A new new start! All things Josh Harris and new ownership group.

[profusion]

12 minutes ago, SkinsFanRob said:

Am I the only one that thinks winning back the fans won’t be that hard? They didn’t want to leave. The team use to be important to a lot of people. 90 percent of them were waiting for a reason to come back. I think the stadium will be rocking come week 1. 

 

I agree. There've been a lot of people who drifted away, but I don't think the emotional connection ever really goes away. 

 

Winning is obviously the easiest way to get people back. Given the challenges this season, I think just making a lot of small-but-classy moves would help, too. This team desperately needs some good PR to be happening. Josh seems to be off to a good start.

[kingdaddy]

13 hours ago, profusion said:

It's too late to change the team or even the stadium structurally in time for Week 1. However, Harris can do a ton of little things right away to make the fan experience better. It's those little things that will make the best first impression.

 

I would hope that Josh's first move has been to find a chief advisor on the football side of things. Someone who can oversee a top-to-bottom evaluation of the team and staff within a fairly short period of time.

If I were Harris I'd put everything in the Commanders Store on sale for 1/2 off for a minimum of one week. Drop those prices and encourage people to buy the merchandise. That would be an awesome gesture.

[profusion]

5 minutes ago, kingdaddy said:

If I were Harris I'd put everything in the Commanders Store on sale for 1/2 off for a minimum of one week. Drop those prices and encourage people to buy the merchandise. That would be an awesome gesture.

 

It certainly makes sense to get the Commanders merch out there in public to generate buzz. On the downside, "cheap" isn't really the message he wants to send.

[KillBill26]

54 minutes ago, SkinsFanRob said:

Am I the only one that thinks winning back the fans won’t be that hard? They didn’t want to leave. The team use to be important to a lot of people. 90 percent of them were waiting for a reason to come back. I think the stadium will be rocking come week 1. 

I agree that I think there will be a huge wave that comes back over the next year or so once people realize this new ownership group handles things a lot better.  We will all see the improvements in the short term such as gameday experience. Getting the on field product to where we need it to be will take a little longer, but once people see he is putting good people in the front office and staying out of their way that will certainly help as well. 

 

The one thing I'm curious about is how much have we permanently lost to the Ravens fan base.  For the past 20+ years a lot of kids growing up would rather root for Ray Lewis and Lamar Jackson than anything we were putting out there.  We have lost a lot of fans for good due to the Ravens doing well during our clown show.  But I do wonder how many can be brought back, especially if the Ravens struggle and we are viewed as an ascending team.  

Edited July 23, 2023 by KillBill26

[formerly4skins]

1 hour ago, Warhead36 said:

Is it safe to buy Commanders merchandise now? I wanna get a jersey. Thinking McLaurin or Allen.

 

"It's not about how I feel, it's about how the city feels about all this stuff," Harris said, when asked in part if he liked the name.

 

...not exactly a ringing endorsement by Harris on the name. But, I imagine even if it's washed away with the rest of Dan's sins, it might take some time. 

Edited July 23, 2023 by formerly4skins
typo

[MrJL]

8 minutes ago, formerly4skins said:

 

"It's not about how I feel, it's about how the city feels about all this stuff," Harris said, when asked in part if he liked the name.

 

...not exactly a ringing endorsement by Harris on the name. But, I imagine even if it's washed away with the rest of Dan's sins, it might take some time. 

 

I think he's going to have to come to a decision pretty quickly.  You have to wait five years to change the name of your team, with the only exception being for new owners. So, how long does he qualify as a new owner?

[Skinsinparadise]

 

 

How Josh Harris’s Washington roots inspired him to buy the Commanders

 

A sea of fans engulfed Josh Harris as he inched his way to the stage, signing autographs, posing for selfies and high-fiving strangers as Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part 2” pumped through the speakers.

 

When the screams and whistles finally quieted, the new owner of the Washington Commanders told the crowd how glad he was that the fans hung around to welcome him to FedEx Field.

 

And then he told a story.

“I grew up here in Chevy Chase,” he began. “... The Washington Redskins — not the Dallas Cowboys, the Washington Redskins — were the number one franchise. We need to get back to those days!”

