This Years Draft: Can a Team Gain An Advantage Digitally?

[TroutDog]

On OBL today, they had a discussion with Trey Wingo (seems to be only in the app right now and I can’t post a link from there...it’s in hour 2).
 

They asked him if it’s possible for one team to gain an advantage with the craziness of this year. He didn’t really answer it but I’m wondering, for some of our more adept IT people here at TBD if they can come up with any (as I suspect that’s where it would come from). 

[MJS]

I would say the advantage goes to teams who have been doing their due diligence the past couple months.

[TroutDog]

9 minutes ago, MJS said:

I would say the advantage goes to teams who have been doing their due diligence the past couple months.

I get it. Just wondering if there is a way to ensure more connectivity to multiple connections and how that could impact the process. 
 

Bills, for example, have deep pockets (like Dallas and others) but some teams have tighter purse strings. 
 

Apologies if this is silly, I just found it interesting and given the state of things, hoped someone could expand on possibilities. ? 

[MJS]

11 minutes ago, TroutDog said:

I get it. Just wondering if there is a way to ensure more connectivity to multiple connections and how that could impact the process. 
 

Bills, for example, have deep pockets (like Dallas and others) but some teams have tighter purse strings. 
 

Apologies if this is silly, I just found it interesting and given the state of things, hoped someone could expand on possibilities. ? 

I would assume that every team could afford the technology necessary to stay as connected as they want to be.

[NoSaint]

9 minutes ago, TroutDog said:

I get it. Just wondering if there is a way to ensure more connectivity to multiple connections and how that could impact the process. 
 

Bills, for example, have deep pockets (like Dallas and others) but some teams have tighter purse strings. 
 

Apologies if this is silly, I just found it interesting and given the state of things, hoped someone could expand on possibilities. ? 

I’d assume having good processes and communication, contingency plans etc... in place will help detail oriented teams. Someone’s data goes down or something you don’t want to be scrambling on the clock to figure out what to do. Or if there’s some variety of disagreement how do you ensure everyone’s working off the same info or share new better info on the fly without being in the room. 

Just now, MJS said:

I would assume that every team could afford the technology necessary to stay as connected as they want to be.

agreed. I’d think the bigger question is how adept they are at using it. Buddy nix may not excel in this format while a more tech savvy group could.

[mjt328]

With technology like Zoom, it sounds like team personnel will be able to communicate the same as normal.  The GM, coaches and scouts will still be able to talk about what is going on.  They just won't technically be in the same room.  The process of looking at draft boards, calling other teams with trade offers, actually making picks will pretty much be the same.  I think all of this will work out fine.

 

The biggest change in this year's draft process is the inability to meet with prospects.  I think this will cause many "red flag" prospects (whether through injury or character) to drop farther than normal.  Team doctors can't do their due diligence on injuries, which makes the risk higher.  Coaches can't sit-down with prospects and get a feel for their knowledge and fit.  This is where some creative GMs may find an advantage.

 

 

[Motorin']

Pegs needs to get the quantum mainframe up and running so the Bills can watch what everyone else is doing. 

[Blokestradamus]

I thought this was going to be another Patriots paranoia thread, to be honest.

[ColoradoBills]

23 minutes ago, mjt328 said:

With technology like Zoom, it sounds like team personnel will be able to communicate the same as normal.  The GM, coaches and scouts will still be able to talk about what is going on.  They just won't technically be in the same room.  The process of looking at draft boards, calling other teams with trade offers, actually making picks will pretty much be the same.  I think all of this will work out fine.

 

The biggest change in this year's draft process is the inability to meet with prospects.  I think this will cause many "red flag" prospects (whether through injury or character) to drop farther than normal.  Team doctors can't do their due diligence on injuries, which makes the risk higher.  Coaches can't sit-down with prospects and get a feel for their knowledge and fit.  This is where some creative GMs may find an advantage.

 

 

 

Beane and his Scouting/Personnel Team seem to be in the upper third of the league (that's not me saying it it's the league's general opinion) and will help IMO.

Using the 1st and 5th for Diggs gives a bit of an added advantage that they will not pick a bust with the 1st round pick.

 

If they do indeed pick a RB with the 2-4 pick (which I hope they do) it could be argued that RBs with the vast amount of tape on them

and the position in general can be achieved digitally.

 

Compared to teams with a huge amount of picks this year (Miami comes to mine) I think the Bills can get through this unique draft year with

a bit of an advantage compared to other teams.

 

I'm still wondering if Beane has a few vets on the current roster that he is trying to dangle as bait.

A Bills trade to start Day 2 or Day 3 is still on my wish list.

Edited April 14, 2020 by ColoradoBills

[Johnny Hammersticks]

The Bengals have dial up Internet.  There will be problems.

