Bills Central

Bills aim to Remain Cutting Edge on Player Safety

They use an individualized, analytics-based plan for each player to minimize soft-tissue injuries.

Nick Fierro

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Part of how the Buffalo Bills have grown their front-office staff since the arrival of general manager Brandon Beane following the 2017 draft is the addition of analytics personnel.

In the Bills' case, analytics are a part of everything they do with their football operation, not just play calls and player evaluation.

Particularly intriguing is how they study tracking data to come up with individualized plans for each player in order to minimize soft tissue injuries, dehydration or any other variable in which they feel they have some control.

And one of the moves to reshape their football operations staff they announced Tuesday served to underscore this. Drew DiSanto has been hired as sports performance data analyst.

"We put a lot into our player health and wellness and keeping guys on the field, tracking everything they do — weight room, on the field, the grass, all that stuff," general manager Brandon Beane said. "... You can't do much about what I call the car-crash injuries — you know, a broken arm, broken leg, whatever it is — but trying to eliminate, you know, unnecessary soft tissue [injuries] from wear and tear, too much high-speed ,running all that volume. So it's just adding another layer to what we have to help us track that more.

"And it ultimately helps us build our practice schedule each week. ... It's individualized so that we can look at each player's practice load, not necessarily the receivers the running backs. It's, you know, Stefon Diggs' practice load versus Gabe Davis' practice load and beyond."

The Bills were the least-injured team in the NFL in 2021, featuring just 95 games missed by all eligble players. The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles tied for a distant second, with 137 each.

Beane believes how the team operates had at least something to do with that.

What's more, it should be noted that four of the five least-injured teams made the playoffs and four of the five most-injured teams failed to qualify.

The Bills' most notable move on this day, however, was the promotion of Brian Gaine to assistant general manager.

Gaine originally joined the Bills as vice president of player personnel in 2017. He left the following year to become general manager of the Houston Texans but was fired after just one season before being re-hired by the Bills as as a senior personnel adviser.

"A lot of times you end up with someone who came up one side, on the pro level or the college," Beane said. "The thing that I loved about adding Brian back when we got here, we're adding a guy that's not just strong on one side, he's strong on both. And then he has sat in this seat and he knows some of the challenges that you face. Ultimately, you think you're ready, but until you sit in the seat, things fly at you that you never thought you would deal with. And so I think that helped Brian's case here as well that he has sat in the seat.

"I think what happened in Houston with him was more of a power struggle than his abilities. And that's why we we quickly brought him back, got him into the program. Ultimately, it wasn't really decided until recently, after we completed the interview process, that Brian is the best candidate for us, for that role."

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Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.

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Nick Fierro
NICK FIERRO

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