How Mike Vrabel wants to use analytics as Patriots head coach

[reflexblue]

Very interesting, vrable wants to use analytic for Player Acquasition Player health and safety, Game management,

MSN

One area in which the Browns stand out is their use of analytics. While hard to quantify on a win/loss basis, their work in the analytical field under general manager Andrew Berry has received considerable praise across the league. And with Mike Vrabel getting hired as New England Patriots head coach over the weekend, it might get a spin-off in New England soon.
“Things change — the weather, the backups, who you have in the game, how their defense is playing, how their offensive is playing, have you stopped them? We will always try to use that information. Excited to get with our staff here to see what they’ve done.”

 

[Zuma]

I saw this early today too..thought this was interesting...

“How do we manage our players? What’s the workload? What’s their speeds? How often to they get to 90 percent of their max speed?” Vrabel asked. “You see all these numbers that come out of the game. Let’s say a player’s max speed is 20 miles per hour. Well, then we feel like at least one time between games you should go 90 percent for a certain distance, so you should run at 18 miles per hour for X amount of distance if you’re a gunner, a receiver, or a player that does that.

“We can see what they do in the game, and we want to make sure they’re recreating that at least once during the week. So, then, how we track player load management, how we construct practice, all these things that we’re going to use the data.”

 

[Clonamery]

I saw this early today too..thought this was interesting...

“How do we manage our players? What’s the workload? What’s their speeds? How often to they get to 90 percent of their max speed?” Vrabel asked. “You see all these numbers that come out of the game. Let’s say a player’s max speed is 20 miles per hour. Well, then we feel like at least one time between games you should go 90 percent for a certain distance, so you should run at 18 miles per hour for X amount of distance if you’re a gunner, a receiver, or a player that does that.

“We can see what they do in the game, and we want to make sure they’re recreating that at least once during the week. So, then, how we track player load management, how we construct practice, all these things that we’re going to use the data.”

Jeepers sounds like how they've been training track athletes and long distance runners for decades. Glad they call it analytics so it sounds new.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Very interesting, vrable wants to use analytic for Player Acquasition Player health and safety, Game management,

MSN

One area in which the Browns stand out is their use of

“

has received considerable praise across the league. And with Mike Vrabel getting hired as New England Patriots head coach over the weekend, it might get a spin-off in New England soon.
“Things change — the weather, the backups, who you have in the game, how their defense is playing, how their offensive is playing, have you stopped them? We will always try to use that information. Excited to get with our staff here to see what they’ve done.”

Good. They need to catch up with the rest of the league in that regard

 

[PowerRunRevival]

Jeepers sounds like how they've been training track athletes and long distance runners for decades. Glad they call it analytics so it sounds new.

More often than not analytics is a way to measure/quantify football ideas that have been around a long time.

 

[upstater1]

Lame. The variables in football are finite but many.

These metrics will only add one more layer of confusion to coaches who have one main job: making the complex simple.

Whatever these nerds are going to spin out inevitably neglects what the athletes themselves recognize on the field. Even the guy who knew more about it than anyone (Belichick) was often focused on nitty-gritty details which could never actually help the players on the field.

 

[archstanton543]

Lame. The variables in football are finite but many.

These metrics will only add one more layer of confusion to coaches who have one main job: making the complex simple.

Whatever these nerds are going to spin out inevitably neglects what the athletes themselves recognize on the field. Even the guy who knew more about it than anyone (Belichick) was often focused on nitty-gritty details which could never actually help the players on the field.

Then why are other teams successful using them?

 

[PatsFan2]

Lame. The variables in football are finite but many.

These metrics will only add one more layer of confusion to coaches who have one main job: making the complex simple.

Whatever these nerds are going to spin out inevitably neglects what the athletes themselves recognize on the field. Even the guy who knew more about it than anyone (Belichick) was often focused on nitty-gritty details which could never actually help the players on the field.

C'mon stater you've been looking through those for too long. We have to get with the times.

 

[PatsFan2]

Lame. The variables in football are finite but many.

These metrics will only add one more layer of confusion to coaches who have one main job: making the complex simple.

Whatever these nerds are going to spin out inevitably neglects what the athletes themselves recognize on the field. Even the guy who knew more about it than anyone (Belichick) was often focused on nitty-gritty details which could never actually help the players on the field.

I am sure the Sean McVay's - Kyle Shanahan's and Mike LaFlauer's or the NFL world are using them.

 

[borg]

Very interesting, vrable wants to use analytic for Player Acquasition Player health and safety, Game management,

We thought that last year was a one-off for the Browns who went through insane injury unluck a year ago. However, this year has been just as bad, except there is no winning record or playoff berth to calm the nerves of the fanbase.

Every Browns player on Injured Reserve with two games left in 2024

From Nick Chubb to Deshaun Watson, here is every Browns player on Injured Reserve in 2024

brownswire.usatoday.com

 

[Stu Pidassle]

Lame. The variables in football are finite but many.

These metrics will only add one more layer of confusion to coaches who have one main job: making the complex simple.

Whatever these nerds are going to spin out inevitably neglects what the athletes themselves recognize on the field. Even the guy who knew more about it than anyone (Belichick) was often focused on nitty-gritty details which could never actually help the players on the field.

As you suggest BB was into analytics. While it is fair to suggest the cost was too high for the results, including the various gates associated with the collection of data, that level of detail provided a strategic advantage in many situations. At a minimum it set the tone for the players to take their mental preparation seriously. For all intents and purposes Ernie Adams was the analytics department in human form. Teams are looking for ways to get the same information in a form that can be replicated. Whether analytics help or distract is a function of how they are used. If they are used as inputs to the decision process and not used to generate decisions themselves, analytics can continue to help the Patriots gain a competitive advantage.

