Chris Brown Conveniently Forgets About Russ Brandon’s “Robust Analytics” Team

[BuffaloRush]

Sometimes I just get a kick out of Chris Brown’s “reporting.”  Case and point, the article below about the Bills hiring Luis Guilamo to head the analytics department.

 

http://m.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/Bills-front-office-and-analytics-dept-will-be-two-way-street/0ca530e0-953d-4513-843a-fdc5d795011a

 

My issue with the article is that If you read it for the time, you would think that this is the Bills first foray into building an analytics department.  Like this a brand new development that the team has never tried before. Meanwhile, the team has had a robust analytics department since 2013 as you’ll read from an earlier Brown article from that same year:

 

http://m.buffalobills.com/news/article-2/Bills-launch-analytics-department-with-hire-of-Lyons/3bf96f90-a18a-4845-aaae-2d20cc83d72b

 

Oddly enough, in the 2018 article Brown makes no mention of the analytics department or Beane’s attempt to move the dept into a new direction.  Or even the fact that Guilamo was replacing former Director Michael Lyons.  Why didn’t he mention that relevant information?  My guess is because it would remind fans that the previous version of the analytics department wasn’t successful.

 

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like that’s relevant information to the story which should have been mentioned.  I do know that Brown considers himself to be a journalist that covers the team in same way a beat writer would.  But he often gets criticized for bias...and here’s another reason why.  

 

 

[simool]

Well technically this is their first foray into football analytics.

 

Even though he gave the opposite impression when he had that big coming out party about it, Brandon's analytics team was focused on business metrics instead of football metrics.  

 

 

Edited March 9, 2018 by simool

[RememberTheRockpile]

Doesn't Chris Brown work for the Bills? 

[MJS]

Seems like a stretch to me. The Bills hired a guy, Brown was asked to publish an article about it, so he did and then went about his day. Nothing to see here, if you ask me.

[BuffaloRush]

6 minutes ago, MJS said:

Seems like a stretch to me. The Bills hired a guy, Brown was asked to publish an article about it, so he did and then went about his day. Nothing to see here, if you ask me.

 

 I disagree.  If the BN is writing a story about this, there’s at least one paragraph about the analytics team of the past.

[NastyNateSoldiers]

The fellas at the Jon Murphy Show are all company line guys that show makes me sick sometimes.  Jon, Donald and Chris are brutally bad . Tasker should never ever be allowed on the show again seems like he doesn't even know who the players are half the time.  He was talking bout the QBs in the draft then latter admitted he doesn't know much about them.  Tasker was a great player i loved him on the field but he should take his job a little more seriously and study.

[Tenhigh]

Not sure what you mean here, but the below seems to imply that it was already happening:

 

"That's why Bills GM Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott made a firm commitment to further developing the analytic side of their football operation this offseason.

Hiring Luis Guilamo, who was already working for the team as an outside consultant over the past year, was the first step. They will steadily build out a department ...."

 

Also, why would anyone here expect Brown (Or Murph/Jones) to give them anything other than the Bill's PR view of things?  How many of you guys go out and write articles about poor decisions that were made by your senior management?  Not a great career move, imo.

Edited March 9, 2018 by Tenhigh

[Guest K-GunJimKelly12]

Unbelievable that Brandon is still involved with our sports teams.  The main person responsible for the drought doesn't get canned when the new regime comes in but instead gets a promotion.  Now he is President of the Sabres too and at least in one instance was talking to Eichel after a game early in the season when Eichel was struggling.  That is just what we need.  Russ freaking Brandon, the ultimate jock sniffer questioning Eichel about why he might be struggling.  I can't think of anything that would make him want to run to Boston more when his contract is up than Brandon lurking over his shoulder.  Please Terry, do your fans a favor and ship this guy out of town.  It is last thing that needs to be done to erase the stench of the drought. 

Edited March 9, 2018 by K-GunJimKelly12

[Mr. WEO]

12 minutes ago, Tenhigh said:

Not sure what you mean here, but the below seems to imply that it was already happening:

 

"That's why Bills GM Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott made a firm commitment to further developing the analytic side of their football operation this offseason.

