New England Patriots - NESN.com
Some NFL teams have embraced advanced analytics in recent years. The New England Patriots haven’t been one of them.
But that might be changing under new head coach Mike Vrabel.
The Patriots on Wednesday hired Ekene Olekanma to be their director of coaching analytics, per ESPN’s Seth Walder. Olekanma spent the last three seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, serving as the organization’s football research and development coordinator for the previous two years. Okleanma also spent a year with the Baltimore Ravens in 2021 as a coaching research and development analyst fellow.
Walder polled analytics staffers around the league in 2024 and the Patriots were viewed as one of the least analytically advanced teams in the NFL. Walder mentioned the Tennessee Titans were at the top of the least analytically advanced list in 2022, which is notable since Mike Vrabel was head coach for them at that time.
Walder noted that Vrabel built up Tennessee’s analytics department and he seems to be doing the same now with the Patriots.
Olekanma joins a Patriots analytics staff which includes director of research Richard Miller, director of football strategy Marshall Oium, and vice president of football operations and strategy John Streicher, per MassLive’s Mark Daniels. Streicher is one of Vrabel’s right-hand men.
Olekanma appears to have a good reputation as in Walder’s aforementioned survey he was seen as someone who could be a future NFL general manager.
