Long before the 2018 NFL Draft, scouts and analysts all gushed over the raw arm strength of Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen. The Browns were said to be torn between taking Allen or Oklahoma’s Heisman winner, Baker Mayfield, with the first overall pick. Based purely on throwing attributes, evaluators assumed Allen was the clearly superior choice.
Data collected at the Senior Bowl in January indicated that the story was not so clearcut. RFID chips from Zebra Technologies were embedded in the footballs used for every practice and at the game itself, just as they were in every NFL game ball last fall. The velocity and spin data of these throws the week of the Senior Bowl, however, reached the public domain and indicated that Mayfield was “consistently in the same ballpark” as Allen, according to Pro Football Focus. The Browns picked Mayfield first; the Bills would later select Allen at No. 7.
The announcement before last season that every NFL game ball would have a 0.1 oz., nickel-sized tag received considerable fanfare, but none of those metrics ever surfaced among the Next Gen Stats that appeared in broadcasts or online.
“Even though the fans did not see the ball tracking data last year, the teams didn’t see it either, in terms of game days,” said Zebra Sports’ vice president of business development, John Pollard.
An NFL spokesperson told SportTechie last week that all of the ball data across the league would be shared with all 32 teams and that there was the potential for some data to be shared publicly, but plans for that have still not been finalized. Pollard indicated that the league was still mulling how much data to be released.
Zebra’s 11 practice clients were able to access and start analyzing their own information from practices, but no one got game data. Those client teams only had stats from their own players during their own training sessions, meaning they lacked a comparative data set.
For the past three seasons, Zebra has tagged every player’s shoulder pads with RFID chips. Until a change in policy earlier this year promised full league-wide distribution, NFL teams could also only see the data collected from their own players.
The 2018 Senior Bowl offered the first glimpse of how ball data could be used. The stats released by Zebra confirmed the assessment of human eyes that Allen had a howitzer for an arm, while also suggesting that Mayfield’s physical skills had been undervalued.
From our partners at @ZebraTechnology – tracking players and the ball this week at the Reese's Senior Bowl.
North QBs – shows velocity of each pass and RPM (rotations per minute) – how tight that spiral is #CoolStuff #SeniorBowl #CompeteAndConnect pic.twitter.com/6RTDNeZKAo
— Reese's Senior Bowl (@seniorbowl) January 26, 2018
The tracking stats can also be used to find underappreciated talent. Quarterback Mike White was considered a wildcard before the Senior Bowl, owing to his smaller college career at South Florida and Western Kentucky. He demonstrated great power behind his throws and went to the Cowboys in the fifth round.
New #Cowboys QB Mike White has a cannon. Former high school pitcher and per @ZebraSports, had the highest % of throws with 50-plus mph velocity in one practice at an eye-popping 67%.
— RosterWatch (@RosterWatch) April 28, 2018
Ball tracking data can show what adjustments a passer makes in windy conditions or help a team identify the traits of throws that are most easily caught by receivers—perhaps there’s a combination of spin rate, velocity, and height that’s more easily corralled on quick slants or deep posts or other route types. Kickers and punters can more objectively be rated on hang time and heights of their kicks. Maybe the rate at which a ball turns end-over-end on a field goal can be manipulated and optimized. Last November, Sports Illustrated suggested that officials could even benefit.
“Every team that we’re working with on the practice side has their own, if I may, culture or flavor and appetite for this type of information,” Pollard said.
Some of the utility of ball data will be derived from workload monitoring. That can be in the form of automated throw counts or in detecting whether there’s any deviation in performance because of a diagnosed injury or just general attrition.
“Over the course of the season, do you see any material change, positively or negatively, in miles per hour, rotation, height, quality of passes?” Pollard said. “Those things are judged appropriately by the expert eyes of professional scouts, evaluators and coaches on these teams, but this just gives them another resource—an entirely unique resource—to quantify a condition that’s objective, it’s technical information to help support their professional evaluation.”
Zebra also supports two college clients (Ohio State and Tennessee) and provided tracking for the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship, but the company said it is discerning on the acceptance of new clients to ensure its support resources aren’t stretched too thin. That said, the opportunity for other one-game showcases are under consideration, such as additional bowl games or other postseason college showcases.
In time, the growing data set will allow comparison of top draft prospects from one year to the next and further opportunity for pattern recognition.
“What’s great about information like this,” Pollard said, “is that the utility and value increases over time.”