Hiring Luis Guilamo, who was already working for the team as an outside consultant over the past year, was the first step. They will steadily build out a department ...."

 

Also, why would anyone here expect Brown (Or Murph/Jones) to give them anything other than the Bill's PR view of things?  How many of you guys go out and write articles about poor decisions that were made by your senior management?  Not a great career move, imo.

 

 

Given that this guy's previous history had nothing to do with analyzing football data, what was he consulting with the team about last year and how will it be different this year?

[GG]

1 minute ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

 

Given that this guy's previous history had nothing to do with analyzing football data, what was he consulting with the team about last year and how will it be different this year?

 

According to Beane's interview on WGR last week, Guilamo's analytics consulting was on the football side of things, and different from what Lyons did.

[Mr. WEO]

Just now, GG said:

 

According to Beane's interview on WGR last week, Guilamo's analytics consulting was on the football side of things, and different from what Lyons did.

 

Thanks.

 

Just seems odd that teams figure a guy's an "analyst", he should be able to show them things about the game they know infinitely better than him.

[corta765]

2 minutes ago, K-GunJimKelly12 said:

Unbelievable that Brandon is still involved with our sports teams.  The main person responsible for the drought doesn't get canned when the new regime comes in but instead gets a promotion.  Now he is President of the Sabres too and at least in one instance was talking to Eichel after a game early in the season when Eichel was struggling.  That is just what we need.  Russ freaking Brandon, the ultimate jock sniffer questioning Eichel about why he might be struggling.  I can't think of anything that would make him want to run to Boston more when his contract is up than Brandon lurking over his shoulder.  Please Terry, due your fans a favor and ship this guy out of town.  It is last thing that needs to be done to erase the stench of the drought. 

 

Yea your about a million percent wrong on Russ. Yes when he was doing player personnel moves for a bit he wasn't good and even he would admit so, but the team would straight up not be here without him. People from some strange reason like to ignore that the Bills were no where near as regionalized as a franchise pre Russ which was key to their survival long term the same with agreeing to sign an iron clad lease that made potential buyers unable to move the team. I live in Rochester and can tell you that pre Brandon the town still had a lot of Browns fans (TV reasons back in the day made Rochester get the Browns a lot, I know weird right) and this current generation is straight Bills through and through. The team has never been stronger in terms of its reach outside of Buffalo and that is a credit to his work. The fact that during the drought he and the team managed to still fill the stadium is a credit to them, remember it is their job to make the team sell seats that is your fault if your pissed about the record but still bought seats. He is president of the Sabres because the Bills have managed to run a respectable ship in the areas you can control off the field unlike the Sabres whose stadium environment is the equivalent of a library and need a million things done to help the in game experience. If your going to point blame on Brandon for the drought remember he also helped bring in McD/Beane who ended it so you cannot ignore one out of convenience for the other. Also last I checked he didn't draft EJ, JP, or Trent.

 

Eichel has an 8 year contract so he isn't going to Boston any time soon and its pretty common for the top players to speak with the head of an org, they all work for the same group amazingly.

[GG]

9 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

Thanks.

 

Just seems odd that teams figure a guy's an "analyst", he should be able to show them things about the game they know infinitely better than him.

 

Beane didn't go into details on the exact work that Guilamo's team will do for them (for obvious reasons)

 

But this has been rehashed for years, and it's proven in other fields that analytics add another dimension to the decision making.  There's no reason it can't be applied to sports, whether it's personnel or game management.  We've had a front row seat of the massive gut-feel football failures.  Adding more analytical data certainly can't hurt.

[LabattBlue]

He’s a Bills employee.  Is there anyone who doesn’t expect his views to be pro Bills for the most part?

[DFT]

Analytics is only as successful as the level of talent on the AT.   Successful “forward-thinking” talent evaluators rarely get away from their organizations.   I don’t think anyone bought the previous notion from Russ that the team “He” assembled before was here for any other reason aside from managing the terrible “cash to cap” approach.   I trust the powers that be to build it the right way, this time around.   Their draft strategy from the last year warrants that, in my opinion.

