Look at baseball, with its defensive shifts - outfielders looking at cards on the field much like a quarterback would. It's possible that someday defensive backs will be playing with similar cards based on where receivers are lined up and what those receivers' route-running strengths are. The possibilities are endless.

I imagine pretty much every analytics guy in football has offered a suggestion based on data, and the coach has probably gone a different way because of momentum or because he just doesn't trust the spreadsheet.

The difference between football and baseball is that pretty much every possible situation in baseball has probably happened by now, maybe thousands of times over the years.

Tony Khan Quotes