Hut, Hut, Hike: How this NFL team uses AWS to choose the right draft pick

Tonight, grab a beverage, some chicken wings, and your best dip after work, as it's time for one of the most anticipated nights in American football: the 2023 NFL Draft. When you're watching your favorite free agent or college player take their chance to shake hands with the commissioner, let's look at how the drafting process works.

Every year, the 32 teams compete in the regular season, and the last-place team gets the first pick, while the first-place team gets the last pick. 

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Traditionally, scouts, coaches, general managers, and team owners would parse through reports and datasets stored in multiple databases and devices to create analytics reports on college players, free agents, and rookie minicamp players. 

But now, to ensure teams find the right players at the right time, teams like the Seattle Seahawks are ditching traditional methods of crunching player data and leaning toward the future of drafting with the help of Amazon Web Services (AWS). 

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Once those datasets are crunched, teams decide which players are on their draft wish list. But teams are on the clock during the draft and only have a set amount of time to decide which player they would like to draft.

So, NFL teams' compiled player data must be precise and accurate to determine their best draft picks. The right choices could lead them to a championship ring. 

Hundreds of players around the country aren't in the league but are coming up on expired college eligibility and choosing to enter the draft. And there are only so many scouts that can keep their eyes on players from high school ball.

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In a press release, Patrick Ward, Seahawks' head of research and analytics said “…[W]ith AWS, we can run models against all players and identify unique guys that stand out or bring people into the fold that haven't gotten the same amount of evaluation as other players — because they played at a smaller school or played in a smaller program,” .

The Seahawks use AWS technologies to consolidate their data into a single data lake instead of having multiple data streams in different databases. AWS offers the Seahawks personalized web applications that can show them exceptional player data in one place. 

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According to Ward, data analysts at the Seahawks use systems that can aggregate data from every single potential draftee and use the data to compare talent and create a ranking list for prospective players. They use data to create an educated guess on what type of NFL player a player has the potential to be and make a decision based on the data sets.

In this year's draft, the Seahawks have two first-round picks, including the number five overall pick. So, while watching the draft, consider how many datasets contributed to teams making certain decisions.

The NFL Draft begins on April 27 and will conclude on April 29.