By: Ryan Moreland (@ryanmoreland)
The season has come to a close and this will be the final JTR QB rankings of the season. Special thanks to Tony Papol (@SGEasty) and James Bayse (@jbayse1) for their help in coming up with this metric. We will see you all next season.
How JTR Works
JTR ranks players by their comparison to the league average using as unbiased stats as possible. By unbiased stats, we mean stats that don’t show a preference for one style of play over another. For example, we expect a quarterback in an air raid system to throw the ball more often than a quarterback in a multiple set. So comparing the two based on completions wouldn’t be fair. Once we determine stats that we believe to be unbiased, we create a league average. Outperforming the league average earns a player positive points. Stats that fall below the league average will earn a player negative points. Points for each stat are calculated and combined with a base rating given to each player. The combination results in a player’s JTR metric score. 0 is the worst possible score and 100 is the best possible score.
For QBs, the stats we chose to use are completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown percentage, interception percentage, passing yards per game, and unique rushing index. The rushing index attempts to exclude sacks from a quarterback’s rush totals to get a more accurate sense of them as a runner. Also, QBs cannot take negative points from the rushing index (outside of fumbles). This is because a running ability for a quarterback is a plus, but not a requirement.
JTR is not a predictive metric. It cannot tell the future. It can only measure what a player has done up to that point.
Note: This is a complicated system that is difficult to explain in an easily digestible way. If you have more questions about how it works, please reach out. We would be more than happy to answer your questions.
JTR Rankings
| Rank (Previous Rank) | Player | Team | JTR Score (Change) |
| 1 (1) | McKade Alber | Toledo | 92.407 (+1.316) |
| 2 (2) | Topher Foreman | Michigan | 90.262 (+2.440) |
| 3 (8) | Charlie Sammons | Notre Dame | 82.797 (+2.718) |
| 4 (4) | Loki Gunderson | Clemson | 82.793 (-1.230) |
| 5 (5) | Kyson Carey | Bowling Green | 82.742 (-0.136) |
| 6 (9) | Ayden Martinez | North Carolina | 81.467 (+2.944) |
| 7 (11) | Helix Myers | Pittsburgh | 79.738 (+1.897) |
| 8 (10) | Mateo Walker | Miami | 78.119 (-0.388) |
| 9 (15) | Cece Range | Alabama | 77.352 (+4.285) |
| 10 (17) | Shaker Mayflower | Kent State | 75.931 (+3.962) |
| 11 (16) | Terry Olliff | Northern Illinois | 75.741 (+3.666) |
| 12 (14) | Del Toro | Ohio | 75.450 (+0.041) |
| 13 (21) | Ryan Moreland | Oklahoma State | 74.821 (+7.299) |
| 14 (3) | Derrick Power | Oklahoma | 73.720 (-10.595) |
| 15 (7) | Avery Ware | Texas | 73.215 (-7.909) |
| 16 (13) | Moses King | Kentucky | 72.880 (-1.448) |
| 17 (19) | Sam Dobbins | Boise State | 72.811 (+3.211) |
| 18 (6) | Baker Thomas | Auburn | 72.792 (-8.582) |
| 19 (25) | Logan Radloff | Ohio State | 72.119 (+11.578) |
| 20 (18) | Ludwig Friedman | Georgia | 69.076 (-1.727) |
| 21 (12) | Ryan Ravenhill | Florida State | 68.045 (-8.378) |
| 22 (20) | Beau Dale | Florida | 63.891 (+5.173) |
| 23 (24) | Greg Cooksey | Eastern Michigan | 63.744 (+1.700) |
| 24 (22) | Tony Ellis | West Virginia | 63.399 (-3.757) |
| 25 (23) | Brantley Gauci | Oregon | 62.957 (-2.311) |
| 26 (26) | Dylan Shumate | Illinois | 56.755 (+8.995) |
Findings
Over the last two weeks (I missed last week because of vacation) Logan Radloff made the largest improvement in JTR score. His 11.578-point improvement is a very impressive jump this late in the season. The second largest improvement came from Illinois’ Dylan Shumate. Shumate’s almost nine-point jump was his largest of the season.
Despite these boosts in points, Radloff and Shumate did not make the list of the people that made the largest jumps up the leaderboard this week. Oklahoma State’s Ryan Moreland’s leap from 21 to 13 is the best improvement in rank. Right behind him is Kent State’s Shaker Mayflower, who jumped seven spots this week.
Since this is the last of the season I decided to include the best scorers in different categories. Here they are:
Best Running QBs
Note: Keep in mind this isn’t based on one single stat, but many. There are some with more rushing yards, but they were hurt by fumbles, having fewer touchdowns, etc.
| Rank | Player | Team |
| 1 | Sam Dobbins | Boise State |
| 2 | Topher Foreman | Michigan |
| 3 | Kyson Carey | Bowling Green |
| 4 | Ryan Moreland | Oklahoma State |
| 5 | Terry Olliff | Northern Illinois |
Best Pure Passers
This is the QBs with the highest JTR score without counting rushing stats.
| Rank | Player | Team |
| 1 | McKade Alber | Toledo |
| 2 | Charlie Sammons | Notre Dame |
| 3 | Loki Gunderson | Clemson |
| 4 | Topher Foreman | Michigan |
| 5 | Mateo Walker | Miami |
Most Efficient Passers
This is the QBs that had the best touchdown percentage vs interception percentage ratio.
| Rank | Player | Team |
| 1 | McKade Alber | Toledo |
| 2 | Loki Gunderson | Clemson |
| 3 | Topher Foreman | Michigan |
| 4 | Charlie Sammons | Notre Dame |
| 5 | Del Toro | Ohio |
Best of luck to all of these QBs in the playoffs and we will see you back here next season!
