The Tampa Bay Buccaneers closed out their 2022 regular season with a 30-17 loss in Atlanta that was essentially inessential. The Buccaneers pulled Tom Brady after five drives and rested almost all their starters throughout the second half, as a 17-10 halftime lead melted away.
That game provided at least a measure of opportunity for the Brady-led offense to build on its momentum from Week 16 and gave many young reserves a chance to see extended action for the first time. In the end, however, it was not a particularly interesting game to break down using NFL Next Gen Stats (NGS). Instead, as the Buccaneers prepare for their upcoming Wild Card round matchup with the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night, we’re going to employ NGS to give us a closer look at how the Buccaneers got to this point. Here are some numbers of note for the 2022 Bucs:
2.45. That’s Tom Brady’s “TTT” according to NGS, or the average number of seconds it took him to release the ball after taking the snap. That was the third lowest average in the NFL and the lowest among any quarterback with at least 150 dropbacks. The next lowest was Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, at 2.55. Brady notably sped up his release in 2021, as his TTT dropped from 2.57 in the 2020 Super Bowl year to 2.50 last season. The approach worked, as Brady led the NFL in both passing yards and touchdown passes in 2021 and the Bucs tied for the NFL’s best regular-season record. Last year, Brady completed 76.5% of his “quick” passes (TTT under 2.5) and compiled a passer rating of 107.9 and an expected points added per dropback (EPA/DB) of 0.14. Despite the Bucs’ significant drop in scoring from 2021 to 2022, Brady had very similar numbers on quick passes this season: 79.0% completion rate, 103.8 passer rating and 0.14 EPA/DB. Brady was one of the best quarterbacks in the league on such throws, with a +2.6 completion rate over expected (CPOE) that ranked sixth in the NFL.
52.6/1,708. The first number is the percentage of his total receiving yards that Chris Godwin picked up after the catch. That YAC% was the third-highest in the NFL among players with at least 50 receptions, trailing only San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel (79.7%) and Arizona’s Greg Dortch (68.3%). Despite missing two games due to a hamstring injury, Godwin finished the season with a career-best 104 receptions for 1,023 yards. He averaged 5.2 YAC per catch, which was better than expected. His expected yards after the catch per reception (xYAC/Rec), according to NGS, was 4.4,…
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