Taking a closer look at Ed Dickson

[electro's horse]

start is a misleading term.

[KB_fan]

The biggest shocker is he had 10 starts last year?! I guess we came out in double tights our first play. 

He started Weeks 4 - 11, when Tolbert was injured:

4	28-Sep	at Baltimore Ravens	L 10–38
5	05-Oct	Chicago Bears	W 31–24
6	12-Oct	at Cincinnati Bengals	T 37–37 (OT)
7	19-Oct	at Green Bay Packers	L 17–38
8	26-Oct	Seattle Seahawks	L 9–13
9	30-Oct	New Orleans Saints	L 10–28
10	10-Nov	at Philadelphia Eagles	L 21–45
11	16-Nov	Atlanta Falcons	L 17-19

 

He then started again in weeks 15 and 17

15	14-Dec	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	W 19–17
17	28-Dec	at Atlanta Falcons	W 34-3

 

He also started both of our postseason games against Arizona & Seattle

[Murrican]

I think Dickson will be big for us this year, but Lucas has more potential IMO.  Looking forward to seeing him in the next few preseason games.

[SgtJoo]

Baltimore fans hated him.

[VerticalThreat]

I think he was asked to play a role last year that he isn't the player for. With Tolbert out, he was asked to lineup in the backfield and do more on-line blocking...not his forte. I think this is something that we tend to see Shula do often, it seems that we see him line up on packages with players in "odd" positions almost to try to make the defense second guess or give them something they aren't "expecting" instead of lining up and playing to the strengths of the players and trusting that they'll make plays when put in the best position to do so.  

[nctarheel0619]

I'm not trying to be a dick, but what's the point of posting stuff all of us can Google about Ed fuging Dickson?  

[KB_fan]

I'm not trying to be a dick, but what's the point of posting stuff all of us can Google about Ed fuging Dickson?  

I'd like you to tell me one site where you can find all the stats I compiled above?  Unless there's some be-all-end-all site of NFL stats, it took a little while to compile some of that information.

For instance, please google Ed Dickson's career drop %.  Where do you find it?  (Perhaps it is one of PFF's premium stats?  But I don't find it anywhere easily for free.)

Yes MOST of this data is just cut and paste from various sites, but one of the tables above, http://www.carolinahuddle.com/boards/topic/117379-taking-a-closer-look-at-ed-dickson/?do=findComment&comment=3442091

includes some of my own calculations or represents a compilation of data from various tables.  All the information in this table comes from sporting charts, but it is a combination of data from 3 or 4 different tables on their site.  I calculated the career totals myself.

I just thought it might be useful to compile this player profile here as he is perhaps less known among our players and looks like he might be now asked to play a bigger than expected role this season.  That's all. 

If this kind of thread annoys people, I won't post more.

[nctarheel0619]

I'd like you to tell me one site where you can find all the stats I compiled above?  Unless there's some be-all-end-all site of NFL stats, it took a little while to compile some of that information.

For instance, please google Ed Dickson's career drop %.  Where do you find it?  (Perhaps it is one of PFF's premium stats?  But I don't find it anywhere easily for free.)

Yes MOST of this data is just cut and paste from various sites, but one of the tables above, http://www.carolinahuddle.com/boards/topic/117379-taking-a-closer-look-at-ed-dickson/?do=findComment&comment=3442091

includes some of my own calculations or represents a compilation of data from various tables.  All the information in this table comes from sporting charts, but it is a combination of data from 3 or 4 different tables on their site.  I calculated the career totals myself.

I just thought it might be useful to compile this player profile here as he is perhaps less known among our players and looks like he might be now asked to play a bigger than expected role this season.  That's all. 

If this kind of thread annoys people, I won't post more.

It's not annoying by any means.  Keep doing you, dude.  

[Paintballr]

Like states earlier, Ed played a roll last year that he was not suited for that Hybrid TE/FB. With him going back to a receiving TE (which we saw when Tolbert came back) he is in a more natural role and his stats got better. 

I credit him for wanting to come back to a team that obviously misused him after probably telling him something different when he was a FA

[KB_fan]

Baltimore fans hated him.

Perhaps, but I'm betting most of that hate was from 2013. 

I doubt they hated him in 2011 when he finished third on the team with 54 catches for 528 yards and five touchdowns.

But in 2013 he had 4 drops in the 1st 4 games of the season

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/John-Harbaugh-Upfront-On-Ed-Dickson-Drops/d8472178-6475-4548-b85d-ada77cb9085b

which naturally resulted in a lot of fan concern.

But he then went on to start the next 12 regular season games of 2013 with no more drops.

 

 

[IMON KRAQUE]

I think its a good idea to really examine a more prominent role for Dickson. Because we cannot go into FA and just replace what was lost in KB. Instead, we have to focus on replacing strategy.

[KB_fan]

One other interesting site for Stats is Football Outsiders.  Here's their page ranking tight ends in 2014:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/te

It's not a site I have yet explored very thoroughly, and I don't claim to fully understand their calculations re: DYAR(Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement)  and DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average).

The definitions are as follows:

Tight ends are ranked according to DYAR, or Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement. This gives the value of the performance on plays where this TE caught the ball, compared to a replacement-level TE in the same game situations and then translated into yardage. DYAR (and its cousin, YAR, which isn't adjusted based on opponent) is further explained here.

The other statistic given is DVOA, or Defense-adjusted Value Over Average. This number represents value, per play, over an average TE in the same game situations. The more positive the DVOA rating, the better the player's performance. DVOA (and its cousin, VOA, which isn't adjusted based on opponent) is further explained here.

The simple version: DYAR means a tight end with more total value. DVOA means a tight end with more value per play.

Here's their page for Ed Dickson:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/player/24542/ed-dickson

[KB_fan]

Football Outsiders also provides snap counts:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/snapcounts

Ed Dickson had 771 snaps for the Panthers in 2014 (21st in the league, Greg Olsen was 3rd).

However 55% of his snaps came on special teams. (that's the 8th highest ST snap percentage among TEs last year).

 

Anyway... enough data from me for now.  Some of this is merely a learning exercise for me to help me figure out what sites have what data available, and trying to learn how to develop an interesting player profile.

I'd certainly welcome any suggestions as to other statistics / sites or other information that makes it really helpful to understand a player and their historical performance.

Thanks.

 

[KB_fan]

Oh, and I forgot, I'm not a PFF subscriber, so I don't have access to their stats, but recently someone posted all the Panthers 2014 PFF grades.  You can find them here.  Dickson gets a pretty poor grade..., but I'm not enough of a football expert yet to fully understand the nuances of PFF grades.

PFF gave him an overall category of "below average" on their most recent depth chart update for the Panthers:

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/06/03/2015-depth-charts-update-carolina-panthers/