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by Danny Tuccitto

Last week, we went over the DVOA ratings for defenses when they put pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Today, we'll flip things around, and see how quarterbacks performed when pressured by defenses. If you want more detail about how we define pressure and what types of plays are included in the stats below, feel free to go back and read the intro to the defense article here. And, let's not forget, you can find all these stats and more in the statistical appendix of our wildly popular and currently available book, Football Outsiders Almanac 2012.

In almost any era of football, performance in the face of an effective pass rush has been an important skill for a professional quarterback. But with increased use of tight ends in the passing game, and more teams going to spread-style looks on standard downs, it's never been as important as it is in 2012. Green Bay and Detroit couldn't use three-wide personnel groups about 60 percent of the time if Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford were as panicked by a collapsing pocket as cats are by an approaching vacuum cleaner. Ditto for Tom Brady and the Patriots' prolific pair of pass-catching tight ends.

Of course, successfully combatting pressure isn't a one-dimensional skill. Quarterbacks like Michael Vick use their legs. Others like Peyton Manning use their quick release and omniscient grasp of play design. Ben Roethlisberger seems to have a sixth sense for oncoming opponents developed during schoolyard games of tag. Rarely, a guy like Rodgers comes along, and uses all of the above. Whatever the means, the ends of these offenses require success under pressure. Without it, the entire thing tends towards a sketch backed by "Yakety Sax."

So, with very few exceptions, our list of quarterback DVOAs on pressure plays reads like a Rosetta Stone for offensive schematics. The AFL-type offenses are liberated by the guys at the top, while the AAFC-type offenses are constrained by the guys at the bottom. We used a minimum of 250 pass plays for this list, although the NFL average includes all quarterbacks. As was the case with defenses, we've sorted this list from highest to lowest in "percent pressure." "Difference" is ranked from the players who are impacted least by pressure (Brees, Freeman, Stafford) to the guys impacted the most (Palmer, Moore, Sanchez).