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The NFL used to be a ground-and-pound, defense-wins championships type of league, but those days are long gone, replaced by analytics and next-gen stats.
Paul Domowitch has had a legendary career as an NFL reporter, and he’s taking his talents to The 33rd Team after retiring from The Inquirer after decades of great content.
In his latest article, Domowitch breaks down the NFL’s love for analytics, the part Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and Joe Banner played in shepherding a new era of statistics-based football.
“We had some observations before we got into the league; basic things that nobody was challenging,’’ Banner said. “Things like the whole notion that you had to run early and couldn’t throw off play-action without running early, and the notion that you had to wear down the other team by running.
“Things that, to this day, many people still say and believe. You’d talk to people and ask them why, and nobody really had an answer. And they weren’t going to listen to two guys like us who were being identified, and frankly, demonized at the time, as non-football guys.’’
Lurie hired three staffers from MIT after purchasing the Eagles.
The rest is history, as Banner passed down his vision to a young Howie Roseman, who has carried the mantle while adding his genius to the methodology.
Lurie and Banner helped Philadelphia and other teams move away from primarily running the football on first downs while utilizing innovative theories that currently carry the NFL.
ESPN cited the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, and Eagles as the three most analytically advanced teams. They also finished 1-2-3 for the highest level of analytics work and incorporated their analytics into decision-making.
The six teams ranked last in the usage of analytics were the Las Vegas Raiders, the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Chicago Bears, the Atlanta Falcons, and the Arizona Cardinals.
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