Tyler Van Dyke Was the Best in the Country Last Season in One Very Important Stat

Tyler Van Dyke, a transfer and the projected starting quarterback this year for the Badgers, led the nation in a very valuable PFF metric last season with Miami.

When it came to passing on early downs (first or second), Van Dyke's 90.4 grade was tied for best in the country with projected number one overall 2025 NFL Draft pick Carson Beck out of Georgia. That's some pretty good company.

Staying ahead of the chains with success on early downs is crucial to avoid drives falling apart. Third-down conversions are also much easier at one or two yards instead of five, six, seven or more. Last season the Badgers only completed 57% of their passes on first down. Van Dyke on the other hand, completed an incredible 70% of his passes on first down with the Hurricanes.

Play-calling and personnel are certainly big parts of the whole picture, but having a guy who can move the sticks and not constantly put pressure on the team on third and fourth downs is very valuable. The Badgers had 199 third-down attempts last season, Miami only had 163. I'll admit it's not a direct correlation, but Van Dyke and Miami were more often than not putting themselves in better situations driving down the field than Wisconsin.

We've all heard about the talent Van Dyke has as a former Heisman hopeful. Hopefully he gets more familiar with Wisconsin's system this summer and can prove the doubters wrong while injecting some explosiveness into an offense that lacked scoring power in offensive coordinator Phil Longo's first year. But definitely look for the Badgers to be much better this year on early downs than they were in 2023.