Harris then pointed to a group, standing behind him, that included fellow billionaire Mitchell Rales, D.C. venture capitalist Mark Ein, NBA legend Magic Johnson and Commanders Coach Ron Rivera.

 

“It might take a little time,” Harris continued, “but, like, look at who we have up onstage.”

 

Cue even more screams, the soundtrack of an almost unreal Friday afternoon at Washington’s beaten-up stadium. Hours earlier, Harris and his group of approximately 20 investors had closed on their $6.05 billion purchase of the Commanders, setting a record with the highest U.S. sports franchise sale price and beginning a new era in D.C.

In 20 minutes, Harris achieved what no one else has over the past 20 years in Washington. He restored hope for the fans of a once marquee franchise. The dread of the next disappointment — because there always seemed to be a next one — finally dissipated and was replaced by an air of unadulterated joy.

 

Daniel Snyder’s ownership in Washington will be remembered as one of the worst in sports history, which grants Harris immediate savior status. Harris is not Snyder, and that alone is a significant edge as he tries to revitalize the franchise. The private-equity investor and owner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils hopes to raise the bar in Washington, largely because of his personal connection to the area and the team. Harris and his investors — curated to feature D.C. ties, financial savvy, real estate knowledge and obviously significant wealth — vowed to restore the franchise as they remember it.

 

“We will work tirelessly to make you proud once again of this franchise like my family was when I grew up here,” Harris said earlier in the day during his introductory news conference. “This is not going to be easy. My job is to deliver an organization that can win. It’s on me, and it’s on us up here.”

 

To get here, you have to go back. Back to the mid-1970s, when Harris attended Rollingwood Elementary School in Chevy Chase and lived a few blocks from Ein, a kindergarten classmate who became a lifelong friend. The two played touch football games at Candy Cane City, grew up as Washington NFL fans, attended the University of Pennsylvania and later Harvard Business School, went into finance, worked on Wall Street together and even shared beach houses.

 

You have to go back to when Harris, the son of an orthodontist, would go with his dad to Capital Centre in Landover to watch the Washington Bullets. But he lived for the times his uncle would offer up a ticket to attend an NFL game at RFK Stadium. Harris had a No. 17 Billy Kilmer jersey. He and Ein also had identical burgundy-and-gold Washington varsity jackets.

“One of my earliest memories was blocking Garo [Yepremian’s kick] — I mean, seriously — and then running it back for a touchdown, losing to the Miami Dolphins, 14-7, [in Super Bowl VII],” Harris recalled recently. “I remember when I was in high school and Joe Gibbs [was coach] and their first pick was Art Monk and everyone being like, ‘Who is Art Monk?’ ”

You have to go back to when Norman Rales would drop off Mitchell and his three other sons at the Friendship Heights bus station so they could go to RFK. They never missed a game.

 

And to get here, you have to go back to the late 1990s, when the behemoth of a stadium now called FedEx Field first opened.

“I remember literally going up and gazing up at Jack Kent Cooke [Stadium] and being like, ‘This is unbelievable,’ ” Harris said in an interview with The Washington Post. “So, yeah, I was a legit real fan and lived through all those experiences and all those years. … It’s part of my DNA. It’s part of who I am.”

Harris has always been entrenched in sports — he wrestled at Penn from 1982 to 1985 — but he built his fortune in finance, first at an investment bank, Drexel Burnham Lambert, and then at Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm he co-founded in 1990.

 

While living in London, Harris became close to David Blitzer, a managing partner at investment management company Blackstone.

“I just remember us talking, and I sort of remember him saying that he was interested in investing in sports,” Blitzer said, thinking back to a conversation he had with Harris in the fall of 2010. “I just sort of lodged that in the back of my brain.”

 

...In the late spring of 2021, with Harris’s career at a crossroads — he announced plans to step down from Apollo after more than 30 years at the company — Ein suggested he meet with Rales, who had been an acquaintance of Harris’s for years. So the three convened at Glenstone, the private art museum in Potomac that Rales co-founded with his wife.

“We had the opportunity during the middle of the pandemic to really sit down and have a long talk about business and where he was really wanting to go with his next career step,” Rales said. “We just chess-boarded a lot of things together and had a lot of deep conversations. … Little did I know where this would all lead.”

