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The NFL’s Next Gen Stats website is a rabbit hole of intricate charts and graphs detailing just about every football statistic you can imagine—everything from a player’s speed to completion probability. How did they assemble such an incredible amount of real-time and long-term data? Over the last seven years, NFL players have been monitored while they play with two or three RFID chips placed in their gear, along with additional tags worn by referees and attached to pylons, chains, and even the football itself. Made by Zebra and powered by Amazon Web Services, these on-player tags are changing the game in a number of ways.
With data captured about 10 times per second, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tracking gives coaches and analysts real-time information, allowing them to make data-driven decisions on the field, as well as seasons-long analytics they can examine for trends. As Digital Trends reported in February, this monitoring system “allows the NFL to measure things that were previously impossible to quantify — like aggressiveness. … Such a stat would be impossible to define without exact time, location, and distance information, but thanks to Zebra’s sensor tech, this is being tracked and updated on every passing play a QB makes.”
It’s easy to imagine how a coach or QB might adapt plays based on how a game progresses—say, shifting emphasis after identifying a defensive weakness—or how they might adapt their game plan week after week to take advantage of different opportunities. But the amount of data on hand here is changing more than just play-calling.
As crucial game-making stats are identified, players increasingly train to maximize their performance in those areas. Knowing a quarterback’s average throwing time, for example, or how comfortable they are throwing into tight coverage helps a defensive player target his training.
And as New England Patriots linebacker Brandon Copeland told Digital Trends earlier this year, granular data helps players recover from injuries more quickly and effectively. “Let’s say I just tweaked my hamstring. When I feel like I’ve recovered and I’m getting back up to speed, I can literally go do a sprint to test that,” Copeland said. This not only helps players optimize their performance: it reduces the risk of repeat injuries and gives coaches and doctors quantifiable insight into physical fitness.
But even before players hit the gridiron, the information provided by these tags give scouts objective data they can apply to prospective talent, taking some of the speculation and guesswork out of the process. For example, by comparing a quarterback’s aggressiveness rating with his completion percentage while facing tight coverage, a scout can get a clear sense of whether a quarterback is more aggressive than he is skilled, or whether he’s a potential playmaker able to perform under pressure.
All of this together leads to a game that’s more technical, data-driven, and performance-oriented. Players are selected and train more strategically to maximize their playmaking abilities in the areas most likely to affect the game, which in theory leads to more dramatic, energetic, and high-stakes football than ever before.
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