Bill Connelly of ESPN has dropped his yearly returning production metric.
Connelly, the creator of SP+, uses a system a bit more complicated than just the counting of returning starters or yards. He weights stats based on what most correlates with progression and regression. For example, wide receiver and tight end yards are more valuable than returning rushing yards.
Connelly also puts a lot of weight on returning OL snaps, which accounts for 47% of his offensive metric. On defense, returning tackles is his most important number, while returning sacks don’t carry much weight at all. Defensive backs account for a lot of weight in his formula, so LSU’s losses in the secondary hurt where the Tigers stand on defense.
Let’s take a closer look at what returning production says about LSU.