The Football Analytics Show by The Power Rank and Ed Feng

Rob Pizzola, professional sports bettor and partner at BetStamp, joins the show for a wide ranging conversation on NFL betting. He describes how his betting has evolved over the years and the most important model he uses in 2021. Rob breaks down Arizona, Las Vegas and the Los Angeles Chargers before providing a bet that he likes for week 5. Along the way, he talks about the QB and head coach duo that he's excited about, the defense that might be the NFL's worst, and the strange way in which running backs matter.

Dr. Eric Eager, Vice President of Research and Development at PFF, joins the show to talk about football analytics. Eric talks about early insights from the player grades that PFF creates by watching every play of every game. He also describes two of his recent studies: how offensive line continuity affects the point spread and how to better predict sacks and interceptions. Eric also discusses whether rushing actually matters in the NFL and the betting value on two week 3 NFL games.

Preston Johnson, professional sports bettor, joins the show to talk about college football and the NFL. He outlines how he uses analytics and market data in his betting process. In college football, he talks about Ohio State, Michigan, USC and UCLA. In the NFL, Preston discusses how to react to one week of games and adjustments he has made to teams like Jacksonville and the Los Angeles Rams. Preston also shares a college football and NFL bet he likes and describes his new media venture BetsTV.

Dr. Ben Baldwin, football analytics expert and writer for The Athletic, joins the show to talk about the NFL. He describes his amazing site rbsdm.com, how it came about and the passing tendencies and QB statistics that it displays. Then Ben breaks down Seattle, the team he covers for The Athletic, and their rivals in the NFC West (Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco, Arizona). Finally, he gives a surprising prediction for the 2021 season.

To predict which NFL quarterbacks will succeed in 2021, Edward Egros looks at metrics such as expected points added. In particular, he looks at the depth of throw that matters most in predicting a QB's overall performance.

Ed Feng breaks down college football's most interesting division. While Ohio State has dominated in the past, Penn State and Michigan should rebound from awful 2020 seasons. In addition, Indiana might be the most interesting team in the division.

Analytics suggests two simple ways to make an NFL offense more efficient. First, call more play action. Second, throw on early downs in neutral game situations. Ed Feng looks at how one Super Bowl contender has evolved in these two areas as well as other aspects of the team.

The transfer portal gives college football teams a way to add proven players. Edward Egros quantifies the relationship of talent obtained through the transfer portal and winning, and then looks at how certain transfers could impact USC, Texas, Georgia and SMU.

While a previous episode of this preview series looked at interceptions, this episode reveals another critical area in which NFL quarterbacks play a role. Tom Brady and Drew Lock show the skill that you might have thought depended entirely on the offensive line.

Ed Feng uses his market preseason rankings and other factors to identify 3 overrated teams in the preseason AP college football poll. He ends with thoughts on how these predictions can go awry and the differing market opinion on conferences.