Amazon Web Services (AWS)’s Post

In football, no position is harder to evaluate than a defensive back 🏈 An NFL team runs about 60 plays a game, half of them passes. Yet the average cornerback is only targeted 4–5 times. Across a season, that’s fewer than 100 measurable plays, out of more than a thousand. Positions like quarterbacks and running backs live in a stat-rich world, but corners are judged mostly by rare interceptions or breakups. Their best plays are often the ones quarterbacks never throw toward. That’s why NFL Next Gen Stats and Amazon Web Services (AWS) created Coverage Responsibility. Using tracking chips and machine learning, the stat identifies who was responsible for covering a receiver at every 0.1 second interval, making the invisible work of the position visible. 🚫 You can now better quantify shutdown corners, where Pat Surtain II leads the league with the lowest target rate in man coverage (12.2%), while also taking on WR1s more than a third of the time. 👯 Or track the stickiest defenders like Trent McDuffie, who tops the league with over six minutes in tight coverage less than 1 yard from the receiver, compared to a league average just over three. 2️⃣ You can also flip to the other side of the ball and identify the most smothered receivers like Ja’Marr Chase, who has been doubled-covered 36 times since the start of last season, most in the NFL. Coverage Responsibility started as an idea in the NFL Big Data Bowl. Now it’s part of the official Next Gen Stats arsenal, designed not to overwhelm fans with numbers, but to explain the game in clearer ways. Follow SportsBall for more sports data visualizations 📊