How The Nfl Gave The Combine A Data Makeover Cio Dive

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Oct 31, 2025, 3:40 PM

how the nfl gave the combine a data makeover cio dive

The league is leaning on AWS to up its analytics game and give teams and fans better insights during the player showcase this week. The National Football League is hosting hundreds of aspiring players this week, offering them a chance to showcase their skills as part of the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine. During the four-day interview process, which kicked off Thursday, teams will evaluate player performance across the 40-yard dash, a series of jumps and several drills. Each test yields mountains of data points, which teams analyze to decide who they’ll draft in April. But traditional data tracking capabilities lack the necessary context for thorough player evaluations. “The Combine itself can be monotonous reporting of data points, but if you look deeper into the data and connect certain dots, you see patterns,” Mike Band, senior manager of NFL Next Gen Stats...

“You don’t have to be the fastest player, but you got to be fast enough.” Using Amazon QuickSight, an AI-powered service, the NFL and AWS developed the Combine IQ dashboard, which debuted Thursday, to visualize data for fans and analysts. The dashboard showcases comparative player rankings and Draft Scores, created in partnership with AWS to measure player athleticism and provide insight into a player’s potential success in the NFL using historical comparisons and position-specific... When prospects take the field at this year’s National Football League (NFL) Combine February 27–March 3 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, they won’t perform only for scouts in the stands—they will generate... The NFL’s Next Gen Stats Combine IQ system, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Amazon QuickSight, represents a breakthrough in how to capture, visualize, and analyze athletic performance data in near real time. The Next Gen Stats team developed the Combine IQ system to interpret the waves of athletic performance data collected at the NFL Combine.

Draft Score incorporates real-time performance data, historical performance comparisons, and position-specific benchmarks to convert granular statistics into player ratings ranging from 50 to 99. These ratings specifically measure player athleticism and analyze how those attributes will contribute to potential success in the NFL, providing a sophisticated complement to traditional prospect evaluation methods. “For the first time ever, the public will have access to the summary statistics of Combine tracking data through this tool,” explains Mike Band, who leads the NFL’s Next Gen Stats analytics team. “This is the third consecutive year of data collection derived from sensors worn by participants at the Combine. We feel really good and confident about the data we’re capturing, and we can create experiences that allow fans to follow along with that tracking data.” The challenge facing Band’s team wasn’t simply collecting prospect data—it was making it accessible and meaningful for fans worldwide and making it easier for leagues to apply it to recruiting decisions.

The traditional NFL.com Combine tracker has long been a popular destination, but its capabilities were limited to basic sorting and filtering of standard drill results. The new Combine IQ dashboard powered by AWS represents a fundamental reimagining of how to explore and interpret Combine data. The system processes an extraordinary amount of data for dashboard display. During previous Combines, only a handful of measurements per player were captured—things like 40-yard dash times and vertical jump heights. The new system tracks player movement data every tenth of a second during drills, using sensors worn by each player. This exponential increase in data granularity required a completely new approach to data visualization and analysis.

At the NFL Combine, scouts and coaches struggled to access timely, actionable insights during live drills, making it harder to evaluate talent and build accurate draft boards across more than 300 elite prospects. The NFL added an AI assistant to its existing Combine App, using Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Container Apps, and Azure Cosmos DB to deliver fast, accurate answers to natural language questions in real time. Teams now get real-time insights in seconds, helping coaches and scouts evaluate talent faster—even while athletes are still on the field. Each year, the NFL Combine brings together coaches and scouts from its 32 clubs to evaluate the talent and performance data of more than 300 of the best athletes in the world. The decisions made at the Combine shape the future of football clubs and players alike. Delays or oversights during the event can come with a cost.

The need to speed access to data and insights within the existing NFL Combine App drove the latest evolution of the app, which has supported clubs at Combine for several seasons. The addition of an AI assistant, designed to allow scouts and coaches to get instantaneous player insights and ask their questions with common Combine vernacular, marked a major leap forward. Posted by Aurora Bardot | Feb 27, 2025 | Datacenter News | 0 | The NFL’s Data-Driven Transformation of the Combine represents a significant evolution in how player evaluations are conducted, leveraging advanced analytics and technology to enhance the scouting process. Traditionally viewed as a showcase of athletic prowess, the Combine has increasingly integrated data analytics to provide deeper insights into player performance, biomechanics, and potential fit within team strategies. This transformation not only improves the accuracy of assessments but also helps teams make more informed decisions, ultimately reshaping the landscape of talent acquisition in professional football.

By harnessing the power of data, the NFL is setting a new standard for evaluating prospects, ensuring that teams can identify and cultivate the best talent in an increasingly competitive environment. The NFL Combine has long been a pivotal event in the professional football calendar, serving as a showcase for college athletes aspiring to make their mark in the league. Traditionally, the Combine focused on physical performance metrics, such as the 40-yard dash, bench press, and vertical jump. However, in recent years, the landscape of the Combine has undergone a significant transformation, driven by the increasing integration of data analytics into the evaluation process. This evolution reflects a broader trend within the NFL, where teams are increasingly relying on data to inform their decisions, from player recruitment to game strategy. As teams have begun to recognize the limitations of traditional metrics, they have sought to enhance their evaluation processes through advanced analytics.

