Panthers hire "Director of Analytics"

[Actionman0z]

We beat the poo out of the broncos in superbowl 50 but lost in 2 categories. Turnovers and points. :( 

[KB_fan]

7 minutes ago, Navy_football said:

He just should have hired @KB_fan like four years ago. 

LOL. I have fun dabbling in stats, but I'm no pro. If Ron needed my advice, the team would go something like 2-14 and I'd be booted off the Huddle!

I'll be curious to see whether this leads to any obvious changes in game management, practice schedules, schemes, etc.

Tepper, Ron and Marty might really be a good partnership. They all have differing strengths and weaknesses, but all seem to love football, care about the guys on the team and a healthy team culture. There seems to be a good level of communication and respect among them too. I'm hopeful it leads to wins.

 

[ellis]

In this culture of first take/pick a side, it is still quite OK to simply acknowledge that each subset inside the football operations apparatus have common interests. I feel good about Ron and Marty, performance and communications-wise. This isn’t a dork coming into the building and pissing off a bunch of jocks. Everybody’s a professional, everybody’s trying to win a championship. The owner appears to have a good handle on things.

I’m fairly certain Ron and Marty were retained  contingent upon their willingness to be on board with this approach.

Analytics sure is one hell of a lightning rod topic.

[Ricky Spanish]

If they hired a director, I'm assuming they need people to work under him...

I work in data analysis... I would love to apply...

[ellis]

Go for it brother. There’s a demand for it.

[KillaCamNewton]

32 minutes ago, Dex said:

Literally I have no clue what you're talking about but okay. Don't forget situational analytics as well such as 2 point conversion rates. It's about time the Panthers entered the 21st century.

you're talking about basic statistics. anyone can watch film for a few hours and track the things you listed

How much success does the opposing team have running to the right or the left. They run right 61% of the time gaining over 5 yards 82% of the time. That means we should focus our attention at right side A gap and keep an extra defender close to the line on running downs.

The opposing corner has been on a hot streak lately only allowing 7% of the passing being thrown his way to be completed with 15% of passes being intercepted. He plays the left side of the field 92% of the time so we should put our #1 on the right side to create a mismatch and increase the rate of completions by taking him out of the game.

The opposing offense leads the league in plays over 25 yards at 3 per game. We should play more zone against this offense and keep the ball in front of us to prevent big plays.

i'm not an MIT graduate in statistics and could provide all of that info. to me "analytics" means high level algorithms that you can develop to determine a player's worth/impact without having to watch hours and hours of film. in baseball they have the wins above replacement metric and in basketball john hollinger developed the PER (player efficiency rating). my only question was how do you develop metrics like this from a football standpoint when there are so many more variables than in basketball or football. of course stats and analytics matter. my question was what are they going to try to do that they need the help of an MIT graduate for? to me that sounds like they are trying to develop high level equations to determine the most efficient way to use the salary cap and evaluate players

[Ricky Spanish]

9 minutes ago, KillaCamNewton said:

you're talking about basic statistics. anyone can watch film for a few hours and track the things you listed

How much success does the opposing team have running to the right or the left. They run right 61% of the time gaining over 5 yards 82% of the time. That means we should focus our attention at right side A gap and keep an extra defender close to the line on running downs.

The opposing corner has been on a hot streak lately only allowing 7% of the passing being thrown his way to be completed with 15% of passes being intercepted. He plays the left side of the field 92% of the time so we should put our #1 on the right side to create a mismatch and increase the rate of completions by taking him out of the game.