[ehfeuh57]

They for sure should have a Cable Modem and DSL up and running at same time

 

A higher stakes tournament poker players must have from back in the day

[ColoradoBills]

6 minutes ago, Johnny Hammersticks said:

The Bengals have dial up Internet.  There will be problems.

 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

At the end of the day - owners have deep pockets - and every scout and GM etc. has basically just had some ridiculous battlestation put into their home offices with a few weeks to test out the conferencing features etc.  

 

Probably have some sort of slick Draft board software that someone built and sold to sports teams for you to organize it how you would on a big magnetic board.  I've built some stuff in excel that i thought was pretty cool for fantasy baseball - but this is probably like, click his name and a popup comes up with like measureables, stats, grades that you input etc. 

 

If they don't i'd fire the App developer immediately - this should be able to be programmed in like a day.  Assuming the NFL provides teams with a usable database of draft-eligible player measurements and stats. 

12 minutes ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

Beane and his Scouting/Personnel Team seem to be in the upper third of the league (that's not me saying it it's the league's general opinion) and will help IMO.

Using the 1st and 5th for Diggs gives a bit of an added advantage that they will not pick a bust with the 1st round pick.

 

If they do indeed pick a RB with the 2-4 pick (which I hope they do) it could be argued that RBs with the vast amount of tape on them

and the position in general can be achieved digitally.

 

Compared to teams with a huge amount of picks this year (Miami comes to mine) I think the Bills can get through this unique draft year with

a bit of an advantage compared to other teams.

 

I'm still wondering if Beane has a few vets on the current roster that he is trying to dangle as bait.

A Bills trade to start Day 2 or Day 3 is still on my wish list.

 

I think the vet's in trouble would likely be - Nsekhe (if they feel good about williams/bates), Long (for same reasons), Maybe Lee Smith, and Philips.  But I'd bring every one of them to camp this year - its going to be an abbreviated camp.  If someone important along the oline gets hurt etc. you're going to want them there.  Move them closer to cut downs.

[ColoradoBills]

6 minutes ago, dneveu said:

 

I think the vet's in trouble would likely be - Nsekhe (if they feel good about williams/bates), Long (for same reasons), Maybe Lee Smith, and Philips.  But I'd bring every one of them to camp this year - its going to be an abbreviated camp.  If someone important along the oline gets hurt etc. you're going to want them there.  Move them closer to cut downs.

 

All those guys could be in play (among a few others) and I do agree about bringing the majority of them to camp BUT if a trade can be made with ONE of them

to move up to get a rookie who can make a difference.............I'm liking that too.

 

It's a low probability but i would be cool for Beane to "cast a spell" over a GM of the BoB variety! 

 

If that does not happen your comment about doing that closer to cut downs is my final hope.

[mathja]

From a bills fan perspective, the way I look at it is there is a greater chance multiple teams will make a mistake because they’re not working in a war room. The likelihood of top talent getting pushed further down into the second round exists due to the situation. (Always an optimist)

[LABILLBACKER]

1 hour ago, mathja said:

From a bills fan perspective, the way I look at it is there is a greater chance multiple teams will make a mistake because they’re not working in a war room. The likelihood of top talent getting pushed further down into the second round exists due to the situation. (Always an optimist)

Completely agree. Because of the virtual experience this month the draft will be more challenging for Zoom war rooms. People talking over each other.  Maybe a scout isn't heard? There will be players dropping you wouldn't expect. This will favor the Bills.

[Wheels Not So Golden Now]

3 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

I used to live in Cincinnati and I would not be surprised one bit if Mikey Brown went the cheap route and used dial up.  Their Ohio rival Browns will probably call them just to break the connection and mess up their pick.  And Belichick won't need his film crew to hack their signals either.

[TroutDog]

3 hours ago, dneveu said:

At the end of the day - owners have deep pockets - and every scout and GM etc. has basically just had some ridiculous battlestation put into their home offices

Kind of my point: there is talk in media of NHL teams folding after this as they operate at such thin margins to begin with (see Florida, among others). 
 

Not too many years ago, Ralph wouldn’t have been able to put the money that the Pegula’s are putting into the Bills. Jacksonville, for one, makes me wonder if they have the coin. Others?

 

If so, how do the deep pocketed teams gain an advantage in an otherwise parity driven league?

4 hours ago, mjt328 said:

With technology like Zoom

This is inherently unsafe as has been all over the news recently. In fact, the CEO of Zoom admitted as much. Kind of my point. 

