Most quarterback analyses are fairly surface-level, but a deep dive into the numbers actually gives a very thorough ranking. PFF releases a “QB Annual” each season that looks at how quarterbacks did last season using analytical statistics rather than traditional metrics. For Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton, he grades out differently than most fans would expect.
Before getting into Dalton, here’s a quick run-through of PFF’s “clustering” analysis (for PFF’s more thorough explanation, click this sentence). PFF doesn’t like to rank all quarterbacks 1-32 because they feel that neglects some unique aspects of performance. Instead, they use an x-axis and a y-axis and plot the quarterbacks using the most important metrics.