 

 

Harris wanted to build his own investment firm, which he did in 2022. He also wanted to expand his family’s charitable foundation, Harris Philanthropies. And he wanted to do more in sports.

Last year, Harris made a run at two franchises — the Denver Broncos and England’s Chelsea FC — before the Commanders came available.

 

“I think … the fact that it was his hometown was the whole reason that he stretched for it,” said Ein, who is also the chair of the DC Open tennis tournament. “... I think he was a little of the mind-set like not to do it. Only because it was Washington was the only reason he did it. I think otherwise he would have just passed.”

 

A clear, consistent plan

Much of Harris’s career has followed a basic trend: Buy distressed assets and make them more valuable.

 

He did it for years at Apollo. He also has done it repeatedly with his sports franchises.

The 76ers garnered criticism for their famed “Process,” essentially a rebuild through tanking. They gutted their roster and plunged to the bottom of the NBA, only to climb back up, primarily with the help of Joel Embiid, the third pick of the 2014 draft and this year’s MVP.

The 76ers have yet to win a championship on Harris’s watch, but they have made the playoffs the past six seasons and have more than 14,000 season ticket holders, up from 3,500 in 2011, according to HBSE. Last year, Forbes valued the 76ers at $3.15 billion, up from $469 million in 2014.

 

The Devils have started to see returns on an expansion of their scouting staff and lucrative investments in players, including Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, Ondrej Palat and Dougie Hamilton. They tied the largest single-season turnaround in NHL history in 2022-23, and they followed it with another flurry of offseason moves.

With both teams, Harris made analytics and sports science priorities. He has said that with all of his investments, he likes to hire the best talent. But he also stays involved in his team’s operations.

 

“We have weekly calls [with Harris and Blitzer], and I can present whatever is on my mind — what I want to do,” Devils General Manager Tom Fitzgerald said. “It may be as small as, ‘Hey, these are the prospects at development camp.’ … They like to hear about their team: the good and where we need to get better and how we’re going to fix things and how we’re going to maintain things.”

 

...Harris believes Washington’s new reality can look much different, even in his first year. He and his investors take over with little time to make significant change before the start of the season, but they plan to improve the fan experience and assess the staff and team to determine the next steps.

Building a new stadium is atop their list of long-term goals, along with repairing the franchise’s relationship with fans and local officials.

 

That started as early as Thursday, when Harris called in to 106.7 the Fan’s end-of-Snyder party and bought beers for the fans.

 

It continued Friday, when he held a town hall with team employees and then a lunch with former players, then greeted those screaming fans.

 

“Obviously, we have a lot of work to do, but I feel like one of the great things about Washington fans is [they’re] like a sleeping giant,” Harris said. “There’s still that loyalty.”

But to get back the fans who left in droves because of Snyder and to keep the many who showed up Friday afternoon to take selfies and give high-fives, Harris knows one thing is necessary: winning.

 

Just as Washington used to do when he grew up a fan of the team.

“I’m thankful for it and am grateful for it, but … I’m sweating this,” Harris said with a smile. “I’m stressed. This isn’t just some thing for me. I feel a great sense of responsibility to make this work and to make the city proud of the franchise again.”

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/07/23/josh-harris-commanders-owner/

Edited July 23, 2023 by Skinsinparadise

[formerly4skins]

1 minute ago, MrJL said:

 

I think he's going to have to come to a decision pretty quickly.  You have to wait five years to change the name of your team, with the only exception being for new owners. So, how long does he qualify as a new owner?

 

I like to hear that...I couldn't be more in favor of a quick decision on the name. 

 

I hate it, but if I've got to make peace with it...I'd rather know sooner than later. 

[Skinsinparadise]

Funny tweet for me from an Eagles fan who doesn’t get it from our perspective. It’s not about the 2023 season or bust it’s about having a chance ultimately to do what their franchise has done and that is become a consistent winner 

 

 

[NoVaSkins21]

^^^I know that this guy who has a YouTube channel converses with Commanders fans and is another obnoxious Eagles fan.  Can't wait for the Eagles to come down to Earth this year when they have a much tougher schedule.  

[Skinsinparadise]

 

 

17 minutes ago, NoVaSkins21 said:

^^^I know that this guy who has a YouTube channel converses with Commanders fans and is another obnoxious Eagles fan.  Can't wait for the Eagles to come down to Earth this year when they have a much tougher schedule.  

