About the Content
Twitter keyword metrics is an incredible tool to get a pulse on what people are talking about. I decided to use SproutSocial to track Twitter keyword metrics in order to analyze which NFL rookie quarterback was getting the most Twitter buzz nearly six months after being drafted. As a huge sports fan and a massive New England Patriots fan whose newest Quarterback Mac Jones was one of these five rookie quarterbacks, I found this research to be exceptionally interesting.
Introducing the Quarterbacks
If you follow football at all, then you’d know that the Patriots used their first-round draft pick on their quarterback of the future – Mac Jones. Jones was the fifth and final quarterback taken in the first round, after the Jaguars took Trevor Lawrence first overall, the New York Jets took Zach Wilson second, Trey Lance went third to the 49ers, and Justin Fields went to the Chicago Bear at number eleven.
I wanted to compare quarterbacks, not the traditional way by comparing stats and schemes, but by their mentions on Twitter. I wanted to see which quarterback reigns supreme not on the field, but rather off it. To do this I used SproutSocial and entered the names of the five quarterbacks using the platforms keywords feature.
Which QB Will Lead the Pack?
There are quite a few outliers that could skew mentions in one player’s name over another. Take Trevor Lawrence for example. The first overall pick, he was being hyped up as the best quarterback prospects that perhaps we’ve ever seen. This would lead you to expect that he would have more mentions then the other four quarterbacks taken, right? Well, Mac Jones, who was the last quarterback taken, was selected to my New England Patriots. The Patriots are one of the most valuable sports franchises on the entire planet, meaning that you could expect that he would get more mentions that the other four quarterbacks taken for that reason alone. We could also look at playing time. Quarterbacks Mac Jones, Zach Wilson, and Trevor Lawrence played the entirety of their first career game last Sunday, while Justin Fields only got in for a few plays, and Trey Lance played even less than that. Could these all play a factor in Twitter mentions? Let’s take a look.
Graph One
This first graph depicts the mentions of all five quarterbacks across Twitter since April 29th, the date of the NFL draft. The first thing that you notice is that Mac Jones started off with the most mentions of any of the five QB’s, with 200 thousand. Zach Wilson appears to be last on the list. Why is that? It’s likely because Mac Jones was drafted by the second largest franchise in the NFL, while Zach Wilson was drafted by the 22nd largest franchise in football, according to BolaVIP’s article ranking the NFL’s biggest markets (Agustin).
If we look at around August, we see that the numbers for all five quarterbacks begin to spike, with Justin Fields now leading the way with Mac Jones a close second. Why did the graph suddenly see a spike after nearly two months of being dormant? Because NFL training camps begin in August, and people start tweeting about their favorite team’s new quarterback.
Graph Two
SproutSocial also gives us the opportunity to look at overall mentions over the selected period. Since the NFL draft was held at the end of April, the five quarterbacks have been mentioned on Twitter over 2 million times. Of the five, Mac Jones just barely beats out Justin Fields for the top spot, while Zach Wilson and Trey Lance bring up the rear.
As for the exact numbers, we can see that Mac Jones has just over 4 thousand more mentions than Justin Fields, and over twice as many mentions as Trevor Lawrence, Trey Lance, and Zach Wilson. The likely reason behind this is because of the information that these figures don’t give you.
Mac Jones Reigns Supreme
Mac Jones is the new starting quarterback for one of the most famous sports franchises in the word, beating out a competing quarterback in Cam Newton who is one of the most polarizing in sports. Jones also is the first quarterback that the Patriots have had since the man who many consider as the greatest of all time in Tom Brady. Mac also played phenomenal in the pre-season and Week 1, all of which contributed to him having the most twitter mentions.
Zach Wilson Bringing Up The Rear
Zach Wilson on the other hand is quite the opposite. Wilson was drafted by the team with the second smallest market out of the four other quarterbacks taken, and falls in line with a long list of first round draft picks to recently play quarterback for the New York Jets (their last quarterback was drafted 3rd overall just four years ago). Wilson also played college football at BYU, which is monumentally smaller than Trevor Lawrence’s Clemson, Mac Jones Alabama, and Justin Field Ohio State. Trey Lance is the only other quarterback who went to a relatively smaller school in North Dakota, which also helps to show why he has the second fewest Twitter mentions.
SproutSocial is a great tool to use to compare Twitter mentions among keywords. You can really decipher quite a bit of information by reading between the lines. Sure, Mac Jones has the most mentions, but why? Why was Zach Wilson mentioned the fewest? These metrics challenged me to seek out more information and reason as to why these numbers expressed what they did, and I find that extremely interesting.
Source:
Stella, Agustin. “Top 25 NFL Teams with Most Fans.” Bolavip US, Bolavip, 15 Jan. 2021, bolavip.com/en/nfl/top-25-nfl-teams-with-most-fans-20200501-0001.html.
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