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NFL teams’ use of advanced metrics has been hotly debated in recent years.
Three-time Super Bowl winner and FOX Sports NFL analyst Mark Schlereth weighed in on the debate. Schlereth, who played in the NFL long before analytics were introduced, expressed his distaste for the usage of metrics.
“There’s one thing for me. It’s the analytics people. … (They) become gospel,” Schlereth said during a recent appearance on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me w/ Dan Dakich.”
“Because you take those numbers, and you can make them say whatever you want. … And the average fan thinks that becomes gospel. They don’t understand how the game works, so this is a way you can basically go, ‘OK, let me put my thumbprint on this’ the air yards per target or whatever bulls— they’re feeding you as an analytics number-crunching nerd.”
All 32 NFL teams had a designated analytics employee on their staffs last season.
ESPN anonymously surveyed each of those staffers in 2024 to learn more about how teams used analytics. Some teams lean more into analytics than others, while some general managers’ backgrounds could make them more prone to take an analytics-first approach.
The survey received 22 responses. The findings named the Cleveland Browns as the No. 1 NFL franchise to incorporate analytics most frequently when it comes to making decisions on football-related matters. Browns general manager Andrew Berry holds a master’s degree from Harvard in computer science. Berry works with Paul DePodesta, the Browns’ chief strategy officer.
Before joining the Browns, DePodesta worked in the front office of multiple MLB teams and appeared in the film “Moneyball.”
Schlereth also recalled a time when he had a heated debate over the usage of analytics.
“I got into an argument with a guy that was extolling the virtues of going for two points every time. …. So, I asked the guy, ‘Let me ask you a question, how many two-point plays do you think we go into a given (game) with?’”
Schlereth then said two plays were the standard when he played. He proceeded to explain how his teams would practice the plays and the coach’s approach to implementing any of the plays in a game.
“You have no idea how the game works. You have no idea what we talk about. You have no idea how we practice. You have no idea the number of plays we have in or how we run those plays or what we’re trying to exploit.”
Schlereth described analytics as “fluff.”
“The analytics don’t mean anything in football. It’s just a bunch of fluff to make us feel important, like we as ‘analytics analysts’ really know what we’re talking about.”
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