In two previous posts (on defensive ends and defensive tackles) we looked at a metric called SPARQ, which is a single number designed to summarize a player's athleticism. The number is calculated with a proprietary formula that incorporates player weight, bench press, broad jump, vertical jump, forty-yard dash, ten-yard split, short shuttle and 3-cone drill (details here).
In those three posts, we combined the SPARQ metric with a metric for the college production to see which draft prospects would emerge as the most productive AND most athletic. Today, we're turning our attention to off-the-line linebackers (there'll be an addendum on pass rushing 3-4 OLBs at the bottom of this post) and the metric we'll be using to measure their college production is called "Production Points," a metric that looks at the available linebacker stats and weights them with a point system as follows:
Production Points scoring system| Stat | Points | Tackle | 1 | Tackle For Loss | 3 | QB Hurries | 3 | Pass Breakup | 3 | Sack | 6 | Forced Fumble | 6 | Interception | 9 | Once we've tallied all the points for a given player, we'll divide the total by the number of college games played. | |