PFF's Elusive Rating: Where our Steelers RB's Rank in 2010

Pro-Football-Focus has developed the Theory of Elusivity, which they have quantified with the Elusive Rating (ER).  Essentially, it is a ranking where they try to rule out the effectiveness of the OL in front of the running backs.  The statistic takes yards after contact and broken tackles and creates a grading system out of them.  The equation is (MT rush + MT rec)/(Att + Rec)*(YCo/Att*100), where MT = missed tackle, Rec = reception, Att = rush attempt, and YCo = yards after first contact.  Seems reasonable to me, but before we jump into the rating, lets take a look at the components.

Yards after contact is an interesting statistic, that I have only seen kept by PFF.  It is important because it is a result of several things that cannot be quantified like the ability to break tackles, the ability to fight for extra yards while wrapped up, etc.  It is too bad that PFF is only a few years old, because I bet someone like Jerome Bettis would have a ton of yards after contact because of his unmatched size, power, and quick feet.  Anyway, below I have listed the top 5 in both YCo/Att (green cells) and YCo% (blue cells) (the percent of total yards that are YCo) as well as all Steelers RBs and Ben Roethlisberger (why not?).  Players need a minimum of 50 carries to be in my top 5.

MeMo has the best YCo% in the entire league, albeit on a relatively smaller sample size.  Also, PFF says that since they have been keeping an eye on YCo% that is by far the highest they have seen.  Moving on, Redman has the second best YCo/Att. in the entire league, but again on a small sample size.  Most importantly, Mendenhall is on par with the rest of the league, sporting average numbers in both categories.  I think he could definitely bring his numbers up if he avoided spinning and tried to fall forward more often.

Missed  tackles are quite similar to yards after contact in that you do not see them recorded often.  However, if you are a running back and you are breaking tackles, you are doing something right.  A lot of what Adrian Peterson does stems from his uncanny ability to break tackles. For the record, PFF calls them "Missed Tackles", because that includes broken tackles as well as ankles broken.  For this table, I will collect the top 10 in missed tackles a long with the Steelers above.

Nice, Mendenhall breaks into the top 10 for missed tackles, which does not surprise me.  When he sweeps to either side he easily becomes any defenders nightmare.  One thing that sticks out to me is the amount of missed tackles per touch that Redman has.  The guys in the top 10 are making people miss tackles at about 12-18% of the time, whereas Redman does it about 38% of the time.  That is very impressive, especially when you consider that most of his carries are on short yardage situations.  I have a feeling this is going to sky rocket his ER.

Finally, we can move onto the Elusive Rating after getting a feel for our data.  As you can see in PFF's article, LaGarrete Blount has the best ER of 89.8 by a considerable margin.  Second place is Fred Jackson with 58.5 and then Ryan Torain with 58.0.  If you want a good laugh, you can take a look at Ray Rice's ER of 11.8, which is the 4th worst in the entire NFL.  Anyway, here are the Steelers ratings (note my rating for MeMo is different because I rounded to the hundredth):

There you have it, according to this Elusive Rating, Redman is the best RB in the world.  That is no news to us here at BTSC.  Anyway, PFF puts MeMo in their top 10 for ER, which is impressive.  Mendenhall is not in the top 10, but he is still above average.  Like I said before, I think he could bring this number up if he spins less and squares up more.  Furthermore, I think with a better RG who can pull and swing for screens he can get into open space more and that is where he shines.  Anyway, maybe somehow a Steelers coach will see these numbers and realize that Redman should be getting more opportunities.