With the 2016 season in the books, let’s take a look at the final ANY/A differential numbers. As regular readers know, ANY/A is simply yards per attempt that includes sack data and has a 20-yard bonus for passing touchdowns and a 45-yard penalty for interceptions.

ANY/A differential is one of the best measures of team play. This season, Atlanta very narrowly edged New England for the ANY/A differential crown. No team finished in the top 8 of both offensive ANY/A and defensive ANY/A – a sign of how compressed the league was this season — but the Patriots were closest, ranking 2nd in offensive ANY/A and 9th in defensive ANY/A. But because Atlanta had such a large lead in offensive ANY/A, the Falcons were number one in ANY/A differential even with the 18th best pass defense.

Rk Tm Off ANY/A Off Rk Def ANY/A Def Rk Diff Win % 1 Atlanta Falcons 9.01 1 6.31 18 2.70 0.688 2 New England Patriots 8.46 2 5.78 9 2.68 0.875 3 Denver Broncos 5.89 22 4.38 1 1.50 0.563 4 Dallas Cowboys 7.56 3 6.37 22 1.19 0.813 5 Washington Redskins 7.49 4 6.36 20 1.13 0.531 6 Minnesota Vikings 6.41 16 5.33 3 1.08 0.500 7 Cincinnati Bengals 6.53 14 5.55 5 0.98 0.406 8 Pittsburgh Steelers 6.79 9 5.89 11 0.90 0.688 9 Kansas City Chiefs 6.51 15 5.76 8 0.74 0.750 10 Seattle Seahawks 6.64 10 5.94 12 0.70 0.656 11 Miami Dolphins 6.64 11 6.02 13 0.62 0.625 12 New York Giants 5.93 20 5.34 4 0.59 0.688 13 San Diego Chargers 6.35 17 5.85 10 0.50 0.313 14 Tennessee Titans 6.82 8 6.32 19 0.49 0.563 15 Arizona Cardinals 5.72 23 5.30 2 0.42 0.469 16 Green Bay Packers 7.08 6 6.85 25 0.24 0.625 17 Oakland Raiders 7.03 7 6.96 26 0.07 0.750 18 New Orleans Saints 7.36 5 7.38 31 -0.02 0.438 19 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 6.03 18 6.36 21 -0.33 0.563 20 Buffalo Bills 5.89 21 6.22 17 -0.34 0.438 21 Baltimore Ravens 5.31 26 5.70 7 -0.40 0.500 22 Indianapolis Colts 6.64 12 7.12 27 -0.49 0.500 23 Chicago Bears 5.95 19 6.49 24 -0.53 0.188 24 Detroit Lions 6.56 13 7.28 30 -0.72 0.563 25 Carolina Panthers 5.43 24 6.17 16 -0.74 0.375 26 Jacksonville Jaguars 5.28 27 6.04 14 -0.76 0.188 27 Philadelphia Eagles 5.10 28 6.15 15 -1.05 0.438 28 Houston Texans 4.48 31 5.66 6 -1.18 0.563 29 San Francisco 49ers 5.36 25 7.22 28 -1.86 0.125 30 Los Angeles Rams 3.98 32 6.40 23 -2.41 0.250 31 New York Jets 4.55 30 7.23 29 -2.69 0.313 32 Cleveland Browns 4.64 29 7.50 32 -2.86 0.063

The Browns, Jets, and Rams rank in the bottom 3 of ANY/A differential, far behind the rest of the league. And while the Texans have justifiably been mocked for making the playoffs despite being so bad — and they are 28th here — note that the Lions aren’t too far behind, at 24th.

Other notes: the top three defenses, and four of the top five, all missed the playoffs. 2016 was a weird year.

The R^2 between ANY/A differential and winning percentage this year was 0.53. The big “overacheivers” were the Raiders and Cowboys, who had perhaps the two best offensive lines in football, and the Texans, who were probably the luckiest team in the NFL. On the other side, the Bears, Chargers, Jaguars, and Bengals were big underachievers.

Passing Value Leaders

How good was Matt Ryan’s 2016 season? The Atlanta quarterback averaged 9.03 ANY/A this year, while the league average was 6.22, slightly below the 2015 mark. That means Ryan was 2.81 ANY/A above average this year, and he produced at such a level over a whopping 571 dropbacks. Multiply those two numbers, and it means that Ryan produced 1,604 Adjusted Net Yards of Value over league average, easily the most in the league (and notable as one of the better seasons of all time).

As always, please leave your thoughts in the comments.