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The Los Angeles Rams have typically been on the cutting edge of scouting players. It's a big reason why the team consistently finds great players in the later rounds of the draft or good free agents that other teams seem to ignore.
Some of their methods have been discussed publicly, while others remain an industry secret. One of the newer ones, it seems, is the use of on-field GPS data to understand how players perform in certain situations.
According to Ollie Connolly of "The Read Optional," the Rams are one of the top teams that focus on a player's GPS movement in games rather than their combine numbers (which is perhaps another reason why general manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay don't go to the combine) and look specifically at how players move through contact and other players on the field.
It sounds like computer vision and machine learning. Basically, taking existing data and building a model that a team can use to evaluate a player against.
However, this isn't new data that teams are using. NFL.com's Lance Zierlein said different versions of data have been around for a few years, but only a few teams are using it. The Athletic's Jourdan Rodrigue also noted the Rams used GPS tracking data as early as 2017 with the scouting of receiver Cooper Kupp:
The Rams' scouting strategies have worked in the past, so there's no reason to doubt them now.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Report: Rams using GPS data to scout players
Continue reading...
Some of their methods have been discussed publicly, while others remain an industry secret. One of the newer ones, it seems, is the use of on-field GPS data to understand how players perform in certain situations.
According to Ollie Connolly of "The Read Optional," the Rams are one of the top teams that focus on a player's GPS movement in games rather than their combine numbers (which is perhaps another reason why general manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay don't go to the combine) and look specifically at how players move through contact and other players on the field.
It sounds like computer vision and machine learning. Basically, taking existing data and building a model that a team can use to evaluate a player against.
However, this isn't new data that teams are using. NFL.com's Lance Zierlein said different versions of data have been around for a few years, but only a few teams are using it. The Athletic's Jourdan Rodrigue also noted the Rams used GPS tracking data as early as 2017 with the scouting of receiver Cooper Kupp:
The Rams' scouting strategies have worked in the past, so there's no reason to doubt them now.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Report: Rams using GPS data to scout players
Continue reading...