The opposing offense leads the league in plays over 25 yards at 3 per game. We should play more zone against this offense and keep the ball in front of us to prevent big plays.

i'm not an MIT graduate in statistics and could provide all of that info. to me "analytics" means high level algorithms that you can develop to determine a player's worth/impact without having to watch hours and hours of film. in baseball they have the wins above replacement metric and in basketball john hollinger developed the PER (player efficiency rating). my only question was how do you develop metrics like this from a football standpoint when there are so many more variables than in basketball or football. of course stats and analytics matter. my question was what are they going to try to do that they need the help of an MIT graduate for? to me that sounds like they are trying to develop high level equations to determine the most efficient way to use the salary cap and evaluate players

Your idea of analytics is one hyperfocused aspect of it. I wouldn't be surprised if JR refused to have a statistical analytics team becuase it would have cost money and wasn't the old school way of doing it. 

The fact that we're just not hiring a guy to do what tons of other teams have been doing for years makes me think the panthers need to build this from the ground up.

[Moo Daeng]

If you read the article it says they have had some someone in analytics since 2013. As every team does this I don't see how some message board cynic has a leg to stand on to suggest this isn't useful in the NFL.

[mc52beast]

Welcome to the 21st century Panther staff...

 

ANALytics sounds like an Olympic event for porn stars

[Moo Daeng]

14 minutes ago, mc52beast said:

Welcome to the 21st century Panther staff...

 

ANALytics sounds like an Olympic event for porn stars

They have been doing it for 6 years. 

[KillaCamNewton]

25 minutes ago, Moo Daeng said:

If you read the article it says they have had some someone in analytics since 2013. As every team does this I don't see how some message board cynic has a leg to stand on to suggest this isn't useful in the NFL.

you're not hearing me. i'm asking what this guy is gonna do to further evaluate players past the traditional "analytics" approach that you need high level MIT degrees in statistics and mathematics for. i'm fully on board with us doing this, anything beats the Rivera approach of just putting washed up veteran players on the field or the Gettleman approach of dumpster diving for cheap plug and play players. im just intrigued and wondering what theyre gonna have him do

[kungfoodude]

15 minutes ago, KillaCamNewton said:

you're not hearing me. i'm asking what this guy is gonna do to further evaluate players past the traditional "analytics" approach that you need high level MIT degrees in statistics and mathematics for. i'm fully on board with us doing this, anything beats the Rivera approach of just putting washed up veteran players on the field or the Gettleman approach of dumpster diving for cheap plug and play players. im just intrigued and wondering what theyre gonna have him do

Probably going to come up with novel ways to approach and analyze existing data. Lots of highly educated stats/math nerds in non-traditional roles these days(Wall Street, sports, etc). 

Not sure they are going to really let us see behind the curtain to what he does at the nuts and bolts level. At least we are trying something new. I can appreciate that.

[fortyrod]

1 hour ago, Navy_football said:

Analytics is not just about the game on Sundays. Player acquisitions (draft and FA), practice times, meetings, drills, risk of injuries, etc.

It's really been taken to another level with regards to the data that's available. Rivera already understands that but hasn't had the expertise to fully utilize it. Guessing Tepper had a hand in this but Ron has embraced it for some time as well. He just should have hired @KB_fan like four years ago. 

To a lesser extent, you also apply them to your own team to understand your weaknesses and how other teams will likely be scouting you. There is also the aspect of simply making current processes more efficient. Automatically selecting the best film for each player to review for specific upcoming opponents, for example.

[Moo Daeng]

58 minutes ago, KillaCamNewton said:

you're not hearing me. i'm asking what this guy is gonna do to further evaluate players past the traditional "analytics" approach that you need high level MIT degrees in statistics and mathematics for. i'm fully on board with us doing this, anything beats the Rivera approach of just putting washed up veteran players on the field or the Gettleman approach of dumpster diving for cheap plug and play players. im just intrigued and wondering what theyre gonna have him do

Maybe you should read the article. And this one https://www.si.com/mmqb/2017/06/27/nfl-analytics-what-nfl-teams-use-pff-stats-llc-tendencies-player-tracking-injuries-chip-kelly    and this one https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2018/12/19/18148153/nfl-analytics-revolution

 

The staffs have been doing these types of thing for years. This gives them a full time analyst to aid in these efforts.