In 2005 and 2006, the site partnered with FOXSports.com to cross-publish many of the Outsiders' regular features, including power rankings based on a "weighted" version of the DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) statistic.
[2] Football Outsiders was launched in August 2003 by Aaron Schatz, with two regular columns, one of which used an early version of the proprietary DVOA statistic.
The original purpose of the site was to disprove a statement by Boston Globe reporter Ron Borges that the 2002 New England Patriots failed to make the postseason because they could not establish the run.
Football Outsiders has devised a series of proprietary formulas to calculate different advanced metrics.
States Football Outsiders, "DVOA, by virtue of being a percentage or rate statistic, doesn’t take into account the cumulative value of having a player producing at a league-median level over the course of an above-average number of plays.
LOS/Drive represents average starting field position (line of scrimmage) per drive from the offensive point of view.
"[8] Another metric Football Outsiders uses is Pythagorean projection, which estimates wins in a season by a formula originally conceived by baseball analyst Bill James, that takes the square of team points, and divides it by the sum of the squares of team points scored and allowed.
Although Football Outsiders Almanac acknowledges that the formula had been less-successful in picking Super Bowl participants from 2005 to 2008, it reasserted itself in 2009 and 2010.
Teams that win a minimum of one full game more than their Pythagorean projection tend to regress the following year; teams that win a minimum of one full game less than their Pythagorean projection tend to improve the following year, particularly if they were at or above .500 despite their underachieving.
It included an essay for each team analyzing the previous season, evaluating off-season moves, and projecting future performance.
This year, for various reasons, Plume decided they no longer wanted to publish books related to other sports besides baseball.