthy all season.
...