NFL player IQ by position
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NFL player IQ by position
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Re: NFL player IQ by position
#2No real surprise that the player who is tackled the most (Tailback) has the lowest IQ.
Re: NFL player IQ by position
#3The Wikipedia entry for the Wonderlic test has some interesting information as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderlic_Test
There's also a "fan-made" sample test online: http://www.efplfp.stealingisgood.com/wpt.html
While somewhat indicative of the types of questions you could expect to see on the test the real thing is much more difficult. The questions start out very easy and get progressively more difficult. Many of the questions are not multiple choice either. You write in your answers.
Wikipedia says one football player, Pat McInally, got a perfect score. That's an absolutely huge accomplishment. There is only a relative handful of people in the world capable of that. In fact, the vast majority of people don't even finish. Mensa uses the Wonderlic as one of their admission tests and you can qualify with plenty of room to breathe even if you've left 10 questions blank.
Re: NFL player IQ by position
#4Interesting.
Yet in this study the Wonderlic is keyed to position, not performance in that position.
We know that people largely stay within their positions, and we know that metrics like the Wonderlic and the drafting Combine strongly influence both draft decisions, and fielding decisions. We know that such metrics are designed to correspond with existing ideas: in this case, that quarterbacks were smart and tailbacks not so much.
It is plausible that this correlation represents bias in the decisions of the coaches, not real ability.
In fact, that's what suggested by Malcolm Gladwell. He points out that if you sort by Wonderlic scores, those who come out on top haven't really panned out as great quarterback. If we then look at some of the best quarterbacks of all time, you find that, on the Wonderlic, players are all over the map.
Malcolm Gladwell discusses this, on his talk about 'the mismatch problem'. I highly recommend it. http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2008/gladwe...
Re: NFL player IQ by position
#5When asked about the balls he dropped in big spots, he responded, ‘What about the ball I caught?’” So while an exceptionally score on a standardized test might suggest dyslexia, the guy’s an egotistical bonehead even without mitigating factors.
And that is why Manningham is in the NFL and OP is the one writing about him. Excuse someone for wanting to focus on their accomplishments and not their failures and for having a little backbone -- must be a terrible thing to have. Great athletes who aren't uber confident (whether or not they express it externally) aren't great athletes.
Re: NFL player IQ by position
#6It may not be anything so complicated as smarter people being closer to the ball. It looks to me as if there is an inverse correlation between IQ and the running speed necessary in a position. So the simplest explanation for this pattern is that running speed and intelligence aren't highly correlated, and you can't simultaneously optimize for both.
E.g. you can pick a smart guy to be your center even if he's slow, because he doesn't have to run much. Whereas in a wide receiver or a running back you just want the fastest guy you can find.
Re: NFL player IQ by position
#7Interesting. Yet in this study the Wonderlic is keyed to position, not performance in that position. We know that people largely stay within their positions, and we know that metrics like the Wonderlic and the drafting Combine strongly influence both draft decisions, and fielding decisions. We know that such metrics are designed to correspond with existing ideas: in this case, that quarterbacks were smart and tailbac…
Anecdotal, but the article does cite the Patriots offensive line as high scorers on the Wonderlic. They are also considered probably the best offensive line in football.
But, yeah, Gladwell raises a lot of surprising points in that talk.
Re: NFL player IQ by position
#8It's not everything though. Dan Marino had a famously low Wonderlic--15. It's definitely believable when you hear him speak, but he still got it done in amazing fashion on the field.
There's a big list here (it's a SWF and takes a while to load, but is very interesting):
Re: NFL player IQ by position
#9[deleted]
Re: NFL player IQ by position
#10Interesting. Yet in this study the Wonderlic is keyed to position, not performance in that position. We know that people largely stay within their positions, and we know that metrics like the Wonderlic and the drafting Combine strongly influence both draft decisions, and fielding decisions. We know that such metrics are designed to correspond with existing ideas: in this case, that quarterbacks were smart and tailbac…
I didn't like Gladwell's talk because he ignored baseball: teams like Oakland and Boston have started to understand what metrics do work in assessing player performance (Michael Lewis wrote about this in detail in "Moneyball").
By ignoring something because it doesn't fit in his neat theory, Gladwell loses credibility on this topic.