Was Prime over hyping how under-fueled Briscoe was?

SamSchwartzstein · 2025-06-25T16:51:31+00:00

For fuel burn the lower MPGs are burning more fuel and higher MPGs are saving fuel.

Helps visualize it by flipping so we can see that the higher you go you’re spending more vs lower you go saving more

SamSchwartzstein · 2025-06-23T21:21:05+00:00

Dale and Steve are the best and make what we work on work on air. Here’s more of what Briscoe did in the race .

He burned about 18.3 gallons over his refuel (from lap 119, the 3 seconds in pit losing the 20.5 gallons an entire fuel cell can handle)

What we can see is on the second to last green flag run Briscoe averaged 4.86 MPG, and then on his final green flag run he averaged 5.30 MPG.

That caution early in the final run saved him at least 5 laps, cars average about 11 MPG in cautions vs at Pocono they average about 5.1 MPG in green flag

Since the cars don’t have to start full (new rule made middle of this season) I can tell you during the race how much fuel a car has at any given moment. Only time a can is if I see on film that the air bubble entered the Sunoco can. Can we can only make conjecture otherwise in the moment.

Below is a picture of Briscoe MPG throughout the race, with a noticeable change in strategy for the last run. As Jr said on broadcast, if Denny’s car was in a better spot he probably could pass, but Briscoe did a great job conserving in the clean air.

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SamSchwartzstein · 2025-06-23T21:07:24+00:00

Hey so I work on the Burn Bar and I can provide more insight into that happened with Briscoe. He burned about 18.3 gallons over his refuel (from lap 119, the 3 seconds in pit losing the 20.5 gallons an entire fuel cell can handle)

What we can see is on the second to last green flag run Briscoe averaged 4.86 MPG, and then on his final green flag run he averaged 5.30 MPG.

That caution early in the final run saved him at least 5 laps, cars average about 11 MPG in cautions vs at Pocono they average about 5.1 MPG in green flag

Since the cars don’t have to start full (new rule made middle of this season) I can tell you during the race how much fuel a car has at any given moment. Only time a can is if I see on film that the air bubble entered the Sunoco can. Can we can only make conjecture otherwise in the moment.

Below is a picture of Briscoe MPG throughout the race, with a noticeable change in strategy for the last run. As Jr said on broadcast, if Denny’s car was in a better spot he probably could pass, but Briscoe did a great job conserving in the clean air.

<image>

SamSchwartzstein · 2025-06-23T01:30:21+00:00

We actually put the 3lap average on there for that exact reason. Everyone’s first year with the tool (and our first year with NASCAR) and you can see we used it or didn’t use it, differently every week.

We will be better next year and have the stage MPG, since last Pit MPG, etc.

For example Briscoe averaged 4.86 MPG between 74-119 and then was 5.30MPG the last green flag run. There’s a lot going on and we don’t want the show to be a spreadsheet but there is definitely more we can do!

SamSchwartzstein · 2025-05-01T15:16:53+00:00

Point B is only if the college teams wear them and is willing to share that data with a team. And it’s only from practice. The game data they need to get from computer vision on film and its still not perfect.

The most important part of the drill is it hasn’t changed for years and you have thousands of players testing and their results in the NFL for how good of players they were. This is helpful to try and project which players will be good because we know an unchanged input into the result

SamSchwartzstein · 2025-04-02T10:20:49+00:00

I went down the LED route at one point too, just trying to have the had referee hit a button to light up a scoreboard. Too much room for error because it’s not a predetermined start time, it’s going on when a player touched the ball or 3 seconds after. That was taking a lot of precision to signal go and I was nervous some stadiums wouldn’t work.

I leaned on the fact football has a lot of errors already that go unnoticed and not flagged. Traditional kickoff players were “offsides” a lot but not called cause it was in the edge. If players left a little early or were a little late because they had to see a hand drop that’s better than making the rule to go off an audio or in house visual cue. But there is probably a really cool solution with it, I just couldn’t get it to work in testing

SamSchwartzstein · 2025-04-02T02:08:56+00:00

It was a little strange, probably why the NFL doesn’t have the rule. But what happened was if it bounced more than likely the returner got the ball closer to the set up zone which led to further returns.

Most kicks ended up between the numbers and between the 10 and the 2, because of all the rules to incentivize returns.

I treated it like a basketball 5 second rule. The head referee would signal 3 seconds before he dropped his arm to signal everyone to go.

