New QB Rating System

[Henry Sugar]

For those that follow stats, ESPN has unveiled a new QB Rating system.  Here's an article about it from Freakonomics, which I like because it's filled with links.

http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/08/08/espns-new-qb-rating-system-who-benefits/

What is interesting about this new system is that it was developed by Dean Oliver.  Oliver is the new "Dir of Analytics" for ESPN, and this is the first jump by ESPN to develop new metrics.  For those where this name rings a bell, it's because Dean Oliver is largely the pioneer of almost all basketball stats, including ORtg, DRtg, and the Four Factors. 

I'm personally interested to see how ESPN changes some of the stats in other sports.

[GGGG]

http://deadspin.com/5829086/total-qb-rating-everything-great-about-espn-multiplied-by-everything-insufferable

"Total QB has already suffered the fate of everything the network touches: The frantic selling of the thing has obscured its virtues. Just read that entire Football Outsiders comment thread, where opinion runs maybe 90-10 negative. For all its problems, Total QB is a great tool. It's a huge improvement over the mostly useless passer rating. It tells you what happened both quicker and more cleanly than any other metric, even if it may not tell you what will happen."