26CornerBlitz Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 The football analytics revolution may not be obvious, but it is happening in front of you all the time. There is an NFL team that plans to run more offensive plays to the side of the field farthest from its opponent’s bench. It has figured out, using player-tracking data, that a defensive lineman will sometimes run more throughout the course of a game by shuffling from the bench to the field during a substitution than he will during actual gameplay. Thus, running plays to the far side of the field can help tire out rotating defensive linemen. This strategy is unique but the logic behind it is not. Stories like this are common around the league: A team stumbles upon some shred of data and builds a play, a playbook, a personnel decision, or an entire scheme around it. It changes how a team drafts, calls plays, and evaluates opponents. All of these trends point to one thing: Football’s analytics moment has arrived. We’ve reached this high point for a couple of reasons. The rise of smarter, younger GMs and coaches is part of it. A bigger part of it, though, is the spread of the NFL’s player-tracking data, which is being shared leaguewide for the first time this season. Having access to that data allows teams to build models to analyze plays and players differently, and to simply know more about the game. That’s been a boon to a movement that had already been embraced by a handful of the smartest teams. As other teams try to catch up, they’ve created an arms race to get the best numbers. Essentially, the smartest teams are getting significantly smarter, the average teams are trying to get better, and the dumbest teams are going to be very dumb if they don’t act soon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhoTom Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 (edited) Speaking of defense and substitutions, notice how a guy like Aaron Rodgers catches the D with 12 men on the field while one is furiously trying to get to the sidelines. But watch him run off the field - he's frequently traveling in a diagonal line, which is longer than if he ran parallel to the yard lines. It's only a few steps, but that's often the difference between making it on time and getting the penalty. I can't believe that in this age of analytics and All-22 film, no coach has noticed that and drilled it into the players to take the shortest route to the sideline. Edited December 20, 2018 by WhoTom 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueandRed Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 Remember when Russ established our robust analytic system...haven’t seen the roi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 43 minutes ago, 26CornerBlitz said: The football analytics revolution may not be obvious, but it is happening in front of you all the time. There is an NFL team that plans to run more offensive plays to the side of the field farthest from its opponent’s bench. It has figured out, using player-tracking data, that a defensive lineman will sometimes run more throughout the course of a game by shuffling from the bench to the field during a substitution than he will during actual gameplay. Thus, running plays to the far side of the field can help tire out rotating defensive linemen. This strategy is unique but the logic behind it is not. Stories like this are common around the league: A team stumbles upon some shred of data and builds a play, a playbook, a personnel decision, or an entire scheme around it. It changes how a team drafts, calls plays, and evaluates opponents. All of these trends point to one thing: Football’s analytics moment has arrived. We’ve reached this high point for a couple of reasons. The rise of smarter, younger GMs and coaches is part of it. A bigger part of it, though, is the spread of the NFL’s player-tracking data, which is being shared leaguewide for the first time this season. Having access to that data allows teams to build models to analyze plays and players differently, and to simply know more about the game. That’s been a boon to a movement that had already been embraced by a handful of the smartest teams. As other teams try to catch up, they’ve created an arms race to get the best numbers. Essentially, the smartest teams are getting significantly smarter, the average teams are trying to get better, and the dumbest teams are going to be very dumb if they don’t act soon. There is nothing remotely unique about that strategy as it’s been a staple for offensive coaches for decades. And it was really effective before they moved the hashmarks in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCOrange Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 7 minutes ago, WhoTom said: Speaking of defense and substitutions, notice how a guy like Aaron Rodgers catches the D with 12 men on the field while one is furiously trying to get to the sidelines. But watch him run off the field - he's frequently traveling in a diagonal line, which is longer than if he ran parallel to the yard lines. It's only a few steps, but that's often the difference between making it on time and getting the penalty. I can't believe that in this age of analytics and All-22 film, no coach has noticed that and drilled it into the players to take the shortest route to the sideline. Yeah, this has always blown my mind too lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgewaycynic2013 Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 18 minutes ago, BlueandRed said: Remember when Russ established our robust analytic system...haven’t seen the roi. That was used for his ‘little black book’. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blacklabel Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 33 minutes ago, WhoTom said: Speaking of defense and substitutions, notice how a guy like Aaron Rodgers catches the D with 12 men on the field while one is furiously trying to get to the sidelines. But watch him run off the field - he's frequently traveling in a diagonal line, which is longer than if he ran parallel to the yard lines. It's only a few steps, but that's often the difference between making it on time and getting the penalty. I can't believe that in this age of analytics and All-22 film, no coach has noticed that and drilled it into the players to take the shortest route to the sideline. I guess it depends on which part of the field they're coming from. All players on the sideline have to stay in between the 30 yard lines. If a guy runs straight to the sideline from say, he 20, he can still cause his team to get penalized.... I think.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Sack Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 (edited) Remember Belichick’s secret weapon and righthand man Ernie Adams has been a Wall Street sabermetrics guru turned NFL junkie. Analystics has always been used, some teams are just better at it than others. Edited December 20, 2018 by Dr.Sack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhoTom Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 18 minutes ago, blacklabel said: I guess it depends on which part of the field they're coming from. All players on the sideline have to stay in between the 30 yard lines. If a guy runs straight to the sideline from say, he 20, he can still cause his team to get penalized.... I think.... Wow - there's an obscure rule that I never knew about. You're right, though. https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/2018-nfl-rulebook/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyWhiteShows Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 53 minutes ago, DCOrange said: Yeah, this has always blown my mind too lol. You mean the “robust analytics” team, that had no involvement with football operations? What a sham that was - just Russ trying to emulate trends in the NFL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Joshin' Posted December 20, 2018 Share Posted December 20, 2018 Having worked in data driven jobs, analytics were a given. I wonder what analytics said do not draft Lindsay? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mannc Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 56 minutes ago, Just Joshin' said: Having worked in data driven jobs, analytics were a given. I wonder what analytics said do not draft Lindsay? Crazy. It’s not like he went to a small school or didn’t produce in college...there are just so many running backs out there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
26CornerBlitz Posted December 25, 2018 Author Share Posted December 25, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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