Sports Analytics- The Changing Face of the NFL Draft

However, the goal remains the same: selecting talented prospects. Making athlete selections isn't as easy as it sounds, and that's what professional scouts do. Before American football fans find out how many rounds are in the NFL draft, the event takes place over three days. It consists of seven rounds.

Right now, the industry is in the midst of major changes. Geopolitics, reduction of state funding, lack of European cups, and “outflow” of foreigners, all make clubs think not only about the standings but also about finances. Such a transformation of thinking leads to the evaluation of the efficiency of every department of an American football club. Managers no longer want to keep people on their staff, for former merits, which do not benefit the club. Competence becomes a mandatory element - it shows the ability to analyze details, encourage people to use their capabilities, achieve goals together with employees, and work as a team. Every year when is the NFL draft, many fans of American football will be able to see the future stars, and begin to watch them more closely.

Scouting is at the forefront of this issue.  This means that the relevance of unique competencies, such as knowledge of a specific market (the Balkans, Africa, South America) will be in demand. And the ability to identify talent and predict the orbit into which it can take off will always be relevant.

A scout is an employee of a club who has two main tasks:

1. Search and find American football players based on the given search criteria.

2. Sort (rank) all candidates from the most suitable (without taking into account the financial component), to the least suitable.

A good scout is a specialist who is not only able to estimate potential but also to identify the growth zone (where the player can add) and the risk zone (where he can lose), which will help to determine the final level to which the player can rise.

In the 21st century, scouts have individual technical expertise and resources where they can get up-to-date information on an athlete. With these analytics NFL, one can prepare more seriously for the annual draft event.

The complexity of prediction models in the NFL draft

It is impossible to predict 100% the further outcome of a team's NFL draft meaning, in a season. The results depend on many factors, which developed technical programs are not able to do yet. 

An American football team is a living organism, it grows, develops, and changes. One of the main tasks of selection is to be able to replace the leaders as quickly and painlessly as possible. To do this, the selection department should work not only when the tasks have already been set, but continuously, watching players, collecting information, and always having several candidates for each playing position.

The need to buy a player can arise suddenly (injury, an offer that can not be refused) and the count will go not even for weeks, but for days, if there are no well-studied and worked out options, then either the team will not be strengthened at all or will be bought the first player who came under the hot hand, which is very risky.

A sporting director doesn't do it alone, he has to have a “super team” sharpened to the club's interests. These guys work 24/7 and are ready to get any player the club needs from under the ground and help close the deal, no matter what it costs them.

Amateur and professional scouts in their arsenal use time-tested resources, such as this site, where you can see up-to-date tables with the results of teams, and their statistics. 

The main advantage of Tips.gg is that the platform opens adaptively on mobile and desktop devices, and users can see up-to-date information at any time. They don't need to open 3-4 websites to get extensive statistics. All information is on one resource, plus up-to-date odds for upcoming matches, and offers from current bookmakers.

Predicting player success

Everyone is already using big data processing. Companies that work with big NFL draft data and know how to analyze it get various metrics that are used to make critical management decisions. 

Thanks to video recording, the following match scores can be determined:

• number of passes;
• percentage of offense and defense;
• number of carries for more than 10 yards;
• tackles.

Detailed characteristics about the athlete (height, weight, speed) can present a clearer picture of what this player can execute in the upcoming match.

By operating with a lot of data, scouts are able to recommend certain players to their clubs for the NFL draft. Those interested can watch the results of the NFL draft 2024, where six quarterbacks were selected from the first 12 players.

It wasn't until 2015 that the Philadelphia Eagles team hired data analyst Ryan Paganetti. He, along with coach Doug Peterson, got to work, painstakingly collecting data on players and teams around the league. In 2017, there was essentially a new team in the NFL that revamped the roster and employed a more aggressive strategy: playing 4th down (rather than cowardly running a punt) and scoring 2-point extra points after touchdowns. They decided to use the EPA metric. This metric has been around since the 1970s. In the end, the Philadelphia Eagles won the conference and the Super Bowl for the first time in history.

The impact of technology on the sports industry

Major advances in information technology and numerical data science have recently transformed the process of player evaluation. Quantitative data-driven information systems complement and build upon existing forms of scouting, helping to ensure a complete and more thorough evaluation of players. Fans of NFL analytics can check out the latest current changes in prediction from top experts.

Technical scouting creates new opportunities for teams. This type of scouting method can be used to screen an almost unlimited number of players around the world.