This shift has been facilitated by the advent of sophisticated tracking technologies, which allow for the collection of a wealth of data during the Combine. For instance, wearable devices and high-definition cameras now capture players’ movements with remarkable precision, providing insights into their speed, agility, and overall athleticism. This data not only enriches the understanding of a player’s physical capabilities but also enables teams to compare prospects more effectively against historical performance benchmarks. Moreover, the integration of analytics has led to a more nuanced understanding of player potential. Teams are no longer solely focused on raw athleticism; they are also considering factors such as biomechanics and cognitive performance. By analyzing how players move and react under pressure, teams can gain insights into their decision-making abilities and mental resilience.

This holistic approach to player evaluation is indicative of a broader shift in the NFL, where the emphasis is increasingly placed on understanding the intricacies of player performance rather than relying solely on traditional... CHEYENNE—As the future of SNAP benefits, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is up in the air amid the federal government shutdown, Wyoming lawmakers are looking to update the program by prohibiting... GLP-1–based medicines now dominate diabetes and medical weight-loss headlines—but they’re not all the same. Some are approved for type 2 diabetes only, others for chronic weight management, and a few carry cardiovascular-risk reduction claims. Forever Paws Animal Shelter, a nonprofit rescue organization in Massachusetts, is offering a reduced adoption fee for Peanut, a 12-year-old dog weighing less than 10 pounds who is looking for her forever home. The shelter describes the tiny senior as "ready to be your best friend" and an ideal companion for someone seeking a small, affectionate pet.

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Players are defined by their 40 time. Xavier Worthy’s record-setting 4.21 seconds last year, for example, boosted his draft stock last year. Tom Brady infamously ran a 5.28, a slow mark that obviously didn’t hinder his chances of stardom but may have contributed to his being picked 199th that year. NFL scouts and general managers have long known to look beyond those single metrics, and beginning with the start of on-field activities at this year’s Combine, fans will be able to do so, too. Combine IQ, a public-facing Next Gen Stats dashboard built in collaboration with AWS, will not only dissect 40 times more granularly but also examine composite metrics based on all the combine events, as well... “It’s the idea of imagining what an NFL front office would do to create a prospect forecasting model to predict who’s going to be good at next level,” said Mike Band, Sr.

Manager of NFL Next Gen Stats Research & Analytics. Combine IQ was built with Amazon QuickSight, an AI-enabled tool for building business intelligence dashboards. This idea went from conception to production in about three months, which “would not be possible without a front end system like QuickSight,” Band added. by Ari Entin on 27 FEB 2025 in Amazon Quick Sight, Analytics, Customer Solutions, Data Science & Analytics for Media, Featured, Industries, Media & Entertainment, Sports Permalink Comments Share When prospects take the field at this year’s National Football League (NFL) Combine February 27–March 3 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, they won’t perform only for scouts in the stands—they will generate... The NFL’s Next Gen Stats Combine IQ system, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Amazon Quick Sight, represents a breakthrough in how to capture, visualize, and analyze athletic performance data in near real...

The Next Gen Stats team developed the Combine IQ system to interpret the waves of athletic performance data collected at the NFL Combine. Draft Score incorporates real-time performance data, historical performance comparisons, and position-specific benchmarks to convert granular statistics into player ratings ranging from 50 to 99. These ratings specifically measure player athleticism and analyze how those attributes will contribute to potential success in the NFL, providing a sophisticated complement to traditional prospect evaluation methods. “For the first time ever, the public will have access to the summary statistics of Combine tracking data through this tool,” explains Mike Band, who leads the NFL’s Next Gen Stats analytics team. “This is the third consecutive year of data collection derived from sensors worn by participants at the Combine. We feel really good and confident about the data we’re capturing, and we can create experiences that allow fans to follow along with that tracking data.”

The challenge facing Band’s team wasn’t simply collecting prospect data—it was making it accessible and meaningful for fans worldwide and making it easier for leagues to apply it to recruiting decisions. The traditional NFL.com Combine tracker has long been a popular destination, but its capabilities were limited to basic sorting and filtering of standard drill results. The new Combine IQ dashboard powered by AWS represents a fundamental reimagining of how to explore and interpret Combine data. Every year, the National Football League (NFL) Scouting Combine brings together hundreds of the most promising college football prospects to showcase their abilities through a series of physical and mental tests. While individual drill results—like 40-yard dash times or bench press repetitions—provide valuable data points, synthesizing this information into actionable insights presents a significant challenge. To interpret data captured at the Combine, the NFL Next Gen Stats (NGS) team developed Draft Score, built on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

How The Nfl Gave The Combine A Data Makeover Cio Dive

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