Tools of the Trade

It is currently 104 degrees outside as I write this article. Tomorrow is going to be 106. I really enjoy living in northern California most of the time, after growing up in Kansas. Triple digit temperatures are rough, though. Even if it is a dry heat. This is the time of year when all my will to do and accomplish things is completely sapped by the heat.

Football has also released its grasp on me. I suppose there are some OTA’s and a minicamp happening in the next couple weeks, neither of those really excite me at all. That makes this a very dull time to be a football fan. It is brutally hot, everyone is cranky, I have no energy or drive, and my favorite outlet (football) is off being dull and boring.

With that in mind, I have decided to reprise a series I did last year, Tools of the Trade. In that series, I went through several different football websites that many of you might not have known. I often use these websites when collecting data for my articles, or just wanting to check a ranking or stat. In this article, I will do a review of last years’ series, and in the coming weeks, I will preview a few more sites I think are useful for football fans.

The first article in the series was on RBSDM.com, and it is one of my favorite sites. It is run by Ben Baldwin and Sebastian Carl. It uses the nflverse data that I typically use in my own graphics and apps. It summarizes stats like EPA, success rate, etc. It allows you to split stats out by rush or pass. It allows you to filter for just fourth downs if you want, or to filter out “garbage time” stats by using the sliders for win probability.