Quote:Alex is a measure of the air yards traveled beyond the first down marker on third downs. So if it's 3rd and 10 and you throw a 12 yard pass, your alex is 2.0. A measure of 0.0 means the qb is throwing the ball to the first down marker and anything negative means the qb thew the ball before the marker.


Not a particularly good stat to evaluate qbs, but rather how well they succeed in their offensive system/with their offensive philosophy. You'll notice that while bortles is 5th in ALEX, he is 22nd in 3rd down conversions. So while he was throwing the ball beyond the marker, he was converting at a very poor clip. Not a good stat for you to try and rub in my face, particularly because it again shows mariota as being better on 3rd downs than bortles.