By: Ryan Moreland (@ryanmoreland)
It is normal to see a lot of movement on the JTR Leaderboard in the second week of the season, but this movement was unprecedented. Before we get into the wild shake-up, here is how the JTR works.
How JTR Works
JTR ranks players by comparison to the league average using unbiased stats. 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 excludes 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). A quarterback’s running ability 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.
JTR Leaderboard
| Rank (Previous) | Player | Team | JTR Score (Changes) |
| 1 (8) | Himoteo Del Este* | Oklahoma | 97.460 (+25.527) |
| 2 (1) | Alexa Earl | Oregon | 90.623 (-7.402) |
| 3 (2) | Jaylen Tyree | Ohio State | 89.375 (-6.794) |
| 4 (3) | TJ Cunnington | Miami | 87.680 (-2.258) |
| 5 (4) | Troy League | USC | 85.388 (+3.883) |
| 6 (9) | Zacchaeus Mosley* | Auburn | 84.619 (+15.731) |
| 7 (7) | Drake McDaniel | Georgia | 82.226 (+8.366) |
| 8 (5) | Declan Murphy | Iowa | 80.414 (+6.105) |
| 9 (6) | Jack Schmidt | Florida | 79.190 (+5.289) |
| 10 (21) | Cole Mantell | North Carolina | 77.588 (+36.593) |
| 11 (15) | Malcom Streets* | Texas A&M | 76.717 (+25.246) |
| 12 (10) | Johnny Ray Davis | Alabama | 70.712 (+5.961) |
| 13 (20) | Lincoln League* | Nebraska | 69.807 (+28.343) |
| 14 (11) | Bojack Merriweather | Clemson | 64.142 (+0.551) |
| 15 (14) | Colter Thomas | Penn State | 63.701 (+8.948) |
| 16 (23) | LC Fremont* | Colorado | 62.504 (+23.606) |
| 17 (22) | Spunky Tolbert | Texas | 61.264 (+22.331) |
| 18 (16) | Michael Amber | Michigan | 60.634 (+9.889) |
| 19 (24) | CJ Yost* | West Virginia | 59.496 (+27.805) |
| 20 (17) | Tavon Moss | LSU | 58.957 (+8.649) |
| 21 (12) | Saint Major | Virginia Tech | 58.811 (-1.303) |
| 22 (18) | Matt Perez | Notre Dame | 56.199 (+7.963) |
| 23 (19) | Bear Michaels | Florida State | 50.610 (+7.552) |
| 24 (13) | Sterling Verdugo | Tennessee | 48.564 (-7.894) |
Oklahoma’s Himoteo Del Este has been second on our leaderboards quite a few times, but he has never taken the top spot until this week. Del Este had 519 total yards and eight total touchdowns against LSU this week, which slingshot him up the leaderboard.
Despite the huge leap, Del Este wasn’t the quarterback with the biggest jump in score. That honor (and the cover photo that comes with it) belongs to North Carolina QB Cole Mantell. He had a five-touchdown game and only had one total touchdown the week before. This performance gave him a 36.5-point bump in his score. Other big score improvers include Nebraska’s Lincoln League, West Virginia’s CY Yost, and Oklahoma’s Del Este.
Rarely, the biggest improver in score and the biggest jumper up the leaderboard are the same player. However, this week it happened. Mantell’s huge point boost moved him up 11 spots on the leaderboard, which is one of the biggest jumps we have ever seen in the history of the JTR. This was a week of big jumpers as Del Este, Lincoln League, and Colorado’s LC Fremont all jumped seven spots this week.
One more thing to keep in mind is that the base score given to each QB was raised this week. This helped some of these huge point changes get so high. From now until the end of the season, the base score will not change.
