Last year, I wrote about whether sacks are more highly concentrated among a few players now than they were in the ’80s or ’90s. Spoiler: the answer was no. But today I wanted to update that post for the 2017 season. Let’s use the Patriots as an example. New England defensive players recorded 41 sacks, but no player filled the shoes left by the departing Chandler Jones. In fact, no Patriots defensive player had even seven sacks. Trey Flowers led the team with 6.5 sacks, and Kyle Van Noy and Deatrich Wise Jr. were the only other players with more than four sacks.
How do you calculate a team’s concentration index? Flowers had 6.5 of the Patriots defenders’ 41 sacks [1]Note that the Patriots had one sack as a defense that was not assigned to any player, so the New England defense was credited with 42 sacks. For purposes of this post, I excluded sacks for all teams … Continue reading, or 15.9%. We square that number to calculate the concentration index; 15.9% squared is 2.5%. Do that for every player on the Patriots defense with at least one sack, and you get the following results:
New England stood out as the team with the least concentrated pass rush. And for the second year in a row, the Raiders (thanks to Khalil Mack and Bruce Irvin) stood out in the opposite direction. Only the Cardinals — who saw Chandler Jones (after being traded from the team with the least concentrated pass rush) lead the league with both 17.0 sacks and 46.0% of his team’s sacks — had a more concentrated pass rush in 2017.
| CI Rk | Team | Sacks | Sacks Rk | Conc Index |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cardinals | 37 | 17 | 24.7% |
| 2 | Raiders | 31 | 24 | 22.5% |
| 3 | Cowboys | 38 | 15 | 20.6% |
| 4 | Vikings | 36 | 19 | 19.9% |
| 5 | Giants | 27 | 29 | 19.3% |
| 6 | Dolphins | 30 | 26 | 18.4% |
| 7 | Chargers | 43 | 5 | 18.1% |
| 8 | Redskins | 41 | 9 | 17.8% |
| 9 | Lions | 35 | 20 | 17.8% |
| 10 | Jaguars | 55 | 2 | 16.5% |
| 11 | Buccaneers | 22 | 32 | 16.4% |
| 12 | Chiefs | 31 | 24 | 16.2% |
| 13 | Broncos | 33 | 22 | 15.6% |
| 14 | Bengals | 41 | 9 | 15.1% |
| 15 | Saints | 42 | 6 | 14.5% |
| 16 | Panthers | 50 | 3 | 14.5% |
| 17 | Ravens | 41 | 9 | 14.4% |
| 18 | Eagles | 38 | 15 | 13.5% |
| 19 | Seahawks | 39 | 13 | 13.2% |
| 20 | Falcons | 39 | 13 | 13.1% |
| 21 | Rams | 48 | 4 | 13.1% |
| 22 | Packers | 37 | 17 | 12.7% |
| 23 | Texans | 32 | 23 | 12.3% |
| 24 | Titans | 42 | 6 | 12% |
| 25 | Colts | 25 | 31 | 11.4% |
| 26 | Steelers | 56 | 1 | 11.4% |
| 27 | Browns | 34 | 21 | 10.9% |
| 28 | Bills | 26 | 30 | 10.7% |
| 29 | Jets | 28 | 28 | 10.6% |
| 30 | 49ers | 30 | 26 | 9.6% |
| 31 | Bears | 42 | 6 | 9.4% |
| 32 | Patriots | 41 | 9 | 9% |
| Average | 37.2 | 14.8% |
Overall, the league was slightly less concentrated (14.7%) than it was in 2016 (15.3%), but well within the normal range. Since 2002, the average team has had a pass rush concentration index of 15.0%.
There also, at least in 2017, wasn’t much of a correlation between having a lot of sacks and having a highly (or lowly) concentrated pass rush: The graph below plots team sacks on the X-Axis and Concentration Index on the Y-Axis.
What stands out to you?
References
| ↑1 | Note that the Patriots had one sack as a defense that was not assigned to any player, so the New England defense was credited with 42 sacks. For purposes of this post, I excluded sacks for all teams that were not assigned to a player. |
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