Last week, we debuted an approach to understanding NFL prospects using text analytics on their scouting reports. Using the awesome resource that is Dane Brugler’s draft guides from 2015 to the present, we went through and derived a similarity score between every pair of prospects during that time frame.
Once these similarity scores were computed, we looked at early-career WAR for each comparable player and weighted them by the similarity in their scouting reports. If a player is a close comp to a player who produced well on his rookie deal, the score would go higher. Similarly, if the same thing would happen if a player was a far away comp to a player who played poorly.
Here, we provide a ranking using this approach for the top offensive tackles in the 2020 NFL Draft, along with some under-the-radar players the method likes. Enjoy!
[Editor’s note: Check out PFF’s 2020 Mock Draft Hub, NFL Draft Big Board and NFL Mock Draft Simulator. PFF Elite subscribers can also download the 1,250-page 2020 NFL Draft Guide.]
Ben Bartch, St. John's
In many ways, players from Division II or III are going to require traditional scouting more than most, as the data is difficult to adjust when the competition is more singular. Bartch was terrific during Senior Bowl week and has top comps via text analytics, such as Andre Dillard, Jason Spriggs, Greg Little, Laremy Tunsil, Ryan Ramczyk and Kaleb McGary.
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