08-04-2016, 01:48 PM
(08-01-2016, 12:26 PM)fredtoast Wrote: There have been a certain group of people around here who have never had any respect for Dre Kirkpatrick. After last season many of them threw around the fact that ProFootballFocus ranked Dre as one of the absolute worst CBs in the league. Even after I pointed out that based on PFF logic a CB who played less and messed up more often could be ranked AHEAD of Dre they still insisted that Kirkpatrick was horrible.
I have been waiting for Football Outsiders to post their CB rankings for '15. They just posted their top 20 and worst 20, and hopefully they will have their complete rankings available within a few days. Unlike the ridiculous PFF ranking, FO tries to use actual measurable stats to rank CBs. They required that a CB either start 8 games or be targeted 50 times to qualify for their ranking. In 2015 seventy-five CBs qualified. So if a player does not appear in the "worst 20" that means he ranks at least in the top 55.
Average Yards Per Target....Dre ranked 18th in the league (7.0 avg). Patrick Peterson lead the league with a 4.4 avg, and Adam Jones was 2nd at 4.5.
Success Rate, the percentage of targets where the corner prevented a successful gain (45 percent of needed yards on first down, 60 percent on second down, and 100 percent on third or fourth down)....Dre ranked 32nd. Patrick Peterson was also #1 in this catagory (70%) and Adam Jones was 5th (65%)
Completion Percentage Allowed....FO actually does not rank CBs by this stats, but from looking at the lists I can calculate the completion percentage allowed for 70 of the 75 qualifying CBs. Dre's .483 ranks 19 of those 70. Delvin Breaux ranked #1 with a .373 and Adam Jones was 13th with .455.
Estimated Target Rate, the percentage of possible targets with the corner on the field where the corner was targeted in pass coverage by the opposing offense....Dre ranked 54th. I really don't put a lot of credibility in this stat because I think it is more about the other players in the secondary and which CB plays the #1 WR most often. The Steelers William Gay ranked #1 (11.2%) mainly because the Steelers other two CBs were among the worst in the league (Antwon Blake was 73rd in Success Rate and Ross Cockrell was 65th)
Dre also finished in the top 20 in passes defended with 13.
Dre's biggest weakness was poor tackling. His broken tackle percentage was the 8th worst in the league. Despite ranking 3rd in tackles by a CB with 65 he had 16 broken tackles.
Just like everyone else here I have seen dre get beaten, but too many people think that no other CBs in the league get beat as often as Dre. That just is not true. It is good to finally find some stats to prove this.
Thanks for this Fred, these are good stats here that actually prove that Dre is not a terrible CB, he is a terrible tackler
and he is targeted more than any other player we have in the Secondary. He is just the weak link on a superb Secondary.
With the Dennard injury and the fact the coaches are thinking of Shaw as more of a swing player from Safey to CB i think
Kirkpatrick actually keeps his job this year but i doubt he is back once his contract is up for the very reasons you list here.
Still needs to work on those double moves beating him as well.
Bad tackler, is targeted tons and doesn't get ints and is the weak link here. He is not horrible though no question.
