Excellent article over at sbnation (http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2016/4/11/11381110/browns-moneyball-paul-depodesta-analytics). The highlights are:
Unlike in baseball, teams are largely on a level financial playing field in the NFL. The advent of revenue sharing and the salary cap, combined with the lack of guaranteed contracts, ensures that no club is at a significant financial disadvantage. The need to find value is greatly diminished.
That first part is true but there’s still a need to find value, that’s why teams trade down to pick up more draft picks – to find value.
Unlike baseball, which is an individual sport at heart, football is the ultimate team game.
“One of the most common questions I get is, Can you do Moneyball, for lack of a better term, in the NFL? And the answer is, No, you can’t,” Billick said. “You can’t quantify the game of football the way you do baseball. It’s not a statistical game. The parameters of the game, the number of bodies and what they’re doing in conjunction with one another.”
That last part, “The parameters of the game, the number of bodies and what they’re doing in conjunction with one another” is key, actually is THE KEY. This is what our method analyzes and unlocks.
Back to Paul DePodesta, signing RG3 is not a good football decision. However has anyone considered that winning games might not be his objective?
UPDATE: Pairing RG3 with a Baylor WR is a good move because it’ll make RG3 feel more comfortable connecting with a WR from his alma mater. The reality is that RG3 has trouble fitting in with the team and changing his mindset to fit the NFL game. The Browns will win a few games this year but RG3 will never ever win a SB.
-MP-