A Look Into the NFL and Dataset Information

The NFL (National Football League) is a professional basketball league in North America. With over 1500 individual active players in 2023, and thousands of others looking in from the outside, the NFL is the largest football league in the world. The league consists of 32 teams, each fighting tp win their division, conference, and ultimately a championship. With a total of 17 games, the NFL allows viewers to watch an impressive and entertaining array of athleticism, skill, and competitiveness.

As many of us know, data analytic are used everywhere, including the sports world and the NFL. But how so? Teams use analytics in a variety of ways to come to conclusions and make decisions. For example, statistics are used to examine player and team performance, which in turn can help with making decisions regarding: game strategy, player acquisitions, and scouting.

The data set that is being used in this project consists of the individual statistics for players in the NFL that have thrown a pass from 2000-2024. There are 27 variables in this data set which consists of demographic stats, total stats, and per game stats. The variable’s that are used in these visualizations are: Player, Yds, TD, Rate, Att, Year, G. Overall, the data used and visualizations created can be used to make different observations on the general performance of NFL QBs over the last 20 years, such as: Who is the best Quarterback from the 2000s?

Data Set: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/rishabjadhav/nfl-passing-statistics-2001-2023

Visualization 1: Bar Charts

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These two bar charts can be used to interpret some general information on NFL Quarterbacks within the last 20 years or so. The vertical bar chart (top chart) can be used to show the overall career performance of the Top 150 Quarterbacks that played from 2000-2024. For this, each player was assigned one rating based on the mean of their career ratings. The average mean for the Top 150 Quarterbacks in the 2000s is approximately 82.63. We can also see the distribution of players that have a rating above the average (indicated by green), below the average (indicated by red), and within 1% of the average (indicated by black). The horizontal bar chart (bottom chart) is a more detailed view of the vertical one, as it zooms in on the quarterbacks with the top 10 Career Ratings in the 2000s. Brock Purdy leads the group by a long-shot with a rating of 111.1. C.J. Stroud and Russell Wilson are the others with a QB Rating also have ratings above 100. Tony Romo, Dak Prescott, Patrick Mahomes, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Lamar Jackson, and Tua Tagovailoa are among others who cracked the Top 10.

Visualization 2: Dual Axis Bar Chart

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The dual axis bar charts can be used to measure information on the longevity of NFL Quarterbacks within the 2000s. The chart comprises of the longest tenured quarterbacks on an active NFL roster in the 2000s. The red bar is use to indicate the total years that a quarterback has played in the 2000s and the blue bar is used to indicate the total games that they played in during that time. Tom Brady is the leader in years played with 21 years played. Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees have each played for 19 years and Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Flacco for 17 years. Quarterbacks that have been in the league for 16 years include Brian Hoyer, Matthew Stafford, and Philip Rivers. Tom Brady is also the leader in Games Played with over 300 and Drew Brees trails him with around 275. Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Matthew Stfford, and Philip Rivers each have around 225 games played. Finally, although being in the league for a long time, Joe Flacco appeared in less than 200 games, and Brian Hoyer in less than 100.

Visualization 3: Stacked Bar Chart

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The stacked bar chart can be used to see the total passing yards accumulated by the longest tenured quarterbacks per season in the 2000s. This can be used to measure one’s consistency and volume over their career. From this, Tom Brady (gray) and Drew Brees (red) seem to be leaders in total passing yards in the 2000s due to the frequency of meaningful years they played in and the distribution of yards they contributed for that season. From here, Aaron Rodgers (blue), Ben Roethlisberger (orange), Matthew Stafford (brown), and Philip Rivers (pink) are likely in the tier below them. Despite having similar distributions for yards per year, these players have all played less meaningful seasons, and seem to range closer to one another. Although having meaningful contribution to a similar amount of seasons as the quarterbacks above, Joe Flacco’s distribution was inconsistent and on the shorter side. Finally, Brian Hoyer (green) finishes at the bottom again for longest tenured QBs, as he did not play in many meaningful seasons and did have a high yards per game average.

Visualization 4: Multiple Line Plot

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The multiple line plot can be used to see the total touchdowns thrown by the longest tenured quarterbacks in the 2000s. Similar to the stacked bar chart, this can be used to measure one’s consistency, performance, and volume over their career. Only the top 4 longest tenured quarterbacks were chosen for this study to prevent major cluttering. From this, Aaron Rodgers (blue) has very impressive touchdown per season splits, often finding himself at the top, but is also slightly inconsistent. His longevity is not as long in comparison to the other players as well. Ben Roethlisberger (orange) has the worst tochdown per game splits from the sample, and does not have the longest career neither. He however seemed to be very consistent. Drew Brees seems to have the highest tocuhdown per season rate as he is often an leader. He was also very consistent and had a long career as well. Finally, Tom Brady (red) had the longest career. He was in the middle/upper half of the sample size for yards per year and was consistent in his career as well. From this data, it can be depicted that Tom Brady and Drew Brees likely have the most passing touchdowns in the 2000s followed by Aaron Rodgers, and then Ben Roethlisberger.

Visualization 5: Heat Map

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Finally, the heat map can be used to see the most impressive quarterbacks from the last 5 years. After focusing on who has had the most impressive career, I wanted to shift to who may be in the conversation next. The heat map measures the QB Rating for Quarterbacks that have played in the last 5 years. The tiles on the map will become more red as the rating rises, and more blue if it is lower. From this map QBs that seems to have ratings i the lower side include Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff, and Josh Allen. Players like Derek Carr, Russell Wilson, and Ryan Tannehill had impressive ratings in the earlier half of the timeline, but have begun to slow down. Lamar Jackson has been inconsistent in the years as far as rating. And lastly, Dak Prescott, Kirk Cousins, and Patrick Mahomes have proven to be elite passers on a statistical level within the last 5 years.

Conclusion

All in all, the conclusions made were derived around which players had the most successful career from 2000-2024.

From the first model, Brock Purdy seems to have a very impressive career based on having the highest average career rating. Although this stat is a representation of career performance, it does not take into account ones’s longevity and therefore the results are somewhat skewed. Players like Brock Purdy, C.J. Stroud, and Tua Tagovailoa do not have the experience that the others do. While it does not act as the best comparison, it does depict some good general knowledge on quarterbacks.

The second model is used to show the seasons and games played by the longest tenured quarterbacks. These top tenured quarterbacks were are the most likely to have accumulated the most impressive career resumes, which is why they were the sample for many of the test conducted. From this Tom Brady is a leader. The third and fourth models show that Tom Brady and Drew Brees were the most active and had the highest volume of passing yards and touchdowns in the 2000s.

Finally, the last model is used to show the best performance among quarterbacks as of late. Noteable leaders in the last 5 years include Dak Prescott, Kirk Cousins, and Patrick Mahomes, with Kirk Cousins having the best overall rating from the past 5 years.

Overall, based on models two, three, and four, Tom Brady is a leader in meaningful quarterback stats such as Passing Yards and Touchdowns. He is also a leader in years played, which showcases his longevity and ability to stay dominant for a long period of time. While Drew Brees has comparable statistics and cases can be made Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Matthew Stafford, and Philip Rivers; I would still lean towards Tom Brady. When looking at the best upcoming qyarterbacks, Kirk Cousins has the most impressive rating from the last 5 years. However, due to the fact that both Dak Prescott and Patrick Mahomes have higher career passing rating, as seen in model 1, I would lean towards them. All in all, the player that has had the best career from 2000-2024 is Tom Brady, and two of the key quarterbacks from the next generation of players is Patrick Mahomes and Dak Prescott.