Ya he did. But who knows where we’d be if Les had’t fired his ass first thing. Hakeem demanded a trade the year before due to Patterson in part and he tried his damndest to move him but for all the deals falling through.
Yep... NCAA is a bit more friendly to innovation... but those that go against the grain like a Chip Kelly are chased out from the NFL the first moment they show vulnerability. But in terms of general managers, there has yet to be the invasion of the 'geeks' like Morey and Beane in the NFL.
There's 22 guys on a very large field to try and account for, and there's always intangible things like motor and physicality that are a huge factor in any play. For example, look at Cunningham's angle on the Henry 94 yard run. Is it IQ, bad scheme, good scheme but bad presnap read, fatigue, light injury, etc? What's to explain for his drop from 2019 to now? Look at how hard they try to distill the draft and combine, and it's still very much a gamble. There's busts, undrafted gems, players converted from different positions with little experience all the time. Of course they gotta keep moving forward with analytics, but eyeball test and whatever old man football smarts/instincts the league is built on still beats it out I think. Russell Wilson was a 3rd round QB because of his height but what analytics can predict a short guy's ability to find passing lanes like him or Brees
Next level analytics tried in the NBA bubble --> body monitors testing everything. Analytics isn't just discovering the stats... but also trying to identify what to measure.
Let’s see if small ball in the NFL works. No one over 250lbs. Everyone quick, fast, elusive. PJ Tucker could play multiple positions.