Every offensive play in the NFL provides a trove of statistics accounting for the yards gained or lost on every throw or run.
Quantifying defensive performance has always been a more difficult proposition outside of splash plays like sacks and takeaways. The official tackle stats tracked by statisticians with binoculars in the press box can't account for the quality of the play and tackles that are missed.
That led the NFL Next Gen Stats department to seek a new measurement based on the loads of data generated by tracking equipment to quantify nearly every aspect of the tackle.
“When you look at our toolbox of metrics that can contextualize and tell the stories of the games within the game, we feel like tackling is an area that really hasn’t been analyzed in good enough stats beyond a tackle was made or it wasn’t made,” said Mike Band, the senior manager of research and analytics for NFL Next Gen Stats.
“We can now leverage the (data) to get stats like missed tackles, group tackles, evaluate the quality of tackles. We think we can take tackling quantitatively to an entirely new level of analysis.”
The NFL Next Gen Stats group has teamed up with machine learning engineers from Amazon Web Services to develop an advanced stats model focused on which players are best at making tackles and which are best at breaking them.
Building on the work the NFL has done with AWS with player-tracking data to quantify statistics like completion percentage over expectation, rushing yards over expectation, yards after catch over expectation and defensive coverage classification, it now is doing the same on making and breaking tackles.
“There are 300 million points of data we’re collecting per season for NextGen Stats,” said Julie Souza, the global head of sports at AWS. “We’re only limited by our imagination of what we can ask of it. ... Helping people understand what can be a complicated game and bringing new fans into the fold is a great byproduct of this initiative.”
By tracking the location and speed of all 11 defensive players every one-tenth of a second on each play through player tracking data gathered by chips in the players’ pads, the model can measure the probability that a tackle is made.
The stats from 2023 showed that the No. 2 leading tackler last season, Zaire Franklin of Indianapolis, led the NFL with 24 missed tackles, while safety Kevin Byard was the most efficient tackler with a 96.8% success rate.
On the offensive side, Travis Etienne (105), Christian McCaffrey (95) and Kyren Williams (88) were the best at breaking tackles with running backs having the most touches and opportunities. San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel led all receivers with 38 missed tackles, while Lamar Jackson was tops among QBs with 27.
On a per-play basis, the top tackle-breakers among players with at least 100 touches were Pittsburgh’s Jaylen Warren (38.1%), Miami’s De’Von Achane (36.2%) and Tennessee’s Tyjae Spears (34.2%).
The best tackling team in Week 1 headed into the Monday night game was the New England Patriots, who had a 94.3% efficiency rate in their upset win over Cincinnati.
The NextGen Stats group can go beyond missed and broken tackles and use other machine learning stats it has developed with AWS like the expected yards models to measure how many yards over expectation a defensive player saved or gave up on each tackle attempt with the same for offensive players.
While Azeez Al-Shaair and Alex Singleton both ranked in the top five in made tackles, their misses last year were costly with Al-Shaair's costing Tennessee an estimated 203 extra yards and Singleton's costing Denver 200 extra yards.
Other stats that can be tracked will be how often teams swarm to the ball with more than three defenders on a tackle and which defenders excel or struggle at different types of tackles like open-field ones, to chase down tackles to downhill tackles with defenders crashing toward the line of scrimmage.
“Any story that unfolds on the field, we want data to be able to help support that story,” said Josh Helmrich, the vice president of football technology for the NFL. “If it’s an offensive story, a defensive story, a running story, a passing story, we want stats that help quantify whatever the result was. So we continually do that. You can only do so much every year, but we try to chip away so that we have a very well-rounded toolkit.”
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Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Justin Fields (2) is stopped by Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle Kentavius Street (75) during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) is tackled by Denver Broncos players during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson (4) is tackled by Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, right, in the second half of an NFL football game in Cleveland, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta (87) runs after a catch as Los Angeles Rams safety John Johnson III (43) makes the tackle during the first half of an NFL football game in Detroit, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/David Dermer)
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen put women in many of the top roles on her new team for her next five-year tenure at the head of the bloc on Tuesday, despite the reluctance of many EU member states to give in to her demand for gender parity.
Von der Leyen put only two men in her top echelon with four women as vice presidents, including Kaja Kallas as foreign policy chief. Kallas was already agreed on by government leaders.
Von der Leyen on Tuesday added Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribera to lead the green transition, along with Ribera also becoming the competition czar. Finland's Henna Virkkunen was her pick for rule of law and digital leader, and Roxana Minzatu of Romania for social affairs leader.
The appointments of the Commission team — which veers to the right after the June elections saw a surge of far-right parties — still have to be confirmed.
The appointment as executive vice president of Raffaele Fitto of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's hard right Brothers of Italy party is bound to cause controversy during the parliamentary confirmation hearing in the coming weeks.
Also on Tuesday, von der Leyen gave French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne the industrial portfolio, after French heavyweight Thierry Breton resigned and openly criticized the EU chief for allegedly “questionable governance” on Monday,
It left France with a strong voice in the Commission, and many saw Breton's shock resignation more as a removal by von der Leyen of one of her most open internal critics after exerting pressure on French authorities.
Compounding such problems was the defiance of many of the 27 member states as von der Leyen struggled to get anywhere close to gender parity on her Commission team — they staunchly refused to give her a choice between a male and a female candidate.
She said that originally, EU nations only proposed 22% female candidates before she started to push for more.
“So I worked with the member states and we were able to improve the balance to 40% women and 60% men. And it shows that — as much as we have achieved — there is still so much more work to do,” von der Leyen said.
If she could not get full gender parity in numbers, von der Leyen made sure they were more than well represented in the top jobs.
After days of secret talks with individual European governments about their picks, von der Leyen huddled with the leaders of the political groups at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, to discuss the makeup of her college before making the final announcement.
Now attention will center on the hearings in the European Parliament, where each candidate can be rejected to force a member state to put another candidate forward.
All eyes are expected to be on Fitto.
Greens lawmaker Rasmus Andresen said the appointment of Fitto, a representative of a far-right party, to the post of executive vice president of the Commission is “completely incomprehensible.”
“Can an anti-European manage EU funds,” Andresen asked.
However, von der Leyen said the Commission team had to reflect Italy's weight as a founding member and major economy.
"The importance of Italy is reflected in the portfolio and the executive vice president. And I think the balance is also very well kept,” von der Leyen said.
Even if the Commission's makeup has hardly become the talk of bar rooms or barber shops across the vast EU of 450 million people, it has enthralled the upper echelons of politics and bureaucracy, as they sought to boost one candidate or undermine another.
The Commission proposes legislation for the EU’s 27 member countries and ensures that the rules governing the world’s biggest trading bloc are respected. It’s made up of a College of Commissioners with a range of portfolios similar to those of government ministers, including agriculture, economic, competition, security and migration policy.
The Commission is to start work on Nov. 1, but speculation is rife that it might not get down to business before January.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presents her new team for her next five-year tenure at the head of the bloc, during a press conference at the European Parliament, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Strasbourg. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presents her new team for her next five-year tenure at the head of the bloc, during a press conference at the European Parliament, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Strasbourg. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presents her new team for the next five-year, during a press conference at the European Parliament, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Strasbourg. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives for a session at the European Parliament, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 in Strasbourg. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presents her new team for her next five-year tenure at the head of the bloc, during a press conference at the European Parliament, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Strasbourg.(AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, left, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, talk prior to the start of a session at the European Parliament, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 in Strasbourg. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
FILE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, second right, speaks with from left, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton and European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi during a meeting of the College of Commissioners at EU headquarters in Brussels, on June 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)
