Sean Payton Poaches NFL Employee After Broncos’ Back-to-Back Losses

Looks like coach Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos are doing everything they can to get back to winning ways after two back-to-back losses to the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Chargers.

ESPN‘s Seth Walder reported, “The Broncos hired Meyappan Subbaiah as a Senior Data Scientist, per sources. Subbaiah had been a data scientist in the NFL league office and previously worked for Zelus Analytics.”

Subbaiah has built a solid career in data and product science, starting from research roles and steadily moving into leadership roles. After graduating from Texas A&M University, he spent a couple of years at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a Post-Masters Research Associate and Masters Intern, as per his LinkedIn profile.

He spent a year as a Data Scientist at The Appraisal Lane and later joined Zelus Analytics, where he grew into a Product Scientist role and spent over three years contributing to the team. Taking the help of Data scientists to create better training programs and strategies for the teams is nothing new. Although a bigger challenge awaits him in the Broncos, who are dealing with several self-inflicted issues, including penalty woes.

The Broncos racked up six in Week 1, eight in Week 2, and 10 again against the Chargers. Costly mistakes like safety Talanoa Hufanga’s unnecessary roughness penalty that helped the Chargers tie the game, tight end Adam Trautman’s offsides, and linebacker Nik Bonitto lining up in the neutral zone on punts have repeatedly helped opponents score. “We’ve got be able to align correctly … that needs to be cleaned up fast,” Payton said.

Moreover, the Broncos have been poor on third-downs, having converted only 6-of-22 third downs over the last two games. “I think our average on third down [Sunday] was third-and-11-plus,” the coach said. “That makes it difficult.”

And speaking of the fourth-quarter defensive issues, “We got three-and-a-half quarters playing good football and last drive can’t get a stop,” Bonitto said. “That’s frustrating.” The frustration was clearly the same for both the fans and players, with Bo Nix acknowledging that he had squandered a few opportunities in Week 3.

Bo Nix made a heartbreaking confession

“I had so many chances today.” A frustrated Box Nix could be seen mouthing these words on the sidelines following the Chargers game. While the defeat wasn’t entirely on the quarterback, he had a few opportunities that could have changed the outcome. He missed a flea-flicker to wide receivers Marvin Mims Jr. and a late third-down throw to Courtland Sutton.

That attempted pass to Sutton was the Broncos’ last offensive play. Following that, they punted the ball, and the Chargers took over at the 32-yard line. Eight plays later, Jim Harbaugh’s men scored the game-winning field goal.

Nix’s off-target rate stands at 17.8% this season, per NFL Next Gen Stats. That’s 24th in the NFL. Maybe their new numbers man can find a way to deal with that.