[Mango]

6 hours ago, NoSaint said:

I’d assume having good processes and communication, contingency plans etc... in place will help detail oriented teams. Someone’s data goes down or something you don’t want to be scrambling on the clock to figure out what to do. Or if there’s some variety of disagreement how do you ensure everyone’s working off the same info or share new better info on the fly without being in the room. 

agreed. I’d think the bigger question is how adept they are at using it. Buddy nix may not excel in this format while a more tech savvy group could.

The are Billion dollar organizationsz I assume they have at least 10-12 IT people on staff who will be constantly monitoring the servers. Remoting in is super easy anyways for the IT guys. Not to mention, I would put money on these being treated almost like a webinar. “Rooms” will already be set up. Invites sent out. Open your outlook calendar and click the links needed for each conference. All most likely handled by either team IT directors and/or the NFL. This isn’t Sue in accounting trying to see if she can skype the sales team at once to see if she can get an update on past due invoices. 
 

Most of these coaches and scouts are doing some work from home or on the road. They’ll need a VPN to get access to any film or material. Then there is probably a 75% chance that there is some multi factor authentification involved. This is most definitely the most “complicated” part of the entire thing, and it’s literally just typing in a number, or hitting confirm on an app on your phone. 

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

11 hours ago, TroutDog said:

Kind of my point: there is talk in media of NHL teams folding after this as they operate at such thin margins to begin with (see Florida, among others). 
 

Not too many years ago, Ralph wouldn’t have been able to put the money that the Pegula’s are putting into the Bills. Jacksonville, for one, makes me wonder if they have the coin. Others?

 

If so, how do the deep pocketed teams gain an advantage in an otherwise parity driven league?

This is inherently unsafe as has been all over the news recently. In fact, the CEO of Zoom admitted as much. Kind of my point. 

 

I feel like the NFL "league" of owners wouldn't let a team fail at this point.  The richest of owners would prop up the other ones with loans and stuff.  

[Mr. WEO]

If typically all in a room with a "big board" they are referring back and forth to, without any unusual "tech" why would they need more tech remotely, other than laptops, Zoom, desktops, big screen, or whatever?

[NoSaint]

13 hours ago, Mango said:

The are Billion dollar organizationsz I assume they have at least 10-12 IT people on staff who will be constantly monitoring the servers. Remoting in is super easy anyways for the IT guys. Not to mention, I would put money on these being treated almost like a webinar. “Rooms” will already be set up. Invites sent out. Open your outlook calendar and click the links needed for each conference. All most likely handled by either team IT directors and/or the NFL. This isn’t Sue in accounting trying to see if she can skype the sales team at once to see if she can get an update on past due invoices. 
 

Most of these coaches and scouts are doing some work from home or on the road. They’ll need a VPN to get access to any film or material. Then there is probably a 75% chance that there is some multi factor authentification involved. This is most definitely the most “complicated” part of the entire thing, and it’s literally just typing in a number, or hitting confirm on an app on your phone. 

again, I don’t think it’s substantial but do you feel more comfortable putting beane in charge of organizing this process than a buddy nix type? 
 

preferred platforms, contingencies on how to structure discussions, etc..

 

not saying it’s catastrophic but someone comfortable in the setting will also probably have more mental bandwidth to make decisions than someone that feels uncomfortable.

 

in a league of parity, you might find some extra minor differentials dropping people in new settings.

[TroutDog]

Beane was on OBL today and said they will be using Zoom. Kind of what I was after at the outset as it is an inherently unsafe platform (again, per the CEO of Zoom). I’m not sure, but I think there’s a team in our division who has cheated before (cough, cough). ? 
 

Again, I get this is far fetched but for dead time it did pique my interest. 

6 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

If typically all in a room with a "big board" they are referring back and forth to, without any unusual "tech" why would they need more tech remotely, other than laptops, Zoom, desktops, big screen, or whatever?

Yup, Zoom...that’s the problem: very easy to hack. That’s my question. 

16 hours ago, Mango said:

The are Billion dollar organizationsz I assume they have at least 10-12 IT people on staff who will be constantly monitoring the servers. Remoting in is super easy anyways for the IT guys. Not to mention, I would put money on these being treated almost like a webinar. “Rooms” will already be set up. Invites sent out. Open your outlook calendar and click the links needed for each conference. All most likely handled by either team IT directors and/or the NFL. This isn’t Sue in accounting trying to see if she can skype the sales team at once to see if she can get an update on past due invoices. 
 

Most of these coaches and scouts are doing some work from home or on the road. They’ll need a VPN to get access to any film or material. Then there is probably a 75% chance that there is some multi factor authentification involved. This is most definitely the most “complicated” part of the entire thing, and it’s literally just typing in a number, or hitting confirm on an app on your phone. 

The NHL is as well and just a few teams carry the rest of the league. Not all owners are crazy billionaires...some snuck in so they can’t throw the same money around. 

