Game quality

What each result was worth beyond the score. Every play is graded by EPA (expected points added), then adjusted for who it came against: a defence's rating is what it allowed to everyone else that season, so a big day against a bad defence counts for less. Season views include playoff games.

Baker Mayfield — 2025

Adj EPA / dropback
+0.008
Raw EPA / dropback
+0.001
Dropbacks
584
Turnover EPA
-60.5
WPA
-0.19
WeekOpp DropbacksAdj EPA/dbRaw EPA/dbScheduleTotal adj EPA INT / FLTurnover EPASacksSack EPAWPACPOE
1ATL 33 +0.182 +0.175 +0.007 +6.0 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -0.3 +0.37 -10.4
2HOU 43 +0.099 -0.015 +0.114 +4.3 0 / 0 +0.0 4 -7.4 -0.15 +1.9
3NYJ 30 +0.174 +0.276 -0.102 +5.2 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.6 +0.44 +1.2
4PHI 41 -0.045 -0.129 +0.084 -1.8 1 / 0 -5.8 2 -2.8 -0.32 -10.2
5SEA 35 +0.831 +0.742 +0.088 +29.1 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -1.9 +0.81 +20.4
6SF 24 +0.476 +0.503 -0.027 +11.4 0 / 0 +0.0 1 -2.1 +0.27 +7.5
7DET 55 -0.443 -0.455 +0.013 -24.4 1 / 0 -4.5 4 -4.4 -0.38 -9.4
8NO 27 -0.043 -0.066 +0.023 -1.2 0 / 1 -4.2 3 -6.9 -0.03 -9.6
10NE 45 +0.054 +0.022 +0.032 +2.4 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.8 -0.37 -2.5
11BUF 31 -0.263 -0.289 +0.026 -8.1 1 / 1 -9.5 1 -4.8 -0.24 -8.3
12LA 21 -0.876 -0.868 -0.008 -18.4 2 / 0 -8.6 2 -2.6 -0.29 -20.5
13ARI 30 -0.014 +0.058 -0.072 -0.4 0 / 0 +0.0 2 -3.1 +0.05 -0.6
14NO 30 -0.309 -0.327 +0.018 -9.3 1 / 0 -5.6 0 +0.0 -0.50 -16.5
15ATL 40 +0.113 +0.110 +0.002 +4.5 1 / 0 -3.9 5 -6.0 +0.17 -1.1
16CAR 28 +0.022 +0.101 -0.079 +0.6 1 / 0 -2.0 2 -3.4 -0.25 +1.4
17MIA 47 -0.008 +0.037 -0.045 -0.4 2 / 1 -12.0 3 -7.5 -0.05 +9.3
18CAR 24 +0.206 +0.283 -0.077 +4.9 1 / 0 -4.3 2 -2.1 +0.27 +5.5
Opponent adjustment. A unit's rating for a game is its average over its other games that season, blended with 16 games' worth of prior (league average plus half of last season's gap from it; 24 games for pass defence, which is noisier). Early in a season that leans on last year; by midseason it is mostly this year. Chosen by how well it predicts a held-out game: it cut that error by about a quarter against no shrinkage, and adjusted numbers agree between odd and even weeks more than raw ones do (team EPA margin r 0.52 → 0.55, defence 0.32 → 0.36, QB EPA/dropback 0.47 → 0.49, 2016–2025).
Win expectancy is a logistic fit of wins on EPA margin over 6,036 completed games (it names the winner 86.5% of the time). These describe what happened; one game is not a forecast. Play-by-play credits the quarterback with every sack and dropback, so a bad line shows up in his numbers. Seasons 2016–2026, built 2026-09-14 01:25 UTC, from nflverse. Write-up: backtests/nfl_game_quality/FINDINGS.md.