Football Outsiders Points Out Value Of Osi Umenyiora

The wonderful folks at SB Nation have gotten the network's football writers access to the annual Football Outsiders Almanac, which is a gold mine of information leading up to the 2012 NFL season.

Between now and the beginning of training camp I wlll try to pull a few nuggets of New York Giants information from the Almanac for your consideration.

Today's nugget involves defensive end Osi Umenyiora. Now, looking at the Giants' roster and the fact that the defense is built around rushing the passer, it goes without saying that the Giants are better with Umenyiora than without him. Even if he is the third defensive end.

Football Outsiders offers some data to prove that assertion. Here are FO's measurables from the 2011 season:

Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA)
-- With Umenyiora: -2.1 percent
-- Without Umenyiora: +18.9 percent

If you don't know what DVOA is, part of FO's explanation is this: "A positive DVOA represents that the offense is more likely to score, and a negative DVOA represents that the defense is more likely to stop them."

Clearly, Umenyiora being available helps the Giants defense immensely here.

Adjusted Sack Rate (ASR)
-- With Umenyiora: 8.5 percent
-- Without Umenyiora: 5.9 percent

ASR is simply an adjusted percentage of how often a defense sacks the opposing quarterback. Again, you clearly see Umenyiora's impact on the Giants defense.

The takeaway from this? Giants' fans should be very, very glad that the team and Umenyiora worked out their differences and that the pass-rushing Umenyiora will be a part of the team's defense in 2012.