The analytic side of sports has always intrigued me, which is why our annual Q&A session with Football Outsiders is something I look forward to each offseason.
This year we asked them about the Chicago Bears’ offensive line, the quarterback play, the nickelback, the defense bouncing back, and the pass protection, and here are a few highlights from their answers.
- Buster Skrine had a 55% success rate (29th best in the league) and allowed just 6.2 yards per target, placing him in the top 12.
- The good news is that regression works both ways, and there’s every reason to believe the Bears will be more fortunate with takeaways in 2020 — these things fluctuate wildly from year to year.
- Goldman had a 78% run stop success rate a year ago, just missing the top 20 among all interior defensive linemen — losing him will be a blow to the run defense, without a doubt.
- David Montgomery broke 45 tackles on runs, sixth-most in the league, but turned that into just 1.92 yards after contact, third-worst.
- It’s also worth noting that 31% of Chicago’s sacks were listed as “non-pressure” sacks - coverage sacks, failed scrambles or the quarterback just falling down.
But to get the full context of their responses be sure to check out all the articles linked up in the story stream below.
You can find even more great stuff about the 2020 NFL and college football seasons from Football Outsiders in their yearly Almanac available at their store here or at Amazon here.