Germain Ifedi stayed true to form against the Cardinals

On Friday I took a look at Germain Ifedi’s false start issues and one of the fascinating things found when analyzing the data on his penalties was who it was lined up across from him when he would commit these false starts.

To summarize that data for those who did not read the article, or for those who may have consumed too much alcohol in the wake of the Seattle Seahawks missing the playoffs, the majority of Ifedi’s false starts have come while lined up against players drafted higher than Ifedi. In particular, nine of his fourteen career false starts have come while lined up across from a player drafted higher than himself, and three more have come while lined up across from Connor Barwin who was drafted 46th overall in the second round. That means an astounding 12 of his 14 career false starts had come while lined up across from a player that had been drafted 2.46 or higher.

On Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals Ifedi stayed true to form, as he was flagged for a false start while lined up across from Chandler Jones. Where was Chandler Jones taken in the draft?

Well, Chandler Jones being a first round pick makes it a full two thirds now, with ten of Ifedi’s career false starts having come while lined up across from someone drafted in the first round. Even more amazingly, it is now 13 of 15 career false starts that have come while lined up across from a defensive player who was selected 2.46 or higher. The math on those numbers is astronomical, and the probability of that happening by randomness is extremely close to zero.

It will take some time, but one of my offseason projects will be to take a look at snap counts by draft round across the league so that I am able to put a more accurate estimate on what the odds of this phenomenon are.

In any case, on Saturday I took a look at Ifedi’s ability to get a ref to throw a flag for a fifteen yard penalty. In that article I posited that it seemed as though Ifedi had maturity issues, and that his anger may be the result of him lashing out at his personal failures. Now Ifedi was not flagged for any fifteen yard penalties against Arizona, however, his reaction to the false start penalty could be considered interesting.

Now, one can watch that video and decide what they think about his reaction, but there is no doubt he is reacting angrily to a personal failure. Sure, there could be tons of various factors at play, however, at the end of the day the team needs Ifedi to be level headed and have his wits about him in order to perform at the top of his game.

I remain a strong believer in what Ifedi can bring to the team in both the short term and the long term, and continue to be extremely optimistic for what he can do for the team in coming seasons. I’ve steadfastly held to the position that it takes time for offensive linemen to develop, and with some luck Ifedi will have a third year breakthrough much like Britt and countless linemen before him. In the meantime we get to turn our attention to the rest of the roster and the offseason machinations of free agency and the draft.