Which NFL Quarterbacks Hold The Ball Too Long?

During many NFL games, and pretty much any Ben Roethlisberger game, you will hear about how many sacks aren't the fault of the offensive line as much as the fault of a quarterback who holds onto the ball for too long.

That's undoubtedly true, but it's also something that is rarely studied. So to get a better idea this year as part of the weekly looks at line play, I'm logging the time the quarterback had for every sack. The time is measured from the snap to the point where the quarterback is first hit (even if the quarterback shrugs off the first hit, it's fair to say that the play has broken down at that point). In general, the average sack occurs around 2.7 to 2.8 seconds after the snap of the ball. Consider that the internal clock a quarterback must have--while the timing can depend somewhat on whether it's a four-man rush or an all-out blitz, in general if a quarterback holds the ball for more than three seconds, he's in trouble. If he gets rid of it in less than 2.5 seconds, he will rarely find himself on his back.

HOLDING ON
The 10 quarterbacks who have held the ball the longest on their sacks
Quarterback	Average Time Of Sack	No. of Sacks
Jason Campbell	3.66	3
Tom Brady	3.6	1
Jay Cutler	3.51	3
Mark Sanchez	3.51	2
Brady Quinn	3.29	9
Kyle Orton	3.27	3
Trent Edwards	3.26	6
JaMarcus Russell	3.22	3
Chad Pennington	3.2	6
Kurt Warner	3.07	3



GETTING RID OF IT
The 10 quarterbacks who have held the ball the shortest on their sacks
Quarterback	Average Time Of Sack	No. of Sacks
Byron Leftwich	2.09	2
Tony Romo	2.1	1
Peyton Manning	2.29	2
Marc Bulger	2.46	4
Carson Palmer	2.47	5
Joe Flacco	2.52	2
Matt Stafford	2.53	3
Matt Schaub	2.6	2
Matt Ryan	2.62	2
Brodie Croyle	2.62	3

For now, the numbers are very much affected by small sample size -- Brady Quinn's decision to hold the ball for an amazing 8.28 seconds before being sacked against the Vikings skewed his stats, although he also has three other sacks where he held the ball for more than three seconds.

But while these stats will become more useful as the season moves along, it's still worth sharing them, partly to note who doesn't show up on the top 10 or the bottom 10. For all the talk about Roethlisberger's tendency to hold the ball forever, he ranks in the middle of the pack with an average time of sack of 2.9 seconds, which ranks 19th out of the 33 quarterbacks who have been sacked this season (wide receiver Antwaan Randle El was sacked, but I'm not counting him since it was a gadget play).

Looking at the stats, Carson Palmer and Marc Bulger come across as the quarterbacks who have been the most under fire. Three of Bulger's four sacks came on plays where he was hit less than 2.5 seconds after he took the snap, while two of Palmer's five sacks came less than two seconds after the snap. Only one of Palmer's five sacks took longer than three seconds.

And for all of the complaints about Byron Leftwitch's extremely long throwing motion he's only been sacked twice, and in both cases he was hit less than 2.5 seconds after the snap.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-23-2009 @ 10:16AM

John said...

JJ, I'm curious why you didn't include Aaron Rodgers in that lineup since he has 10 sacks against him????

9-24-2009 @ 12:57PM

anironman4u said...

Although he has 10 sacks, he does not hold it as long as the top 10. The offensive line in Green Bay does not give him a chance.

9-23-2009 @ 10:36AM

Somebody Special said...

Right cause Ben holding onto the ball isnt registered if he doesnt get stacked using these stats... so if on avg he takes 2 minutes to make a completion this information wouldn't help clear Ben of people saying he holds onto the ball.

In the case of Byron.... that just means the "sackers" got to him real quick... A more accurate statistic would be the time they take on avg without a sack.

9-23-2009 @ 10:54AM

jim said...

Yes i am a Browns fan.But I have always been impressed with the dignity and class that the Steelers carry themselves with.The act like champions, But after last weeks lost to the Bears I was disapointed to hear the whine of the coach about the missed fieldgoal.Your kicker has won many games for you and you make a point that he lost this one.The team failed to score more points than the bears.And big ben pointing out that the kicker lost the game. If ben would have scored 7 then they would not have needed 3. You are champions act like it

9-23-2009 @ 1:04PM

JJ Cooper said...

John: As far as Rodgers, he averaged 2.95 seconds per sack, so while he has a ton of sacks, his time per sack is in the middle, not in the top 10 or the worst 10.

Somebody Special: Yes, it would be even better data to have the time of throw on every pass by every QB, but I'm one man with a stopwatch. Charting sacks is time consuming, charting every pass is impossible. I will point out however, that when announcers say the Steelers sacks are high because Roethlisberger holds the ball so long all they are talking about is the plays where he is sacked--it doesn't matter if Roethlisberger holds the ball for 20 seconds to complete a pass for what they are talking about.

9-24-2009 @ 11:11AM

Thanks for the info. But then this brings up another question. Is the 2.9 seconds how long he typically holds the ball, or is the defense getting to him so fast that he gets sacked in 2.9 seconds. In otherwords, would his hold be longer if the defense were slower??

9-24-2009 @ 4:06AM

legionsb said...

Can we see the entire list?

9-24-2009 @ 11:16AM

halcyondaze57 said...

@Somebody Special

If Big Ben completes the pass, then he held onto the ball for exactly the right amount of time -- not too long, not too little -- since that's the whole point of passing.

9-24-2009 @ 12:27PM

rebelmonk88 said...

@Jim
Mike Tomlin: “I haven’t talked to Jeff yet about why he missed two kicks. Of course, this is uncharacteristic of him. He just kicked the game winner in overtime last week, and that’s what we’re used to. We aren’t used to what happened with him today.”

“I haven’t talked to Jeff yet about why he missed two kicks. Of course, this is uncharacteristic of him. He just kicked the game winner in overtime last week, and that’s what we’re used to. We aren’t used to what happened with him today.”

Ben Roethlisberger: “I have all the confidence in the world that next week he could kick a game winner. You never know. We’re not down on him one bit.”

“We left some things out there, offensively. We shouldn’t even have to put Jeff (Reed) in that position. We should go out there and win the game. We lost as a team, and we will move on."

Nice try to muck-rake, but what you said just isn't true. '

Cite: http://news.steelers.com/article/110606/

9-24-2009 @ 3:51PM

Udothedishes.com said...

Is there any correlation btw holding the ball and a pass play that gained over 20 yards?

9-29-2009 @ 11:31AM

jpaynex said...

This study is completely lame. The only thing it measures is who got sacked the fastest. It is measured on a very small sampling of plays, like Warner's 3 sacks. This doesn't tell anyone who holds the ball the longest overall. Go back and try again.