Analytics in some form are pervading virtually every major professional sports league, and many college athletics programs as well.
The NFL never has had a deeper pool of analytics staffers among its 32 franchises than it does now on the cusp on the 2023 season.
The Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars combined have 17 staffers dedicated solely to those franchises' analytics departments, with the Jags sitting on nine employees.
Every NFL team now has at least two analytics staffers, as first shared this week by ESPN's Seth Walder; 21 franchises have at least three full-time analytics employees.
Only the New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers and Tampa Bay Bucs have just one analytics staffer; seven other franchises employee two analysts in their analytics departments.
Just how much has the NFL as a whole and its individual entities continued to embrace analytics? Well, the league earlier this year wrapped up its fifth-ever Big Data Bowl -- an analytics competition opened up to participants far beyond the realm of sports.
Long overdue refresh of the NFL analytics staffer list after an offseason with plenty of movement.
— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) August 3, 2023
As always, this is to the best of my understanding based on both what teams list and conversations with analytics folks around the league. pic.twitter.com/Ut538JcK08