How AWS and NFL Next Gen Stats Transformed Football Analytics

A decade-long partnership has revolutionized the way the NFL measures, analyzes and plays the game.

Published on Feb. 6, 2026

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Over the past decade, the NFL's partnership with Amazon Web Services has transformed the league's data and analytics capabilities through the Next Gen Stats (NGS) platform. What started as an experiment with RFID tags has evolved into an AI-powered system that processes millions of data points per game, delivering real-time insights that have fundamentally changed how the sport is played, officiated and consumed by fans. From tracking player movements to advanced machine learning models that predict catch probability and defensive assignments, the NGS platform has become a critical part of the NFL's infrastructure, impacting everything from player health and safety to broadcast experiences.

Why it matters

The NFL's adoption of cloud-native infrastructure and machine learning through its partnership with AWS serves as a model for how data and AI can disrupt traditional industries. By embracing a data-driven, cloud-first approach, the league has been able to uncover new insights, make more informed decisions, and enhance the overall fan experience - lessons that can be applied across various sectors.

The details

The NGS platform started in 2015 with the installation of RFID tags in player shoulder pads and the football itself, capturing the X/Y coordinates of all 22 players 10 times per second and the ball 25 times per second. In 2017, the NFL formalized its partnership with AWS, moving the project from a tracking experiment to critical league infrastructure. This allowed the league to leverage advanced machine learning capabilities through services like Amazon SageMaker to build, train and deploy models that could handle the high-velocity data streaming from the field. Today, the NGS system produces between 500 and 1,000 unique stats per play, powering everything from broadcast enhancements to player health and safety initiatives.

  • The NGS platform was first launched in 2015.
  • The NFL formalized its partnership with AWS in 2017.
  • The 'Completion Probability' model was launched in 2018.
  • The 'Coverage Responsibility' model was one of the most recent and complex innovations to come out of the AWS-NFL lab.

The players

Mike Band

NFL's senior manager of research and analytics.

Julie Souza

Global head of sports for AWS.

Mackenzie Herzog

Vice president of player health and safety for the NFL.

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What they’re saying

“Football, for 100-plus years, has been a box score game. You had yards, touchdowns and tackles. But those numbers only captured a sliver of what unfolded on the field.”

— Mike Band, NFL's senior manager of research and analytics (SiliconANGLE)

“It was the combination of the Digital Athlete and tens of thousands of simulated games that led to the dynamic kickoff rule, banning of the hip drop tackle, and a redesign of helmets, all of which led to the lowest injury rate the NFL has seen in decades.”

— Mackenzie Herzog, Vice president of player health and safety for the NFL (SiliconANGLE)

What’s next

As the league looks toward the next decade, the NFL is already moving beyond the X/Y coordinate, exploring 'optical tracking' using 4K camera arrays to capture the full 3D pose of players. This skeletal data will unlock a new dimension of biomechanical analysis, allowing teams to analyze player movements with millimeter precision.

The takeaway

The NFL's partnership with AWS and the evolution of the Next Gen Stats platform serves as a model for how data and AI can transform traditional industries. By embracing a cloud-native, machine learning-driven approach, the league has been able to uncover new insights, make more informed decisions, and enhance the overall fan experience - lessons that can be applied across various sectors.