Bills turn to their version of Moneyball

Bills president Russ Brandon said the team will introduce a ‘robust football analytics program’ this year.  (US Presswire)

Buddy Nix, meet ... Billy Beane?

In one of the more interesting subplots from Buffalo’s press conference Tuesday -- where CEO Russ Brandon was named team president, assuming full control of day-to-day operations from owner Ralph Wilson, Jr. -- the Bills announced that they would be introducing a “robust football analytics program.” 

In other words, the Bills will be tackling their own version of Moneyball starting in 2013.

Statistics-based analysis isn’t new to the world of professional sports, but it’s relatively new to the world of football. It’s begun to pick up speed the past year or so -- the Baltimore Ravens hired a director of analytics in August, and the Jacksonville Jaguars created a football technology and analytics group in the summer. At a recent press conference, Chicago Bears GM Phil Emery went into great detail about his stat-based analysis regarding the team’s woes along the offensive line.

Brandon has some experience in this area due to his time in baseball, where he was the Florida Marlins’ executive director of business development and marketing before joining the Bills in 1997.

“I was fortunate to be around some great people in baseball as well, when I was playing but also when I was in the administrative side,” Brandon said. "And (Detroit Tigers president and former Marlins president) Dave Dombrowski is someone that when I was first starting out was a big-time mentor to me. Dave was all about scouting, and he was also about layering in the analytics to what the game presented. We’ve seen it in the NBA. We’ve seen it more in baseball. It’s starting to roost its head a little bit in football, and I feel we’re missing the target if we don’t invest in that area of our operation, and we will. Jim Overdorf does a great job as our lead negotiator in managing the salary cap, and we will sit down and really focus on layering that option into our football operation.”

The addition of an analytics department will be a change for Nix, Buffalo’s 73-year-old GM -- but it also helps reinforce the notion that the Bills are trying to move in a new, younger direction and become a more efficient operation.

“You know, obviously, I'm old school in more ways than one,” Nix said. “It'll be something I'll have to get used to because I go a lot on feel and what I see.”