[Guest K-GunJimKelly12]

40 minutes ago, corta765 said:

 

Yea your about a million percent wrong on Russ. Yes when he was doing player personnel moves for a bit he wasn't good and even he would admit so, but the team would straight up not be here without him. People from some strange reason like to ignore that the Bills were no where near as regionalized as a franchise pre Russ which was key to their survival long term the same with agreeing to sign an iron clad lease that made potential buyers unable to move the team. I live in Rochester and can tell you that pre Brandon the town still had a lot of Browns fans (TV reasons back in the day made Rochester get the Browns a lot, I know weird right) and this current generation is straight Bills through and through. The team has never been stronger in terms of its reach outside of Buffalo and that is a credit to his work. The fact that during the drought he and the team managed to still fill the stadium is a credit to them, remember it is their job to make the team sell seats that is your fault if your pissed about the record but still bought seats. He is president of the Sabres because the Bills have managed to run a respectable ship in the areas you can control off the field unlike the Sabres whose stadium environment is the equivalent of a library and need a million things done to help the in game experience. If your going to point blame on Brandon for the drought remember he also helped bring in McD/Beane who ended it so you cannot ignore one out of convenience for the other. Also last I checked he didn't draft EJ, JP, or Trent.

 

Eichel has an 8 year contract so he isn't going to Boston any time soon and its pretty common for the top players to speak with the head of an org, they all work for the same group amazingly.

Give me a fugging break.  How are you related to Russ?  Let's not give credit to Russ for something that was happening organically anyways.  Technology and access to information at the drop of a hat, did a lot more to regionalize the Bill's than Brandon ever did.  How did that Toronto thing go?  

 

Selling football to Buffalo is like selling water in the desert.  I suppose it was Russ the kept the Sabres seats filled over the last ten years when they sucked.  The seats were filled because Buffalo loves sports.  You are finally starting to see the empty seats now because there is only so much any fanbase can  take.  

 

The environment at Sabres games is boring because they have been the worst team in the league over a 4 year span.  When they are good, there are 10,000 people in the square outside the arena to watch playoff games on a big screen.  When they start making the playoffs again, I suppose you will give credit to Russ for bringing life back to the arena.  

 

He helped bring in McBean, woo freaking hoo.  He finally starts to bring in people who he can't control when we get an owner who isn't on his death bed.  What did he do when 90 year old Ralph Wilson let him run amok?  He hired 80 something year old Marv Levy as a figure head.  Wow, what vision.  Then we hired Dick Jauron, who pretty much even your casual fans knew was absolutely gong to fail, because he had already proven he is a very poor NFL head coach.  Brandon was running the show after Donahoe left and letting him off the hook for 10 years of piss poor management on the football side is ludicrous.  

 

Finally, there is no way Eichel wants brown nosing Brandon picking his mind after a loss, during a time when he is struggling on the ice.  Some guy who doesn't know a puck from a stick asking Eichel whats wrong, yes that would not be annoying.

 

Also, the team wouldn't be here without Doug Flutie and Ralph Wilson.  Giving credit to Russ for saving the Bills is sickening.

Edited March 9, 2018 by K-GunJimKelly12

[hondo in seattle]

13 hours ago, BuffaloRush said:

Sometimes I just get a kick out of Chris Brown’s “reporting.”  Case and point, the article below about the Bills hiring Luis Guilamo to head the analytics department.

 

http://m.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/Bills-front-office-and-analytics-dept-will-be-two-way-street/0ca530e0-953d-4513-843a-fdc5d795011a

 

My issue with the article is that If you read it for the time, you would think that this is the Bills first foray into building an analytics department.  Like this a brand new development that the team has never tried before. Meanwhile, the team has had a robust analytics department since 2013 as you’ll read from an earlier Brown article from that same year:

 

http://m.buffalobills.com/news/article-2/Bills-launch-analytics-department-with-hire-of-Lyons/3bf96f90-a18a-4845-aaae-2d20cc83d72b

 

Oddly enough, in the 2018 article Brown makes no mention of the analytics department or Beane’s attempt to move the dept into a new direction.  Or even the fact that Guilamo was replacing former Director Michael Lyons.  Why didn’t he mention that relevant information?  My guess is because it would remind fans that the previous version of the analytics department wasn’t successful.

