Pro Football Focus: Chester Taylor ranked #2!

The Chester Taylor topic has been thrown around Windy City Gridiron all off season.  Some think he should be released while others think with improved offensive line play his effectiveness will increase.  I think we can all agree that we'd like better production from the Bears #2 running back.  Pro Football Focus does a great job crunching numbers and their most recent article makes an interesting point about Taylor.

In their Elusive Rating 2010 article written by Sam Monson they have one stat in particular that caught my eye.  I've thought all season that on the majority of Taylor's runs he had no chance to get going.  He was seemingly hit as soon as he touched the ball on so many instances.  They looked at the percentage of yards after contact for backs and Chester Taylor ranked #2 with 79.4%.  Taylor gained 212 of his 267 yards after getting hit by a defender.  This validates what I saw while watching the games.  When Taylor ran the ball, the plays rarely had a chance to develop.

Now in the actual elusive rating stat PFF came up with Taylor was ranked near the bottom, but remember his overall play saw him rated as the 39th back in the NFL.  Not bad for a #2 RB, but let's hear what you guys think...