Is Drayton Florence Overrated?

While not an exact science, the Football Outsiders guys have put together a couple of forumlas that help determine whether a guy sucks or not. One of these is called 'Success Rate':

Success Rate (defense) – The percentage of plays targeting a defensive player on which the offense did not have a successful play. This means not only incomplete passes and interceptions, but also short completions that do not meet the 45%/60%/100% baseline for success detailed in the description of DVOA. Success Rate for defensive players plays a much larger role in our book than it does on the website during the season, because it is based on game charting data, which takes a couple of weeks to collect after each week's games.

According to their game charting statistics, our beloved Drayton Florence is one of the worst cornerbacks in the league! If are a quarterback throwing on Drayton Florence, you'll have at least a 41% chance of getting 10 yards...

Worst Success Rate

Jason David, NO: 32%
Stanley Wilson, DET: 36%
Johnathan Joseph, CIN: 39%
Leon Hall, CIN: 40%
Drayton Florence, SD: 41%
Marlin Jackson, IND: 41%
Lito Sheppard, PHI: 41%
Roy Williams, DAL: 41%
Eric Green, ARI: 42%
Darrelle Revis, NYJ: 42%
Atari Bigby, GB: 42%

Worst Yards per Pass
Jason David, NO: 14.5
Hole in Zone, 11.9

Yes, Jason David is worse than throwing at a hole in the zone. Fred Thomas gave up 9.3 yards per pass last year. Egads. I guess not every player is meant to play in every defensive scheme.

Michael Huff, OAK: 10.8
Stanley Wilson, DET: 10.7
Drayton Florence, SD: 10.6
Corey Ivy, BAL: 10.0
Leon Hall, CIN: 9.6
Patrick Surtain, KC: 9.3
David Barrett, NYJ: 9.1
Cedric Griffin, MIN: 9.0
Al Harris, GB: 8.8

Take this info and with it what you will but don't forget this is coming from the people who once claimed Drayton Florence was better than Quentin Jammer. Check for yourself at FootballOutsiders.com:

Charting Defensive Backs 2007

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FEATURED COMMENT

Antonio Gates is easily one of the best tight ends to have ever played NFL football, but I doubt he would get into the Hall of Fame now if his career were to mysteriously end now. Why? Because, despite eye-popping numbers and video-highlight reels to die for, careers like Gates' are a microcosm of what's wrong with the modern corporate game and inherent problems trying to rate individual players in a team sport.

If Antonio had had a stellar college career as a tight end and retired tomorrow, he might make it in; but as someone who was UNdrafted yet enormously successful, his career makes the prognosticator industry look less than the Grand Pooba's they purport to be. Ditto for Gates' quick ascent to lofty numbers. Naysayers will mention Brees' lack of success with the deep pass, or L.T.'s phenominal success will be used as a "qualifier" against Gates' induction merit as he was "only a part" of a great offensive team. It's ironic, even foolish, but Gates needs to escape the "shadow" of L.T.'s iconic career to solidly define his own. Nowadays Jackson, Sproles, and others are getting more balls thrown to them too. So it will be, by offensive design, probably difficult for Gates to continue on with the pace of his earlier success; and that's assuming he can stay healthy. But whatever accolades may come his way eventually, he has been just fantastic to watch as a Charger.

Personally, I'd even rate him slightly above the great Kellen Winslow here, and Winslow's in the HoF. Winslow's career here also reiterates my earlier point; he was pivotal to the NFL to a large degree because his position was pivotal to the passing attack introduced to the NFL by Don Coryell and his staff. Yet, AMAZINGLY, relatively few folks are clamoring so much for Coryell's overdue induction into the HoF!? Coryell deserves to be there as much as anyone, period! But Don loved football and football players first and foremost, and never did the Corporate or media dance. Truth is, none are so blind as those that refuse to see.

Posted by Anonymous on "Is Antonio Gates Already A Hall Of Fame Player?"

2 comments:

tuskegee86 said...: Jun 16, 2009 6:21:00 PM; Drayton Florence is a rapist him and his friends at Tuskegee University raped me when i was 14yrs old
Anonymous said...: Jun 16, 2009 6:22:00 PM; Yeah Drayton you ad cortlandt know who it is