Next Generation Stats, or simply Next Gen Stats (NGS), refers to data collected by the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) and the advanced statistics drawn from that data. Going beyond the standard statistics recorded in NFL games (such as passing yards, rushing touchdowns, or interceptions), NGS data instead focuses on advanced statistics, with raw data collected being used to "automate player participation reports, calculate performance metrics, and derive advanced statistics".

History

The 2011 NFL collective bargaining agreement saw players agree to having their on-field location and health metrics tracked. Next Gen Stats was developed by the NFL in partnership with

Zebra Technologies Zebra Technologies Corporation is an American mobile computing company specializing in technology used to sense, analyze, and act in real time. The company manufactures and sells marking, tracking, and computer printing technologies. Its produc ...

and

Wilson Sporting Goods The Wilson Sporting Goods Company is an American sports equipment manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois. Wilson makes equipment for many sports, among them baseball, badminton, American football, basketball, fastpitch softball, golf, racquetball ...

. The former is the NFL's official player tracking partner, with the partnership beginning in 2014. NGS data collection runs on

Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...

(AWS) infrastructure, as well. NGS are recorded using sensors worn by players during each game. An example of raw data collected by NGS includes a

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

's real-time speed, acceleration, and route paths are tracked by Next Gen. Zebra described 2014 as a "best effort" year, with that season seeing the introduction of location beacons embedded in each player's shoulder pads, as well as referees and

first down A down in gridiron football is an attempt by the offensive team to run a play to advance the ball, while the defending team simultaneously attempts to halt their advance. The down is a distinguishing characteristic of the game compared to othe ...

measuring sticks also being equipped with

radio-frequency identification Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically Automatic identification system, identify and Tracking system, track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, ...

(RFID) tags. Zebra's MotionWorks RFID system was installed in 18 NFL stadiums during the 2014 season to track vector data. At the time, there was a half-second latency and a margin of error of less than six inches; the ball was noted by ''

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'' as the only "untracked entity on the field". They worked on a custom transmitter with a wider weight distribution. Eventually, every NFL venue had a tracker system installed, composed of: "20–30 ultra-wide band receivers, 2–3

(RFID) tags installed into the players' shoulder pads, and RFID tags on officials,

pylons Pylon may refer to: Structures and boundaries * Pylon (architecture), the gateway to the inner part of an Ancient Egyptian temple or Christian cathedral * Pylon, a support tower structure for suspension bridges or highways * Pylon, an orange mar ...

, sticks,

chains A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A ...

, and in the ball". In 2015,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

included "Next Gen Replay" as a feature on its NFL

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

for the

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

and

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

devices. NFL.com writers have referred to seasons since

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

as the "Next Gen era". NGS developed a new passing metric in 2022, aimed to convey a passer's contributions better than similar metrics such as

passer rating Passer rating (also known as passing efficiency in college football) is a measure of the performance of passers, primarily quarterbacks, in gridiron football. There are two formulas currently in use: one used by both the National Football Leagu ...

Machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

tools are used as part of AWS' role in NGS data collection, helping generate new metrics, such as the 2024 introductions of the "Tackle Probability" and "Offensive Shift and Motion Classification" stats. The NFL's broadcast partners, of which

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

is one, utilize and reference Next Gen Stats in their broadcasts.

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, for example, has used Next Gen Stats in their "RomoVision" visuals on ''

NFL on CBS ''NFL on CBS'' is an American television sports presentation show broadcast by CBS. It aired from September 30, 1956 to January 23, 1994. The show returned since September 6, 1998. The branding is used for the presentation of the National Foot ...

'' broadcasts. NGS data has been cited by sports media outlets such as

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

, and ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'', among others. Next Gen Stats were also included in the ''

Madden NFL 21 ''Madden NFL 21'' is an American football video game based on the National Football League (NFL), developed by EA Tiburon and published by Electronic Arts. It is an installment of the long-running ''Madden NFL'' series. It was released for Micros ...

'' video game.

Statistics tracked

The following statistics are tracked by NGS: ;Passing *Time To Throw (TT) *Average Completed Air Yards (CAY) and Average Intended Air Yards (IAY) *Average Air Yards Differential (AYD) *Longest Completed Air Distance (LCAD) *Aggressiveness (AGG%) *Air Yards to the Sticks (AYTS) *Completion Probability *Expected Completion Percentage (xCOMP) *Completion Percentage Above Expectation (+/-) ;Rushing *Efficiency (EFF) *8+ Defenders in the Box (8+D%) *Avg Time Behind Line Of Scrimmage (TLOS) ;Receiving *Average Cushion (CUSH) *Average Separation (SEP) *Average Targeted Air Yards (TAY) *% Share of Team's Air Yards (TAY%) *

Yards After Catch Yards after catch (YAC) is a gridiron football statistical measure of the distance gained by a receiver after catching a pass. Specifically, it is the forward yardage gained from the spot of the reception until the receiver is downed, runs out of ...

(YAC) *Expected Yards After Catch (xYAC) *YAC Above Expectation (+/-) ;Top Plays *Fastest Ball Carriers *Longest Plays (Ball Carriers) *Fastest Sacks *Longest Tackles ;Other *Tackle Probability *Offensive Shift and Motion Classification

Notes

References

External links

Official website
Amazon Web Services American football terminology History of the NFL Thursday Night Football {{Gridiron football concepts