The NBA and MLB have been well ahead of the NFL in terms of major use of data and analytics for their player personnel, scouting and roster creation, but this trend is rapidly changing among NFL buildings .
Some teams, like the Cowboys, Eagles, Ravens, Vikings, and Browns, among others, highly value their analytics team and involve them frequently. But all 32 teams have invested the financial and human resources necessary to engage data throughout their process over the past five years.
You’ll often hear here that it’s just a “piece of the puzzle” or “a factor to consider”, but the teams that use data and analytics best are the ones that don’t qualify or put themselves not aside, but involve them. the same way venture capital firms evaluate start-ups: as an integral part of their decision-making ecosystem.
Sports evaluation
Evaluating a player’s athleticism is one of the most crucial tasks for a college scout, and often, people outside the league don’t fully understand how important it is to have “athletes of the NFL” on a football team.
Teams still greatly value NFL scouting. Combine data from things like 40-yard dash times, shuttles, broad/vertical jumps, etc. because of the comparability and stability of this data: NFL teams know conceptually what a 4.40 means and how a player running that speed can translate to the NFL.
But teams are also looking beyond just the combine testing data obtained in February and March. Teams will use services such as Tracking Football, which collects and organizes high school athletics data (as well as combined high school data) to give teams perspective on a player’s history as an athlete and how explosive/fast he can be.
Teams have also become much more sophisticated in their use of player tracking data from companies like Zebra, which can quantify a player’s speed or explosiveness on the court, in play and with pads.
*2024 East-West Shrine Bowl Player Tracking Test Data Example
With nearly 10 years of collecting, organizing and digesting this information by NFL scouts and decision-makers, we are finally in an era of football evaluation where scouts feel comfortable and understand this what these numbers mean, and have historical context on how a player. miles per hour or maximum acceleration can translate to the NFL.
Statistical analysis
This is the most proprietary and dependent team-by-team data-driven analysis a team will use, and easily where teams differ the most. Teams mix athleticism and statistical analysis to come up with “composite” scores, but the way teams weight certain static elements is very unique between teams.
Team analytics services can use simple things like snap counts overall and by position, as well as simplistic statistical categories like yards after contact for running backs, total pressures for passers, etc.
But many of the most sophisticated teams can dig deeper, using advanced tracking statistics from companies like PFF and Sports Source Analytics to evaluate player performance in unique situations (i.e. snapshots of press coverage, advanced quarterback graphics and more), in order to make better conceptual sense. about who the players were at the college level.
The goals of statistical analysis also differ significantly. Some teams value statistical analysis primarily for talent identification, with the goal of “ensuring our scouts are monitoring and focusing on the right players.” Other teams use it more critically to rank players, comparing it to a player’s film/scout quality ratings. Finally, teams (and our scouting team at the Shrine Bowl) use it as a risk assessment metric: what does this player’s statistical profile mean for his likelihood of being (or not being) a competent player of the NFL.
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Cognitive Assessment Information
Historically, NFL teams have used player testing to capture intelligence and personality types, but over the past five years, the perception of what non-football testing should be has changed dramatically. NFL teams, wisely, have focused much more on an athlete’s cognitive abilities, both their strengths and weaknesses, and how they process information.
The three most predominant cognitive assessments, the AIQ, S2 and HRT, all test players during the selection process. While these tests use different means, processes and technologies to evaluate players, each aims to give NFL teams a glimpse of what that player could be like once they welcome him into their building, at starting from elements such as how he learns and how he reacts. to the stimuli.
NFL teams are immediately focusing these tests in two key areas: players with perceived cognitive, attention, or reactionary issues, and quarterbacks. But in recent years, NFL teams have taken the next step, bringing in experts from companies like AIQ and S2 during the draft process to discuss how their best players are doing, what it means and help them paint a picture of how these results were achieved. the players can return to their locker room.
For some teams, cognitive assessments become one of the most important non-film assessment tools they have.
Historical trends
Last but not least in the weeks leading up to the NFL Draft, teams attempt to use teams’ historical and draft data to get an idea of how the draft might play out. That means looking at how many players per position are being drafted (and what the trend line is), changes in roster construction league-wide, and trends based on individual team drafting.
Teams want to have an idea of what other teams can do in each round of the draft, because properly assessing value allows them to take the players they want as late as possible to maximize value.
For example, the 2023 NFL Draft had a record number of off-ball linebackers. This may mean more linebackers will be drafted than a team’s draftable player board can have, meaning there could be more players at a different position available to them in the 2024 draft.
Additionally, teams are planning changes league-wide as well as in individual teams’ drafting strategy based on changes to their scheme and the major NFL rule change adopted this year: the new move sending of the NFL.
The smartest teams try to eliminate their own biases (i.e. who they like) when evaluating what other teams can do. And while some of their information comes from scouts on the road who hear things, follow players’ workouts and other methods, using past drafting trends and strategies is the most stable way to gauge what which is to come.
