NFL1000: Rookie Review from Week 8

November 4, 2016   ·   Doug Farrar   ·   Jump to comments

This week's Rookie Review is a good insight into our process, and you may need that kind of transparency when you look at our list and wonder how on earth we ranked a kicker (Wil Lutz of the New Orleans Saints) over Ezekiel Elliott, the Dallas Cowboys star running back who riddled the Philadelphia Eagles defense for 96 rushing yards (148 total) on Sunday night.
When we assemble our rankings for all players, we take positional importance seriously—we don't rank every player the same. In our total scores, kickers have a positional importance metric of three, while running backs have a positional importance metric of six. When a kicker bulls his way into the top of our rankings despite that handicap, we take notice and audit the overall score.
In this case, I looked at Chuck Zodda's grade and felt that it was well founded—Lutz connected on all four of his field-goal attempts, including two over 40 yards and one over 50. The Saints wouldn't have beaten the Seattle Sea...

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