Many NFL fans spend the weeks before Draft studying simulated drafts to try to find out which players are most likely to select their favorite teams.
These projections quickly become obsolete once the real draft begins with some objectives inevitably predicted that leave the board before a team makes their choice.
That was the motivation for the NEXTGGE Statistics team of the NFL to create a new draft site that takes elements of the old view magazines with the easily digestible information with the ability to adapt to perfection with each movement made before or during the draft.
“The draft of the magazine was very efficient to show information in an easy way to digest,” said Mike Band, the senior manager of research and analysis in NFL Nextgen statistics. “In many ways, since we have optimized for mobile experiences, we have lost that art of an experience similar to the board. That was the impulse for this project, creating a digital magazine that could be updated live and evolve in a dynamic and, hopefully, to have very fun and attractive live characteristics.”
He NFL Draft IQ site Released earlier this month to obtain a preview of the draft was designed to be the second ideal screen during the draft from Thursday night. The site includes team pages per team that list the selections of each team in the next two drafts, movements they had made in the low season, possible draft goals for each day of the draft, a simulated draft tracker and historical trends for each general manager.
The site was created in less than three weeks from the idea to the execution with the help of Amazon Quicksight, based on the work carried out by the Nextgen statistics team when creating Combine IQwhich provided context and comparisons with the data loads produced in the annual exploration combination.
Band has been publishing possible first round objectives for teams during the last six years and has had a high rate with approximately three quarters of the teams that take one of its possible objectives.
This work used when observing the needs of the equipment, the history of drafts, the simulated drafts, the meetings prior to the draft and other information leads to the potential objectives on the IQ site for each team for each day. Those will be updated throughout the draft depending on who stays on the board and what needs have been met.
“It is a fun exercise to try to match these teams with players in different interests prior to the draft, the team needs,” Band said. “Many teams have many smoke screens, so you almost have to read between many ways.”
The team’s pages include trends for general managers, including the frequency with which they have changed or lowering, whether they go to certain positions in the main rounds and if the GM has had patterns based on size, age or other attributes when choosing players.
For example, Nick Caserio de Houston has used 31 of its 32 teams to players who left power conferences. The Bengals also tend to go in that direction with their 22 selections in the first two rounds since 2014 from the schools of the Power Conference.
Howie Roseman of Philadelphia has used 10 of its 13 first -round selections when executing the draft in the trenches, while the Detroit Brad Holmes selections have the highest average average athletic score of NGS since it assumed the position in 2021.
“If you want to know who were the last selections, you can go to the draft tracker in the NFL (DOT) COM,” Band said. “But if you want to deepen each selection, since it is happening and trying to anticipate the next selection and want to sound intelligent at a party in the NFL draft and tip the selection without talking to Ian Raport, then continues with Draft IQ.”
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