 

The Eagles IMO have a better roster, FO and coaching staff.  But all of that is likely to change soon when this operation gets upgraded.  

Edited July 23, 2023 by Skinsinparadise

[spjunkies]

 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

3 hours ago, NoVaSkins21 said:

With the dark cloud finally gone, fans are right to have hope and dream of what could be now with this franchise.  The sky's the limit now with this team and the possibilities

True, but fans can do all that without trashing the women who helped remove those clouds.

[Skinsinparadise]

 

[tomwvr]

5 hours ago, Professor_Nutter_Butter said:

Yes

I want a throw back every year one game with the  famous logo and old style jerseys with current player names and numbers - i would buy them- it could even say commanders on it but the old jersey colors were the best

[MartinC]

9 hours ago, MrJL said:

 

I think he's going to have to come to a decision pretty quickly.  You have to wait five years to change the name of your team, with the only exception being for new owners. So, how long does he qualify as a new owner?

Can I refer you to the edit in the OP and my later post.

 

No name change talk until/unless there is something substantive on this subject to talk about.

 

Just a warning/reminder for everyone.

[MrJL]

1 hour ago, MartinC said:

Can I refer you to the edit in the OP and my later post.

 

No name change talk until/unless there is something substantive on this subject to talk about.

 

Just a warning/reminder for everyone.

 

I felt like I was responding to someone else's comment so why am I the person singled out?  I mean I did quote the person in my post

Edited July 24, 2023 by MrJL

[bwattsup]

I know some were curious in the last thread, so just wanted to give some info on why Joe Theismann probably wasn't at the press conference on Friday. He was scheduled for an appearance at DICK's House of Sport that evening in Chesapeake. Art Monk was Saturday, and Bruce Smith was Sunday. The other thread closed before I got a chance to post.  

[Mr. Sinister]

Maybe I didn't follow all the bazillion stories circulating this past spring, summer, winter etc, but it seems like only now is it coming out from everywhere that Harris was a fan..

 

I didn't even know that he was from here. Just seems interesting

[MartinC]

1 hour ago, MrJL said:

 

I felt like I was responding to someone else's comment so why am I the person singled out?  I mean I did quote the person in my post

I was issuing a general warning/reminder. Not singling anyone out. 
 

Yet. 🙂

[Koolblue13]

Curious and @Skinsinparadise is probably the one to ask, but which teams are know to be using the most analytics now?

 

Because I'd look at them and their GM and who's behind them in office as to guessing who the next GM will be.

[Voice_of_Reason]

42 minutes ago, Koolblue13 said:

Curious and @Skinsinparadise is probably the one to ask, but which teams are know to be using the most analytics now?

 

Because I'd look at them and their GM and who's behind them in office as to guessing who the next GM will be.

The two teams I know I’ve heard who are heavily into analytics in some form are the Eagles and Ravens. 
 

But what’s interesting is different teams use analytics differently.  What I heard from Sam Monson lead analyst from PFF is more teams are using analytics for in-game stuff than from roster building.  He said something like “there is a lot of work to do for teams to use analytics for roster building.”
 

And I think there is still some disagreement as to what roster building analytics are, where they come from, how they can be used, etc.  At least that’s what I believe Monson said.  

 

The other problem with NFL player analytics is they’re all over the map.  Each team has to basically have a group to calculate them themselves.  Team statistics and game-day stuff which are “math” related are much easier.  Player related stats are MUCH HARDER in football than other sports.  

[Skinsinparadise]

1 hour ago, Koolblue13 said:

Curious and @Skinsinparadise is probably the one to ask, but which teams are know to be using the most analytics now?

 

Because I'd look at them and their GM and who's behind them in office as to guessing who the next GM will be.

 

I've posted on this recently.  Per @Voice_of_Reason  is right about Eagles-Ravens (aslo Browns), ironically I've posted to that to him in our debates where he's trashed PFF.😎

 

Mostly good teams use it.  Browns being the exception. 

 

Which teams are among the five most analytically inclined?

