10 years of NFL Next Gen Stats has changed how the game is watched and played
February 2, 2026
Anyone watching Caleb Williams’ desperation fourth-down touchdown pass in the divisional round knew how improbable a play it was. Quantifying that was a different story. That’s when the NFL’s Next Gen Stats stepped in with specific details of how far Williams retreated to how far the pass traveled. A sport whose statistics used to be mostly simple ones like yards gained, passes attempted, passes completed and touchdowns now has numbers based on all sorts of advanced statistics thanks to the RFID chips the NFL has placed in the ball and shoulder pads of players and the power of the AWS computers to sift through and analyze them.