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What Next Gen stats reveal about Carson Wentz's rookie season

    by Zach Berman
    Published 

The NFL released its Next Gen stats from the 2016 season, and they offer more information about Carson Wentz's rookie campaign:

- Wentz took an average of 2.65 seconds to pass the ball, as measured from the time the ball was snapped to the time the ball was released. That ranked No. 32 of 50 quarterbacks, from least amount of time to most amount of time. Part of this is the function of an offense – the top two quarterbacks were both from the Kansas City Chiefs, who used a quick passing game. It also speaks to a quarterback's willingness to extend plays, because those who fit in that category, such as Tyrod Taylor, Andrew Luck and Aaron Rodgers, were at the bottom of the list.

- Wentz averaged 18.91 yards of air distance on passes, which ranked 36th of 44 eligible quarterbacks. The air distance of a pass is the number of yards a pass traveled from the release to the reception, as the crow flies. He averaged 6.02 air yards per pass, which is measured by the total distance past the line of scrimmage that a pass was thrown. Wentz's ranking is an indication that the Eagles did not go deep often this season. But as a sign of Wentz's arm strength, his longest pass in air distance was 61.48 yards, which ranked sixth of the 44 quarterbacks. His longest pass in air yards was 52.01, which was tied with Russell Wilson for sixth of the eligible quarterbacks.

- Wentz was ranked as the seventh-most aggressive quarterback in the NFL, as measured by 21.2 percent of his passes thrown to a wide receiver with less than one yard of separation. The quarterbacks ahead of him in the top 10 were Cam Newton (24.9 percent), Blake Bortles (24.4 percent), Case Keenum (23.2 percent), Jameis Winston (22.4 percent), Brock Osweiler (21.4 percent), and Ryan Fitzpatrick (21.3 percent). Matthew Stafford and Matt Ryan were at 21.1 percent, just a tenth of a percent behind Wentz.

Also notable in the Next-Gen stats:

Wendell Smallwood ran the 18th fastest of any player in the NFL when he reached 21.93 mph on an 86-yard kickoff return against Washington. This does not suggest Smallwood was one of the fastest players in the league – it just shows the top speed reached, which came on a long play when he could accelerate in space. The fastest times recorded all came on long plays. Smallwood ran 103.66 yards during the play.