NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans have hired their first official analytics employee, adding Matt Iammarino as assistant developer, analytical football research to Jon Robinson’s player personnel department.
Iammarino will help with the team's scouting database development and some analytical and statistical research.
While it's not a huge role by any means, his hiring marks a milestone for the Titans, who were the one team in the NFL without anyone with an analytics title. [Unlocked]
Mike Vrabel has done some excellent analytics work with the aide of John Streicher, coordinator of football development.
The Titans intentionally took a too-many-men on the field penalty, for example, against the Jets in 2018 that helped the Titans beneficially time out the clock for an end-of-game scenario.
But the Titans also punted from the Ravens’ 40 yard-line late in the January playoff loss at Nissan Stadium in a decision that was tough to comprehend.
TEN decided to punt to BAL from the BAL 40 on 4th & 2 with 10:06 remaining in the 4th while losing 13 to 17.
— Surrender Index 90 (@surrender_idx90) January 10, 2021
With a Surrender Index of 138.87, this punt ranks at the 100th percentile of cowardly punts of the 2020 season, and the 99.92nd percentile of all punts since 2009.
It unclear if a young guy in Robinson's department will have any connection with Vrabel and the coaching staff regarding game-day decisions. But I'd venture a guess it's unlikely.
Still, even a low-ranking hire in personnel marks at least a small change in thinking in one department in an area where the NFL has access to a huge amount of information.
The Titans have not seemed to dedicate in-house resources to that data on the same level as much of their competition.
Iammarino has a computer science degree from Denison University, where he played receiver, and a masters in computer science from Illinois Urbana-Champagne.
He previously worked as a stats recorder for Denison Sports Network and a software developer for RoviSys.
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