Dating back to the days of Tom Coughlin, the New York Giants have been a bit behind the times as it relates to technology and analytics. There had been some hope things would change under former general manager Dave Gettleman, but that optimism vanished with a laugh.
Renewed hope has now arrived in East Rutherford, however. The newly hired tandem of general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll come from the Buffalo Bills, where “analytics” was more than just the word of the day.
The Giants officially announced the hire of Harvard graduate Cade Knox on Wednesday, giving him the title of offensive quality control coach. He will be in the booth on game day and will have a direct line of communication to Daboll.
“We used that heavily (in Buffalo),” Daboll said, via Giants press release. “It’s a part of the process. It’s a tool to use. As a Harvard graduate who played quarterback and moved to receiver, (Knox) was working in the analytics room. I’d say we have a number of people back there who are highly, highly intelligent in that area who were there before me. I sat down and talked to a variety of them. Cade played quarterback, played receiver, very, very smart, so he’ll be up in the box during the game. He’ll have a headset on.
“You do a lot of planning. (Game management decisions) are not spur of the moment. What we did in Buffalo is similar to what we’ll do here, Friday meetings and Thursday meetings on a lot of different situations and scenarios that come up. You never know when they’re going to come up and you have to make split-second decisions. It’s always good to have a voice that is there with you in the heat of the process when you are doing other things, too. He is an impressive young man.”
But the Giants’ analytical implementation and introduction of new technology will not end there.
In addition to the hiring of Knox and expanding the analytics department, the Giants will focus heavily on updating the outdated technology throughout team facilities in East Rutherford, including MetLife Stadium.
While speaking with John Schmeelk at the NFL Combine earlier this week, Schoen revealed that the Giants are creating a new digital technology called “One Stop Shop.” Essentially, it’s a hub complete with film and evaluation data that allows the organization to keep all information centrally located and accessible with a single touch.
“One Stop Shop” will replace the magnet boards and paper left over from the Gettleman era.
Joe Schoen on what technology he is adding and what the Giants are going to be using during the draft process pic.twitter.com/Kp446aZGoV
— Justin Penik (@JustinPenik) March 1, 2022
“We’re working on developing a digital draft board right now where it’s a one-stop shop. And if we click on a player on our board, we can bring up anything from the Senior Bowl film, their school film, the scouts grades and what the analytics people say about them. Anything we want. We call it ‘One Stop Shop.’ And we can bring up the coaches evaluations as well,” Schoen said.
Schoen also notes that the Giants will increase and expand the use of GPS data. Not only will they continue using it with their own players throughout the year — something that began under Coughlin — but they will now have a system in place where they can acquire and upload past GPS data for college prospects.
“It’s a resource that we’re going to use. We contact schools and try to (acquire) the practice data and game data,” Schoen said. “If anything is going to give us a competitive advantage, we’re going to try to utilize it the best we can.”
The Giants will continue updating and expanding their internal technology leading up to April’s draft and then reevaluate and continue that expansion come May.
