How can we improve our methods for statistically evaluating NFL players with more modern techniques?
Football is a sport of small sample sizes. Or is it? True, there are only sixteen games in a regular season. But if you consider things on a per-snap basis, a starter might have 900 or 1100 plays accrued over the course of the year. That compares favorably to baseball, where a top pitcher will face 800 to 1000 batters, or a healthy batsman will get 500 to 600 plate attempts. Basketball is a little different, with the average player attempting around 400 shots but a top 40 player attempting over 1000, but that's due to the nature of the league with small rosters and important superstars.