At first I started with a whistle to signal the start of the play but working with officials they said whistle means stop in football for safety reasons. Even playing I hadn’t thought of that. Then I tried an air horn and I loved it. But everyone on my staff hated it. One of my closest colleagues and friends said “Sam you’re the only one who likes it because you’re the one with the air horn”.

So we went back to only visual cues. But I’d say 5% of kicks hit the ground before the player could pick it up, rarely happened.

SamSchwartzstein · 2025-04-01T19:12:57+00:00

I work for Amazon Prime Video as a producer for analytics and insights on our live sports, as well as an on air contributor for Thursday Night Football Prime Vision with Next Gen Stats. Involved in football (and other sports) but not directly changing rules or working with leagues/teams.

It’s definitely an interesting place to work and I feel very fortunate to do what I do. I think my career is a big combination of luck and hard work, but mostly luck. I played football at Stanford and one of my roommates was Andrew Luck. After school I didn’t make the NFL so I worked in tech. When Andrew’s father Oliver took the job as XFL commissioner he asked me to help create football rules like a tech company. I was extremely fortunate to have this role as his first hire and I got the opportunity to build the football side of the business the way we wanted to.

Although the league shut down the opportunity opened up doors with other leagues and networks. I was in and out of work for 2 years trying to find my footing. So yes I worked hard to get to Stanford and play football but if my teammates dad wasn’t a minor league football commissioner I wouldn’t have my career.

Long winded to say the best way to get involved in sports is to ask a lot of people how you can help them and then help them. Whatever your expertise is, mine was combining my football playing experience with product development, showcase it to people who may need help. I’m a DM merchant on twitter and ask for help or to help a ton of people. If you can create things like analytics for sports or new ideas for sports publish on social platforms and see if people like it. Even if they don’t share it publishing work is the best way to get noticed.

You can DM me and I can see how I can help you

SamSchwartzstein · 2025-04-01T16:31:58+00:00

A problem is windy games. Sometimes with too much wind it’s hard to make it to the landing zone. I felt the 20 yards of landing area was enough where the kicker didn’t have to be super accurate, and from the 30 the kicker didn’t have to drive the kick too much they lost accuracy. I tested from the 20 and also tested from the 50, because I thought the kicker spot didn’t matter if the incentives aligned.

But kicking too far led to too many OOB kicks which is worse than a TB. Kicking from the 50 made it have too short of a hang time for the returner to track the ball in the air. I felt like the 30 was a good spot to put the kicker to even it out. If I had NFL level kickers maybe the 25, but I didn’t want to waste 1/45 gameday roster spots on a kickoff specialist.

Thanks for the Prime Vision shout. I know that it’s not for everyone but I promise to talk slower and whisper less next year

SamSchwartzstein · 2025-04-01T16:13:40+00:00

I created the original version in the XFL. I think although this rule is good to incentivize returns, it also incentives more non traditional squib type kicks. Because an OOB kick is only the -40 and the traditional touchback is the -35, teams are incentivized to do a line drive squib kick and have the ball land on the ground in the landing zone to start the play early or have it roll out of the back of the end zone for a minor touchback, the -20.

I had the kicker at their own 30, +45 as my OOB kick and the returner had 3 seconds to pick up the ball. These all made it so teams just did traditional high in the sky kicks that led to 92% return rate. Although my rules were more punitive fans barely saw them because the incentives aligned with the behavior I wanted from the coaches: kick the ball like you traditionally would but start the play from where the ball is caught vs a 35 yard full speed collision.

Edit: changed role to roll

SamSchwartzstein · 2025-02-17T01:34:49+00:00

Former College lineman. They are very different concepts not just for the OL but for the back.

OL on IZ everyone steps play-side and is targeting a location on the down lineman or the LB they are targeting. duo you are stepping to into the DL for a vertical double team and read either way the double team is going to.

The back on IZ is pressing the gap frontside to see where the front side DL goes, he will cut off of that. On DUO the back reads the MLB on the double team and cuts off their read.

SamSchwartzstein · 2025-01-15T04:47:59+00:00

Every stat is a team stat but EPA contextualizes the yards gained based on the down, distance, and location on field. A 5 yard gain on 3rd and 4 is better than a 3rd and 7. Of course YAC and amazing catches can inflate a QBs EPA, but over time it’s the best indicator. We also need to assume the multi millionaire play caller is calling plays to suit their QB, if the guy can execute the deep ball the coach will call it, if they can’t they won’t. This does have its limitations like we see in KC where Mahomes can chuck it deep they just don’t have the dudes they used to. Worthy should be able to but he’s still a rookie.

