The Denver Broncos and head coach Sean Payton are preparing for the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft next week. And ahead of this year’s draft, it seems like the Broncos are diving deep into the “analytics” of each draft prospect, which he detailed on Thursday.
In a press conference on Thursday, Payton shared that he and the team were studying analytics to increase the team’s “batting percentage” in the draft.
#Broncos coach Sean Payton said team spent two hours last night studying analytics to "increase our batting percentage in the draft process."
— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) April 18, 2024
It’s weird for Payton to phrase film study this way, particularly because batting average is of course a term used in baseball instead of football.
It sounds a whole lot like the popular baseball movie “Moneyball”, which of course a movie that goes into the real-life story of Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane and his use of analytics in the early 2000s to compete against big-market teams in the MLB.
The movie “Moneyball” is just over two hours, which is how long Payton said that the team was studying analytics. So naturally, some fans joked that Payton and the Broncos organization just watched the movie to further understand analytics.
hmmm https://t.co/v3t8JSkBrQ pic.twitter.com/gbgHDf96Ep
— Steve (@YinzerHawks) April 18, 2024
this is obviously out of context but i love the idea of "spent 2 hours last night studying analytics." like they watched Moneyball and are now ready for the draft. https://t.co/DcZH5J2Ot2
— Matt Swartz (@MattSwartz723) April 18, 2024
Others thought it was a bit concerning that analytics seemingly haven’t been something that the organization hasn’t been looking at throughout the whole draft process, not just one week before the start of the draft.
A massively important decision for a multi-billion dollar company. Might want to spend more than a couple of hours looking at relevant data. https://t.co/iNzueDaKaV
— Scott Cullen (@ByScottCullen) April 18, 2024
He makes $18 mil per season and is just now discovering an approach that’s been around for years. https://t.co/ID5xE0JGly
— Edward Egros (@EdWithSports) April 18, 2024
Two hours? What have they been doing the last two months? https://t.co/XeH4NmhPZo
— Jeff Johnson (@BigJohnson177) April 18, 2024
Good to get that ironed out in just 2 hours a week before the draft https://t.co/cFRKfupLFO
— ShwinnyPooh, national championship enjoyer (@shwinnypooh) April 18, 2024
Hopefully, someone in the Broncos scouting department has been looking into analytics for longer than two hours. If not, they could certainly have some issues next week when the draft officially begins…
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.