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Total Accuracy Final Rankings

By Chris Trapasso

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Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

I have calculated the final Total Accuracy rankings for the 2014 NFL season.

As a refresher, this statistic weighs a quarterback's Pro Football Focus Accuracy Percentage (completion percentage's smarter big brother) ranking against his average depth of target (aDOT) ranking. It was borrowed from the PGA Tour's "Total Driving" metric that ranks golfers by the same two stat categories.

The goal with Total Accuracy was to get a clearer picture of how truly accurate a quarterback is relative to how far he throws the football down the field on average. To me, it's "unfair" to look at the low completion or Accuracy percentage of a signal-caller in, say, Bruce Arians' system and call him "less accurate" than a signal-caller operating a West Coast-based offense that prominently features short passing.

Quarterbacks who've taken at least 25% of their respective team's snaps were counted, and aDOT ties are broken by better AP rank.

Accuracy Percentage is counted twice so it "weighs" more than aDOT because a signal-caller's accuracy is more important than simply how far he throws the ball down the field.

Rank Name AP Rank aDOT Rank AP x 2 Total Accuracy
1 Tony Romo 10 9 20 29
2 Drew Brees 1 32 2 34
2 Ben Roethlisberger 10 14 20 34
4 Philip Rivers 9 17 18 35
4 Carson Palmer 12 11 24 35
6 Matt Ryan 5 29 10 39
7 Teddy Bridgewater 4 34 8 42
7 Russell Wilson 6 30 12 42
7 Aaron Rodgers 8 26 16 42
10 Alex D. Smith 2 39 4 43
11 Robert Griffin III 3 38 6 44
12 Ryan Tannehill 7 31 14 45
13 Kirk Cousins 15 18 30 48
14 Tom Brady 13 24 26 50
15 Joe Flacco 16 19 32 51
16 Andrew Luck 20 12 40 52
17 Colin Kaepernick 23 10 46 56
18 Shaun Hill 17 27 34 61
18 Eli Manning 24 13 48 61
20 Peyton Manning 21 20 42 62
21 Jay Cutler 14 35 28 63
22 Ryan Fitzpatrick 25 15 50 65
23 Austin Davis 22 22 44 66
24 Nick Foles 31 6 62 68
25 Charlie Whitehurst 33 4 66 70
26 Andy Dalton 19 33 38 71
27 Kyle Orton 18 36 36 72
28 Josh McCown 34 5 68 73
29 Mike Glennon 36 2 72 74
30 Geno Smith 26 23 52 75
31 Mark Sanchez 28 21 56 77
31 Jake Locker 35 7 70 77
31 Drew Stanton 38 1 76 77
34 Zach Mettenberger 32 16 64 80
35 Brian Hoyer 39 3 78 81
36 Matthew Stafford 27 28 54 82
36 Cam Newton 37 8 74 82
38 Derek Carr 30 25 60 85
39 Blake Bortles 29 37 58 95

Russell Wilson analysis: Wilson finishing 7th in Total Accuracy is a testament his under appreciated precision as a passer, especially considering no quarterback was pressured on as high of a percentage of his drop backs in 2014. Though his aDOT was pretty low, anytime you're more accurate than Aaron Rodgers, you're doing something right.

If you want to discuss these rankings further, head to the comment section, or hit me up on Twitter @ChrisTrapasso.

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