In this day and age, analytics are everything in the NFL. If you don’t have an entire analytics department, you are dumb….and broke…a bona fide poverty franchise. I’ll be honest – I’ve done a terrible job of keeping SoBros Network up to date on the analytics phenomenon, and it’s high time that changed. I do NOT want SoBros Network to be a poverty blog.
So, when I saw this meme from Hurdles, well…first of all, I chuckled….then, I thought, “man, this is my chance to really get SoBros Network into the analytics game.”
Like all elite journalism, this journalism that I am writing today started with a question – is it possible? If the conditions were just right, could Drew Lock throw for 79,616 yards in a single game?
After doing my own research and analytics, I can conclusively say “no.” He can’t, and as a matter of fact, he didn’t. So, remember…this is elite journalism, and elite journalism always starts with a question. The answer to that question begged another question – “well if 79,616 passing yards in a single game isn’t possible, what is the most passing yards one could accrue in a single game?”
To calculate this, you have to do a bunch of math.
You have to know what the average release time is for the quarterback, how much space the average ball travels through the air and how long it takes it to arrive at its target, how quickly a receiver can run the ball, field position, defensive plays, and of course, how many seconds there are in a game.
Who has the quickest release in the NFL according to Google at the time I searched and started formulating this post? Derek Carr, with an average release of 2.55 seconds. We will need him playing quarterback in this simulation. The average distance per pass is 8.7 yards or 0.00494 miles. The fastest receiver in the NFL according to Google at the time I searched and started formulating this post was Anthony Schwartz. I don’t think that’s right – seems like that might just be this year’s combine numbers, but we’re going to roll with it. If the drive started at the one-yard line, with a ball traveling at 60 MPH, and a release of 2.55 seconds, using Schwartz’s 40 time, it would take him approximately 10.57 seconds to run the remainder of the field. Combine that with Carr’s release, and the time it would take for the ball to travel through the air, and you’re looking at a sequence of about 14 seconds to go the 99 yards it takes for a touchdown.
Now, your defense would have to get you the ball back as quickly as possible. Let’s say they blow up every play on first-third down, and it takes about three seconds off of the clock each time. The average punt has a hang time of about five seconds, and you’d have to try to get the ball back to the one-yard line in order to accumulate as much yardage as possible. The whole thing, let’s say, takes 14 seconds off the game clock.
You now have a sequence of 28 seconds of game clock from Carr throwing the ball to Carr getting the ball back to throw again. And, it yields 99 passing yards every time. Given that there are 3,600 seconds of game clock in a NFL game, you would have 128.571428571428571 sequences in a game. All you would have to do is take that number and multiply it by 99 to know how many passing yards one could yield – that number is 12728.571428571428571. Therefore, I can conclusively state that in perfect conditions, you could theoretically throw for about 12,729 passing yards in a single game.
STAT THAT!
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Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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