Decision Lens, Dorsey and the Draft

[Saccopoo]

After two interesting drafts, I'm fully convinced that Dorsey gives a lot of credence to this software in his personnel decisions.

Dorsey on using the Decision Lens software for player evaluations/decisions:

"I used Decision Lens in Green Bay and I've brought it to Kansas City because I view it as a game changer for identifying and analyzing talent," said John Dorsey, General Manager of the Kansas City Chiefs. "The Decision Lens solution helps us add analytics to complement and test our assumptions and really focus on the key trade-offs inherent in every personnel decision."

Decision Lens giving you a rough concept of what the software does:

Decision Lens is helping NFL teams like the Kansas City Chiefs, as well as a number of other teams across the NFL, MLB, and NHL, to do just that. By mixing raw data with expert opinions from coaches and scouts, Decision Lens helps teams prioritize the players that are best for THEM come draft day. With the amount of data that is now collected about players, it is difficult to know where to start. By applying a scientifically-based approach to player selection and defining which criteria are most important to an organization, teams can run various scenarios real-time to see which players rise to the top and which become less desirable. The Chiefs will use Decision Lens to pinpoint good players who may have slipped through the cracks or, conversely, recognize that a player they think is near the top of their list actually has some important flaws.

Decision Lens is now being used in the NFL to help
teams guide player selection decisions for supporting draft
decisions, as well as for making business decisions at the
administrative levels.

By bringing together the judgments and priorities
of the coaching and scouting staffs and personnel
executives, organizations can develop player rankings
based on what is important to their team.

Rank potential player candidates using both
quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria:
- Physical attributes: speed, height, weight etc.
- Intangibles: fit with team, big play ability,
leadership etc.
- Stats and performance: TDs, career receptions, etc.
- Character: attitude, work ethic, personal history, etc

Perform “what-if” analysis on-the-fly during the NFL
draft as team dynamics and the draft board changes

Accurately track performance and value of players from
pre-draft workouts through their playing career

The real power of the software is in its dynamic
sensitivity capability which allows teams to first
quantitatively prioritize criteria—both tangible and
intangible measures—and then dynamically change the
priorities of criteria to see the impact on the overall
ratings of all of the candidates for a position. The result
of the process is a list of prioritized players by position
that can then be evaluated against actual performance
data to improve understanding of drivers to performance
by position.

The model enables decision-makers to have more
informed trade-off conversations as they prepare for the
draft through a process called pairwise comparisons.
Using wireless keypads, decision makers compare criteria
and ultimately derive priorities through comparisons
weighted based on the level of influence of various
decision makers in the organization.