[WhoTom]

I'm sure there's a way for a team to gain a digital advantage, but I just can't put my finger on it.

 

[Mango]

34 minutes ago, TroutDog said:

Beane was on OBL today and said they will be using Zoom. Kind of what I was after at the outset as it is an inherently unsafe platform (again, per the CEO of Zoom). I’m not sure, but I think there’s a team in our division who has cheated before (cough, cough). ? 
 

Again, I get this is far fetched but for dead time it did pique my interest. 

Yup, Zoom...that’s the problem: very easy to hack. That’s my question. 

The NHL is as well and just a few teams carry the rest of the league. Not all owners are crazy billionaires...some snuck in so they can’t throw the same money around. 

 

Zoom is a stupid product with really great marketing. There is a reason they have a Zoom Government that is NOT AVAILABLE to corporate users. Because they only produce a single secure product and don't have the bandwith to do that at an enterprise level. Microsoft TEAMS seems to be doing an OK job with security. Vidyo does a great job with security and is one of the only HIPPA compliant products out there. 

 

This is not rocket surgery and people are expecting it to be oddly expensive to protect your data at an enterprise level. A company the size of United Health Group probably spends a couple million per year on securing their servers, telecommunications, etc. But they have some extra hoops due to HIPPA compliance as well. That might sound like a huge number, but they do $14B in revenue and have 300,000 employees. Each franchise needs what, 30-50 people with a secure connection on draft night? Most likely it is a user count license done through the NFL not each franchise. If they secured through the teeth, it will cost MAYBE $150k for the draft and that is total, for all 32 franchises to be on the same system, and they will all be licensed through the entire year. 

[TroutDog]

2 hours ago, Mango said:

 

Zoom is a stupid product with really great marketing. There is a reason they have a Zoom Government that is NOT AVAILABLE to corporate users. Because they only produce a single secure product and don't have the bandwith to do that at an enterprise level. Microsoft TEAMS seems to be doing an OK job with security. Vidyo does a great job with security and is one of the only HIPPA compliant products out there. 

 

This is not rocket surgery and people are expecting it to be oddly expensive to protect your data at an enterprise level. A company the size of United Health Group probably spends a couple million per year on securing their servers, telecommunications, etc. But they have some extra hoops due to HIPPA compliance as well. That might sound like a huge number, but they do $14B in revenue and have 300,000 employees. Each franchise needs what, 30-50 people with a secure connection on draft night? Most likely it is a user count license done through the NFL not each franchise. If they secured through the teeth, it will cost MAYBE $150k for the draft and that is total, for all 32 franchises to be on the same system, and they will all be licensed through the entire year. 

I appreciate the figures but they seem way off the mark to me having priced out digital security for companies in the defense industry. Like WAY off the mark. I’m no technofile but I know costs and these seem radically underestimated. 

Edited April 15, 2020 by TroutDog

[Mango]

27 minutes ago, TroutDog said:

I appreciate the figures but they seem way off the mark to me having priced out digital security for a companies in the defense industry. Like WAY off the mark. I’m not technofile but I know costs and these seem radically underestimated. 

 Yeah. I’m not adding any additional hardware and guesstimating based on basically a single use case/environment. On top of that assuming they run on NFL servers which should already outfitted properly. 
 

Those GOV contracts are huge. I actually used to work with RSA quite a bit on them. I’m just sort of rounding numbers from a few years ago from RSA’s Archer and I am actually doing a bunch of work replacing zoom for telehealth clients. There isn’t a need here to consistently update and communicate constantly changing sensitive information between 100’s or 1000’s employees on a minute by minute basis. 

[Mr. WEO]

4 hours ago, TroutDog said:

Beane was on OBL today and said they will be using Zoom. Kind of what I was after at the outset as it is an inherently unsafe platform (again, per the CEO of Zoom). I’m not sure, but I think there’s a team in our division who has cheated before (cough, cough). ? 
 

Again, I get this is far fetched but for dead time it did pique my interest. 

Yup, Zoom...that’s the problem: very easy to hack. That’s my question. 

The NHL is as well and just a few teams carry the rest of the league. Not all owners are crazy billionaires...some snuck in so they can’t throw the same money around. 

 

 

FaceTime then.

 

This is easy

 

[TroutDog]

4 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

 

FaceTime then.

 

This is easy

 

Ok, but he already said they’re using Zoom. 

[Mr. WEO]

2 minutes ago, TroutDog said:

Ok, but he already said they’re using Zoom. 

 

Doesn't matter.  All is well.

[Augie]

On 4/14/2020 at 6:07 PM, Blokestradamus said:

I thought this was going to be another Patriots paranoia thread, to be honest.

 

Shhhhh, Ernie Adams is listening! This is the distraction thread.