NFL

The 5 NFL Teams That Improved Most in 2016

Brandon Gdula  —  @gdula13 Feb 20th, 2017
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5. San Diego Chargers

2015 nERD: -3.91
2016 nERD: 0.71
Change: +4.62

The San Diego Chargers haven't exactly been a dominant NFL team in recent seasons, but they've certainly been a competitive squad for the past dozen years or so. That all changed in 2015.

From 2004 to 2014, the Chargers had a non-negative point differential. In 2015, they were outscored by 78 points and posted a nERD of -3.91, suggesting they were roughly 4 points below an average NFL team.

They got to the right side of zero in 2016 by nERD despite just a one-game improvement in the win column (going from 4 wins to 5 in 2016) and a point differential of -13.

Thanks to the 12th-ranked defense by Adjusted Net Expected Points (NEP) per play and the 17th-ranked offense, the Chargers graded out as the 16th-best team in the NFL despite a 5-11 record in their final season in San Diego.

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