 

[Le Numéro Douze]

As you suggest BB was into analytics. While it is fair to suggest the cost was too high for the results, including the various gates associated with the collection of data, that level of detail provided a strategic advantage in many situations. At a minimum it set the tone for the players to take their mental preparation seriously. For all intents and purposes Ernie Adams was the analytics department in human form. Teams are looking for ways to get the same information in a form that can be replicated. Whether analytics help or distract is a function of how they are used. If they are used as inputs to the decision process and not used to generate decisions themselves, analytics can continue to help the Patriots gain a competitive advantage.

That's the key right here. Analytics are a tool. What you do with that tool is what matters.

It is a very powerful tool and should definitely be used. However, if people expect stats to make the decisions, they are mistaken. They just help you use objective metrics to make the right decisions. The more meaningful metrics you have, the better.

 

[Clonamery]

Lame. The variables in football are finite but many.

These metrics will only add one more layer of confusion to coaches who have one main job: making the complex simple.

Whatever these nerds are going to spin out inevitably neglects what the athletes themselves recognize on the field. Even the guy who knew more about it than anyone (Belichick) was often focused on nitty-gritty details which could never actually help the players on the field.

BB and Ernie were always looking for an edge, film study and their memory banks were used to find the edge for and against their players and their opponents. That was pretty much the analytics department for decades. One left and Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

 

[Stu Pidassle]

BB and Ernie were always looking for an edge, film study and their memory banks were used to find the edge for and against their players and their opponents. That was pretty much the analytics department for decades. One left and Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

You are onto something here. Ernie's retirement was a sneaky big part of the brain drain that contributed to the downfall of King Richard the Belichick. The ironic part is that the prevailing wisdom at the time was that Ernie was too old and what he did was irrelevant.

 

[upstater1]

Then why are other teams successful using them?

Is that a serious question?

 

[upstater1]

C'mon stater you've been looking through those for too long. We have to get with the times.

You've been bamboozled.

In almost every walk of life, these things are used to grab any agency from the people in the actual game and in order to justify the existence of the person doing this kind of work.

It's not like we all don't live a life of bogus metrics.

 

[Clonamery]

You've been bamboozled.

In almost every walk of life, these things are used to grab any agency from the people in the actual game and in order to justify the existence of the person doing this kind of work.

It's not like we all don't live a life of bogus metrics.

Fair. One person's pun is another person's sign to punch him in the face. Lesson learned. I had to apologize to her.

 

[p8ryts]

You are onto something here. Ernie's retirement was a sneaky big part of the brain drain that contributed to the downfall of King Richard the Belichick. The ironic part is that the prevailing wisdom at the time was that Ernie was too old and what he did was irrelevant.

I never heard anyone question Ernie's value and expertise. Belichickians know that it was a wonderful confluence of excellent coaches, support staff and player's that bought into the system and plans. Even the sturdiest houses fall when you remove enough supporting elements. Ernie was loved by all.

 

[upstater1]

As you suggest BB was into analytics. While it is fair to suggest the cost was too high for the results, including the various gates associated with the collection of data, that level of detail provided a strategic advantage in many situations. At a minimum it set the tone for the players to take their mental preparation seriously. For all intents and purposes Ernie Adams was the analytics department in human form. Teams are looking for ways to get the same information in a form that can be replicated. Whether analytics help or distract is a function of how they are used. If they are used as inputs to the decision process and not used to generate decisions themselves, analytics can continue to help the Patriots gain a competitive advantage.

Analytics is what every human being does. The emphasis is on the word "human."

But if you listen to the #s, then you'll never have a moment like Belichick did at the end of the 2014 Super Bowl. Every single analytic in the world was telling him not to do that, but he did it only because he had personal awareness of the mindset of another human being (Pete Carroll) and he knew he had a counter for the play the Seahawks were likely to run. 90% chance that Belichick's gamble fails and then everyone would have been blasting him for wasting time for Brady to try to tie up the game, even with a Hail Mary. The metrics would say preserve time for your offense with a timeout, let the Seahawks score quickly. And MOST coaches under the regime of "metrics" would do exactly that BECAUSE they like their jobs and don't want to be called out for some unorthodox "artful" analysis (which is ACTUALLY the right decision). Most coaches would rather put the onus of failure on the players rather than take the risk themselves of failing with what would have been a universally critiquable decision.

I could go on about this in various ways to show you how Belichick's analytics were often useless precisely because he didn't have enough awareness of how football players see plays unfolding. And Belichick has been up front about the fact that as a coach, he could not see the game the same way so he needed players to give him a lot of input.

The problem here is we have the greatest coach of all time admitting the ways in which his analysis and preparation failed him and we're supposed to believe that the number crunchers are going to have greater insight into the probabilities of the game than the greatest coach ever.

My whole life experience tells me that coaches will use the numbers as a crutch in order to save their jobs. BECAUSE when the guy paying them asks "Why did you do that?" they will use the numbers as a justification for their decision.

 

[upstater1]

As you suggest BB was into analytics. While it is fair to suggest the cost was too high for the results, including the various gates associated with the collection of data, that level of detail provided a strategic advantage in many situations. At a minimum it set the tone for the players to take their mental preparation seriously. For all intents and purposes Ernie Adams was the analytics department in human form. Teams are looking for ways to get the same information in a form that can be replicated. Whether analytics help or distract is a function of how they are used. If they are used as inputs to the decision process and not used to generate decisions themselves, analytics can continue to help the Patriots gain a competitive advantage.

I should add one more thing. The key to my answer was the word NEVER. Should have capitalized that for emphasis.