Michael Nania grades every throw from Joe Flacco‘s performance against the Miami Dolphins. How well did he really play?
Each week this season, I will be grading every Sam Darnold play from the Jets’ most recent game to get a 0-to-100 grade on the quality of his performance. Of course, Darnold did not take the field in the Jets’ Week 6 game against Miami, so we will again be looking at Joe Flacco‘s performance.
Sam Darnold Grades
Week 2 vs. San Francisco 49ers
Joe Flacco – Week 5 vs. Arizona Cardinals
Nania’s Darnold Grades home page (links to all 2019-20 games)
Grades Explained
Digging through the All-22 film, I went back and graded every play (pass attempt, sack, rushing attempt) Flacco logged in the game, scoring each on a scale of 0-to-10 (5 representing an average play).
Anything and everything is taken into account. Ball placement. Accuracy. Should-be turnovers. Unlucky turnovers. Protection. Play-calling effectiveness. Impact of the route-running and ball tracking quality by the intended receiver. Down and distance. Field position. Game situation.
Every layer of decision-making is considered. Did Flacco choose the best available option? Did he scan the field to check all possible options? Did he take an over-aggressive shot when a first down was available underneath? Did he check down too early and leave a potential big play on the field? Should he have run? Did he take a sack he should not have? Should he have thrown the ball away?
Simple statistics do not account for any of those factors. Using a manual, play-by-play grading system, many crucial variables that usually go overlooked are being properly valued. Sprinkle in this essential context, and we get a grade that is much more representative of the quarterback’s true performance level than standard box score numbers.
Flacco’s final scores are scaled from 0-to-100, with 50 representing the approximate league average (based on the analysis of other quarterbacks).
Let’s hop right into it. Here is my comprehensive 0-to-100 grade on Flacco’s performance against the Dolphins.
Overall Grade
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