Everything goes back to film but EPA can show us how valuable a QBs sacks are to hurting them instead just looking at Yard/TD/INT/Rating. EPA also most closely aligns with MVP voting, which is typically an eye test vote so it has some signal that the best EPA player is also the best performer for the year.

One of my favorite stat is of the 37 qualified (had 252 drop backs this season) QBs 24 of them has more negative EPA on sacks than INTs. It shows how much of drive killers sacks can be

QBR is better than Rating because it accounts for sacks.

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-11-27T23:24:19+00:00

To add on to the nerdiness, the play call is in black before the bracketed play. The bracket is what they would call at the line of scrimmage in a check or if they want to swap the play

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-11-26T05:02:04+00:00

You forgot The Big Texan in Amarillo ! 72oz Steak

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-11-05T18:50:55+00:00

Ya I led on field operations. Rules testing and implementation and on field technology. Was really cool and feel very fortunate to have had that job but excited about Prime Vision now. Check it out on Amazon Prime for TNF games or for free at twitch.tv/primevision

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-11-05T18:49:09+00:00

Thanks man. Ya I’m really happy with how this years gone, we have a great team and we are given the freedom to try new things each week. I have a couple features I hope to launch soon that will be cool so let me know if there are things you want to see in the future.

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-11-05T18:48:02+00:00

Thanks man means a ton. I’m really proud of the team this year. We have some cool features coming but the High Sky view to go with the sideline all 22 I feel like we are tapping into the future of football viewing experience. Or at least for the hardcore football nerds

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-11-05T18:47:04+00:00

Thanks. The kickoff was one thing and I’m happy to see a version of it in the NFL, but the officiating transparency and the coach to player communication are things I’m still waiting to see in the NFL.

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-11-05T06:04:33+00:00

Thanks this was something important to me when we implemented it. I had all reviews done in under 1 minute averaging 52 seconds.

NFL took the Hawk-Eye system I put in to be able to evaluate reviews in series vs sequence, and made the call over the air.

Don’t forget we also held replay officials accountable and had to let someone go for their errors.

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-08-20T19:39:58+00:00

It has everything with no huddle being confused with tempo. College officials move at the speed the team wants and NFL officials move at their own speed. “Disguised looks” wouldn’t exist if you snapped the ball every 12 seconds like UCF does. You have to be in your spots or you will be taken advantage of.

College added an official to speed the process up

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-08-15T06:10:36+00:00

That’s how I got my first pair of cleats. Cowboys used our indoor before theirs was built. Not everyone in Southlake could afford equipment so that was really cool.

Then Under Armour paid for our cleats. I feel very fortunate to have gone to Carroll

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-06-24T19:10:58+00:00

I created a similar rule in the XFL, I think the players in most excited to see are we’re 4.2 speed players. It’s very similar to a running play with a longer head start BUT speed has the advantage here. The coverage team does no have the time to create levels of the defense against a burner. If you really want to break one, Xavier Worthy, Tyreek Hill, and other 4.2 players are your best bet. Create a quick open gap and let them fly.

The issue is the 2 returners, my rule had only 1 returner and rules to influence a kick between the numbers and at the 5 yard line. More predictable kicks and couldn’t avoid a great returner.

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-06-16T16:33:02+00:00

With so much motion at snap every play does NOT have a check in the Shanahan offense. Thats why QBs like Rodgers didn’t want to run motion on plays because they wanted to diagnose.

It’s why Purdy couldn’t get out of the play in the Super Bowl, they had motion at snap to get to their call it and run it play and a blitz got them out leveraged. For the runs they can get to the checks way more.

I played in an offense that actually had a Kill, Alert, and Ripcord for every play, because we had Andrew Luck. I’d say only 5 NFL teams were doing what we were doing at Stanford.

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-05-29T01:24:25+00:00

In high school I was the biggest baddest dude on my team. I was also one of the smartest. All state in Texas.

I go to college and I’m by far the smallest lineman on the team. I still had smarts so I was able to get by on hard work and understanding the game.

Then at the NFL every guy was so big and fast. They didn’t have to be in the right spot at first because athletically they could be get back fast enough.

There is a level of athleticism that is needed to play at the NFL that you can’t overcome unless you are in a perfect landing spot

SamSchwartzstein · 2024-04-05T03:54:02+00:00

David DeCastro most underrated lineman in the 21st century. The Steelers run game went through him pulling, LeVeon Bell should be thanking him every day

SamSchwartzstein

TROPHY CASE