New England Patriots Final DVOA Chart (note – defensive DVOA flipped for charting purposes)
Football Outsiders came out with their final season rankings today and as you can see above we can now fully evaluate the 2010 regular season.
I think if you could have it any way you’d probably want your team’s chart to look like the Patriots does. Clearly they were getting better on offense and defense, and to some extent special teams as they finished the season.
Some other Patriots related items to pass along:
New England ends the year as the second-best team in DVOA history. They have the highest weighted DVOA we’ve ever measured, and the highest offensive DVOA we’ve ever measured. Their weighted DVOA seriously laps the field, over ten percentage points higher than any other team.
The Patriots’ record-setting offense does not set a record for passing DVOA. That record still belongs to the 2007 Patriots. But this team was much better on the ground, finishing with the seventh-highest rushing DVOA ever. Yet they weren’t the most efficient running team this season. The Philadelphia Eagles end up with the third-highest rushing DVOA ever. Obviously, a lot of that is Michael Vick, but LeSean McCoy was also excellent this season, 18.0% DVOA (fourth among qualifying backs).
Tom Brady ends the year with the fifth-highest passing DYAR in NFL history (2,141 DYAR) and the fourth-highest DVOA for a quarterback with more than 100 passes (53.4%). The top six DYAR seasons all belong to Brady (2007, 2009, and 2010) and Peyton Manning (2004, 2006, and 2009). Boomer Esiason’s ridiculous 1997 actually sneaks into the Brady-Manning stratosphere for top DVOA seasons. Manning finishes second this year with 1,674 DYAR, a total that was topped by six different quarterbacks a year ago.