 

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like that’s relevant information to the story which should have been mentioned.  I do know that Brown considers himself to be a journalist that covers the team in same way a beat writer would.  But he often gets criticized for bias...and here’s another reason why.  

 

 

 

I get your point but to be fair, Chris did write..."That's why Bills GM Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott made a firm commitment to further developing the analytic side of their football operation this offseason."

 

Reading between the lines, it seems the Bills were happier with the outsourced analytical information last year than the data produced by their own analytics staff.  So they brought last year's consultant inhouse and put him in charge.  

[Tenhigh]

1 hour ago, GG said:

 

Beane didn't go into details on the exact work that Guilamo's team will do for them (for obvious reasons)

 

But this has been rehashed for years, and it's proven in other fields that analytics add another dimension to the decision making.  There's no reason it can't be applied to sports, whether it's personnel or game management.  We've had a front row seat of the massive gut-feel football failures.  Adding more analytical data certainly can't hurt.

I agree with everything except the bolded. 

[Jauronimo]

 

Thank you for your service!

9 minutes ago, Tenhigh said:

I agree with everything except the bolded. 

I also agree that football is the one discipline on earth for which data is not useful. 

[simool]

10 minutes ago, Jauronimo said:

 

Thank you for your service!

I also agree that football is the one discipline on earth for which data is not useful. 

 

Data is useful in every discipline Jauronimo.  It is just a question of 1. Are you collecting the right data and 2. How you interpret that data.

[kota]

um who cares? 

[Mr. WEO]

1 hour ago, GG said:

 

Beane didn't go into details on the exact work that Guilamo's team will do for them (for obvious reasons)

 

But this has been rehashed for years, and it's proven in other fields that analytics add another dimension to the decision making.  There's no reason it can't be applied to sports, whether it's personnel or game management.  We've had a front row seat of the massive gut-feel football failures.  Adding more analytical data certainly can't hurt.

 

Data (which comes from film review) has been collected and used for as long as gmaes have been put on film.  It's hard for me to figure how a guy who looked at Ctirix's sales number will give added insight to a coaching staff about what an opponent will most likely on 3rd and 6 on their own side of the field with under two minutes in a close game (for example.  My impression is that after hundreds of hours of film study, the coaching staff probably has a better idea than the data guy who doesn't understand the game of football.

 

Look, if they think it will help, they will pay for him.  It doesn't mean it has an actual positive effect. 

17 minutes ago, Jauronimo said:

 

Thank you for your service!

I also agree that football is the one discipline on earth for which data is not useful. 

 

All the data available should have told that guy not to go with the bowl cut....

[Jauronimo]

32 minutes ago, simool said:

 

Data is useful in every discipline Jauronimo.  It is just a question of 1. Are you collecting the right data and 2. How you interpret that data.

Not true.  Football is too complicated for data and analysis.  Brain surgery, space travel, the stock market maybe, but NOT a game played by Neanderthals to satisfy the blood lust of simpletons. 

[Like A Mofo]

3 hours ago, K-GunJimKelly12 said:

Unbelievable that Brandon is still involved with our sports teams.  The main person responsible for the drought doesn't get canned when the new regime comes in but instead gets a promotion.  Now he is President of the Sabres too and at least in one instance was talking to Eichel after a game early in the season when Eichel was struggling.  That is just what we need.  Russ freaking Brandon, the ultimate jock sniffer questioning Eichel about why he might be struggling.  I can't think of anything that would make him want to run to Boston more when his contract is up than Brandon lurking over his shoulder.  Please Terry, do your fans a favor and ship this guy out of town.  It is last thing that needs to be done to erase the stench of the drought. 

 

 

Russ Brandon being involved with BOTH Buffalo professional sports organizations at the high level he is is truly the 8th wonder of the sports world: He must have compromising information or photos of the Pegulas, the Wilsons, and Jerry Sullivan. The fact that there is a flat our refusal to admit he still meddles baffles me: Why on earth would either organization entrust THIS guy with day to day decisions? EVER?

 

[MJS]

15 hours ago, BuffaloRush said:

 

 I disagree.  If the BN is writing a story about this, there’s at least one paragraph about the analytics team of the past.

 

I figured you disagree. You started the thread!