Fantasy Football Stat of the Day: Passer rating out of the pocket

Tyler Loechner

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(Leading up to the 2021 NFL season, FTN’s Tyler Loechner will dive into the fantasy football numbers to bring you his Fantasy Stat of the Day, five days a week.)

This week, we’ve taken a look at QB performance when traveling out of the pocket. We’ve reviewed which QBs travel out of the pocket on drop backs most often, and which QBs throw the most TDs when out of the pocket as well.

Russell Wilson topped both of those lists. But he doesn’t top research into out-of-pocket QB play.

Today’s Stat of the Day article examines the QBs who saw the biggest boost in passer rating when leaving the pocket. Note that this study examines only passing performance, so QBs with scrambling ability, like Wilson, take a backseat here.

Be sure to check out FTN’s Out of Pocket QB stats tool to explore more of the data yourself!

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Lamar Jackson doesn’t just see a boost in rushing when he leaves the pocket

The chart below shows the top 10 QBs (min. 200 dropbacks) from the 2020 season based on the increase in passer rating when out of the pocket.

Player	Total Passer Rating	OOP Passer Rating	Difference
Nick Mullens	79.6	109.6	30.0
Tom Brady	100.9	127.7	26.8
Deshaun Watson	108.0	129.1	21.1
Mitchell Trubisky	90.4	102.6	12.2
Lamar Jackson	96.9	108.0	11.1
Matthew Stafford	95.2	106.1	10.8
Jared Goff	88.6	96.3	7.6
Drew Lock	74.7	77.8	3.2
Justin Herbert	98.1	99.3	1.2
Dwayne Haskins	72.9	73.1	0.1

A few notes from this study:

Not too many QBs see an improvement in passer rating when out of the pocket. Interestingly, only 10 of the 37 QBs with at least 200 dropbacks last season saw an improvement in passer rating when heading OOP.
Lamar Jackson makes the magic with his arm out of the pocket, too. Jackson is a player you’d expect to see dominate in OOP stats thanks to his elusiveness and rushing ability. But he ranks in the top five in this purely pass-based study. His passer rating nears 110 when out of the pocket, compared to 97 when in the pocket.
Sean McVay may get creative with Matthew Stafford. Stafford is not a rushing QB, but neither is Jared Goff, and the two team-swapping QBs appear next to each other on this list. Rams head coach Sean McVay is known for his creativity. Will we see more plays design to get Stafford out of the pocket to take advantage of Stafford ability to make plays happen on the run?