According to Pro Football Focus, the Cleveland Browns are the top-graded overall team through the first four weeks of the season, with a sparkling 89.1 grade and a top-four grade in both offense and defense. Football Outsiders is also high on the Browns’ performance thus far, ranking them fourth overall and giving them an “A” grade.
Perhaps it makes sense, then, that these analytical high marks were given to the team that is perceived as the most analytically advanced franchise there is.
ESPN’s annual NFL analytics survey, which polls analytics staffers across the league, has Cleveland winning in a clean sweep across all analytics categories. With 22 total respondents, here are how many gave the Browns the nod for each of the three questions:
— Which NFL Team is the most analytically advanced? (17)
— Which team produces the highest level of analytics work? (14)
— Which team most incorporates analytics into its decision-making? (11)
The Baltimore Ravens finished as the runner-up in each of the three questions, with the Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles as the only other teams drawing multiple votes in at least one of the categories.
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One NFC analytics employee described the Browns as “making best use of resources and making every effort to gain a competitive advantage through analytics, so hearing it was a runaway was not too surprising.” An AFC counterpart praised GM Andrew Berry, crediting him for “a very unique combination of people skills [and] general intelligence” while also noting that he’s a trained NFL scout.
One respondent agreed with the analysis of Berry’s analytics know-how but suggested that Stefanski wasn’t the most committed of all the coaches.
"Andrew Berry leads the NFL in terms of acceptance and adoption of analytics. On the coaching side, John Harbaugh has the most buy-in," wrote the survey-taker.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Browns VP of Football Operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah that received the most votes regarding which league analytics employee would become a general manager first.
On the other side of the spectrum, the Titans were voted as the least analytically advanced by nearly 40 percent of the participants, while the Bengals, Washington Football Team and Raiders all drew multiple votes.
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