Football Articles by Doug Drinen

2002 Articles

75 Mini-Articles
Random NFL studies and historical notes

2001 Articles

Everybody is an injury risk
(5/1/2001)

Yet another WR breakout article
(5/9/2001)

Double-edged sword
(5/11/2001) - a look at aging patterns.

Three kinds of liars
(5/14/2001) - on the use and abuse of statistics.

Where will they be in four years?
(5/23/2001) - a quick look at how long studs remain studs.

Hay in a needlestack: the search for productive rookie receivers
(5/31/2001)

Building the Perfect Back: 200 years of Edgerrin James
(7/1/2001)

2000 Articles

How important is age?
- an attempt to pin down peak ages for quarterbacks, running backs, and receivers.

What's in store for Torry Holt and James Johnson?
- a look at some players who had rookie seasons similar to Holt and Johnson, and what became of them.

What is a correlation coefficient and what does it have to do with Ty Law?
- a look at which statistics will remain relatively constant from year to year, and which will fluctuate wildly.

Strong starters, fast finishers
- do first half / second half splits tell us anything that full season stats don't?

The bell curve and fantasy football
- a discussion of the fantasy football implications of a statistical method called the correlated gaussian.

After the breakout
- what happens to players the year after they break out?

Are you ready for some .... misinformation?
- do players "get up" for Monday night games?

Keyshawn giveth or Keyshawn taketh away?
- what effect will Keyshawn's departure have on the Jets' running game? What effect will his arrival have on the Bucs' ground attack?

In search of 3rd-year magic
- are receivers likely to "break out"in their 3rd season?

Every stat line tells a story
- just some fun with numbers -- an attempt to find similar players.

The Fake Stuff
- do running backs in general perform better on grass or turf? The answer is a little surprising.

Receivers changing teams
- what happens to WRs who change teams in the offseason?

Fantasy advice: a sad fact I envy
- utter foolishness.

A starting point for your running back projections
- just what the title implies.

Semi-hookups
- Is it a good idea to load up on players from the same NFL team?