We need a Linebacker "Blitz to Sack" ratio/statistic...
Going through some discussion on Anthony Barr, what his value is and the tales of his dominance/disappearance, it dawned on me...
Why don't we have a QB-like "attempts/completions" statistic for linebackers/blitzers? It's obviously redundant for lineman who always rush, but why don't we keep track of individual blitz "attempts" and the sacks that are "completed?"
It came to mind while reading about how dominate Barr can be blitzing. While some say that he isn't consistent enough, other say Zim needs to blitz him every single down. I slowly realized that we have no context on how many blitz he has attempted without results. It's easy to say he should blitz more when we see the sack or the pressure and things are good. Do we notice when he is sent and doesn't get home? Do we even have a ballpark idea of how many times he has blitzed in his career?
... we can see the sack numbers but we don't have a lot of context to how effective he actually is. I think tracking Blitz attempts (non lineman rushers) as a regular statistic would be awesome...
Because it could be quite subjective to interpretation---say you send the Lb to flush the qb into an early read that A) is a throw away B) or B results in a sack for another lineman since he moves off is mark or C) gets there himself.
Wouldn't the first two be just ass successful by the results but as a measurement we would only see the C scenario as a win.
I know I'm not answering your question, but one thing I've come to realize over the last couple years, especially about Zimmer defenses, is that not blitzing and keeping everyone in coverage is probably more effective than blitzing, especially against veteran QBs. It's funny...I've gone from yelling "blitz!" to yelling "don't blitz!."
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