Dec 9, 2012; Seattle, WA, USA; Arizona Cardinals quarterback John Skelton (19) is hit by Seattle Seahawks defensive end Chris Clemons (91) after passing the ball during the 1st quarter at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

Yesterday I took at look at the number of drives that each team’s defense was on the field for. Those results were interesting, but they didn’t tell us much about what those drives resulted in. We were able to infer some of that based on the total points given up by those teams, but honestly, I want something more concrete than that.

I decided to take a look at how each of those drives ended. It doesn’t matter if a defense isn’t on the field much compared to other teams, if that defense still gives up a lot of touchdowns. (I’m looking at you Cowboys.) Ultimately, I believe the true measure of the quality of a defense is somewhere to be found in this particular data set. 

Unless I’ve made a horrible mistake here, drives can only end in 7 different ways: a touchdown, a field goal attempt, a punt, a turnover, a failed 4th down attempt, a safety, and at the end of a half. That’s a fairly limited number of possible outcomes, meaning I should be able to eventually tease out some very meaningful evaluation tools from this. We’ll see, there’s still a long way to go.

I was hoping to have some meaningful result to tell you about, but that’s going to have to wait until tomorrow. Compiling all this data took more time than I originally had available. Just getting this compiled and posted was all I could handle. I left off the safeties, since there’s only a couple total from the entire season and I’m already pushing the limits on the width of this table.

I did manage to give you the percentage for each outcome, though I’m not sure while that seems like a big deal in my head.

Dec 9, 2012; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman (25) celebrates after a fumble recovery against the Arizona Cardinals in the third quarter at CenturyLink Field. The Seahawks defeated the Cardinals 58-0. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports

Top 100 lists are all the rage this time of year. The NFL Network produces their nonsensical popularity contest every year. Personally I have a difficult time caring. Those rankings make zero sense, and often include players who had dreadfully bad seasons just because of past reputation.

If we’re looking for top-100 debate fodder, I prefer these lists to be at least partly based on analytics. At least then there’s some objectivity behind it.

My favorite NFL analytics site, Pro Football Focus, has put together their list of the top 101 players from the 2012 season. Here are the links to all of the ratings, in case you’re curious as to where some non-Seahawks ended up.

101-91  |  90-81  |  80-71  |  70-61  |  60-51  |  50-41  |  40-31  |  30-21  |  20-11  |  10-1

As you might expect, there are a bunch of current Seahawks on the list. The Seahawks were among the best teams in the league, and if you believe these ratings, it was because the team had an above average number of elite players. 

If you do the math, each team “should” have 3-4 players on the team. There were six Seahawks from the 2012 team on the list, which demonstrates that Seahawks players were well-liked by PFF’s metrics. Seattle also added two additional players from the list in free agency.

Lets take a look at the Seahawks who made the list. I quoted some of the comments, but didn’t feel I could quote them all without it being some sort of copyright violation. If you want to see what they wrote for each of the eight current Seahawks, you’ll have to click on the links above.

5) Richard Sherman

Playing almost exclusively on the left, Sherman was outstanding. He picked up the highest grade of all corner backs in coverage. Well deserved.

Best Performance: Week 16 versus San Francisco, +5.0

Key Stat: His combined 23 interceptions and pass deflections were the most of any defensive player.

23) Russell Wilson

The rookie third-rounder looked a little out of his depth early on but starting in Week 5 he was something else. With just five interceptions the remainder of the season (including one hail Mary in the postseason) Wilson was efficient at times and dynamic at others as defenses struggled to come to grips with him. His 2012 season proved all the doubters wrong.

Best Performance: Week 16 vs San Francisco, +7.7

Key Stat: Had the fourth-highest accuracy percentage of all quarterbacks.

35) Max Unger

40) Marshawn Lynch

51) Percy Harvin

55) Russell Okung

58) Antoine Winfield

61) Bobby Wagner

Noticeably absent from this list are Chris Clemons and Earl Thomas. Thomas is widely considered the best safety in the game right now, but his metrics from 2012 showed an up and down year. If you look as his overall rating (+2.8) it’s easy to see why he was excluded. 

Clemons, on the other hand, had a very good +14 rating on the year. When you consider that Bobby Wagner’s performance was rated +13.1, and that Wagner was #61 on the list, confusion is understandable as to why Clemons was left off.

I posed that question to Steve Palazzolo, one of the six members of the committee generating these rankings. His response was, “first, you can’t take overall grades and apply them across positions. Second, he was our 11th ranked 4-3 defensive end and I think only six 4-3 defensive ends made the list.”

To rephrase, it’s easier to accumulate a higher rating at certain positions than at others, and that is taken into account in overall rankings. So, while there were ten 4-3 defensive ends better than Clemons in 2012 according to PFF’s performance ratings, there was only one inside line backer who’s performance rating was better than Wagner’s.

Considering only about half the teams use a 4-3 defense now, it would have been almost impossible for 11 4-3 defensive ends to make a list that only includes 101 players. You may disagree, but I found that to be a perfectly logical and acceptable answer.