The Bills are becoming mainstays on the survey, which polls NFL employees about the most analytically advanced franchises in the league
On Tuesday, Steh Walder of ESPN Analytics released the results from an annual poll of analytics staff members around the NFL. In it, the Cleveland Browns remained the team most universally recognized as being the most analytically inclined, but the Buffalo Bills were mentioned for a second consecutive year, as well.
In response to the question “Which NFL team is the most analytically advanced?” the Bills were tied for fourth place with the Houston Texans, the Minnesota Vikings, and the Atlanta Falcons, with each of those organizations receiving one vote from the panel of 21 staffers. The Bills again received a single vote when the questions were instead phrased as “Which team produces the highest level of analytics work?” and “Which team most incorporates analytics into its decision-making?”
When the query was expanded to allow for analytics employees (who were allowed to provide their own employing team as an answer for the first three questions) to pick their top five most analytically inclined teams, the Bills once again showed up in fourth place with eight votes, behind the Ravens (21 votes), Browns (19), and Eagles (16). This provides the survey a little more weight, given that one can be confident that non-Bills employees were providing positive responses on the analytic department in Buffalo.
This is the second consecutive year the Bills have shown up in the top five of the “most analytically inclined teams” list. The Bills Analytics & Football Research Department, consisting of seven employees headed up by Director of Analytics & Application Development Luis Güílamo, continues to get praise amongst its peers in the NFL. The use of data to make informed decisions continues to make inroads into the football community, and seeing organizations historically thought of as being well-run make appearances consistently at the top of lists dedicated to the analytically inclined puts the Bills in good company.
…and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan with Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday on the Buffalo Rumblings podcast network!