Baltimore Ravens (21), Cleveland Browns (19), Philadelphia Eagles (16), Buffalo Bills (8), Minnesota Vikings (7), Los Angeles Chargers (5), Los Angeles Rams (4), Denver Broncos (3), Indianapolis Colts (3), New York Giants (3), San Francisco 49ers (3), Dallas Cowboys (2), Green Bay Packers (2), Houston Texans (2), Miami Dolphins (2), Arizona Cardinals (1), Atlanta Falcons (1), Chicago Bears (1), Jacksonville Jaguars (1), Kansas City Chiefs (1), Las Vegas Raiders (1)

 

One voter selected six teams.

After the Browns, we see a clear tier of two right behind them -- the Ravens and Eagles, as has been the case the past few seasons. Both teams have large analytics staffs.

 

One analytics consultant highlighted the Ravens (along with the Colts) as leaders in the coaching side of analytics and cited offensive assistant Daniel Stern -- a former football research coach who assists with game management -- being part of the coaching staff as evidence.

 

The Ravens appear to be one of the most analytically inclined game-management teams under John Harbaugh.

"You continuously see Baltimore make analytically sound decisions," one survey taker wrote.

One respondent cited organizations or leadership that highlight their quantitative analysts, calling out the Ravens and Rams specifically.

 

"If the team is willing to give a public shoutout to their [analytics] team, they really do value their people," they said.

The same staffer said the Ravens are usually aligned with consensus opinion in the draft, another indicator of their quantitative-leaning mindset.

 

The Eagles are annually thought of as one of the most analytically inclined organizations. They received notoriety for their 2017 Super Bowl run, which was in part fueled by analytically driven game-management decisions, but the reputation has sustained since the Doug Pederson era.

That same staffer thought the promotions of Alec Halaby and Jon Ferrari to assistant GM were indicators of a data-driven approach in Philadelphia. Halaby is a longtime Eagles analytics staffer and was vice president of football operations and strategy before becoming assistant GM. While Ferrari doesn't have the same analytics titles, the staffer in question said, "When I think analytics, that's just evidence-based decision-making, right? [Ferrari's] not necessarily considered an 'analytics' guy, but he's very, very sharp."

 

The Bills received the fourth-most top-five votes like last year, but the Vikings and Chargers both moved up. The reasons are fairly obvious: Chargers coach Brandon Staley was far more inclined to go for it on fourth down than most coaches in 2021, though he has significantly slowed down in 2022. And the Vikings hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the first GM to have experience as an analytics staffer.

"Incorporation of analytics lags behind work quality, so Minnesota has a big advantage just because they are so bought in," wrote one survey taker.

---

Which NFL team is the least analytically advanced?

Tennessee Titans (7), Washington Commanders (5), Chicago Bears (2), New Orleans Saints (2), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2), Detroit Lions (1), Pittsburgh Steelers (1)

One voter abstained.

In this category, staffers often vote based on what they don't hear.

"I don't know much about [the Commanders and Titans]," one staffer said. Which is sort of the point -- analytics staffers often know each other and talk, the same way coaches know coaches and scouts know scouts.

That Tennessee and Washington have small analytics groups -- just one staffer each, to the best of my knowledge -- and their work isn't well known to their peers is a negative indicator. It doesn't rule out heavier quantitative involvement that isn't known to the outside, but when asked which teams are further behind from a data-analysis standpoint, those two teams are consistently brought up.

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35189929/2022-nfl-analytics-survey-most-least-analytically-inclined-teams-overrated-underrated-players-more

Edited July 24, 2023 by Skinsinparadise

[DWinzit]

1 hour ago, Koolblue13 said:

Curious and @Skinsinparadise is probably the one to ask, but which teams are know to be using the most analytics now?

 

Because I'd look at them and their GM and who's behind them in office as to guessing who the next GM will be.

Browns and Bills along with @Voice_of_Reason examples for Philly and Baltimore as far as I know

 

EDIT - Quick draw SIP beat me to it 

Edited July 24, 2023 by DWinzit

[Skinsinparadise]

Data Analytics – Developing NFL Draft Strategies

Data analytics also plays a crucial role in draft strategy to balance team needs with the best available talent. This has led to a shift in drafting based on the player’s value rather than solely on the positional need.  

As a result, teams are drafting differently and have become more willing to trade down in the draft to acquire more picks, increase their draft capital, improve the chance later round impact players or stock up for the following year.

For example, in 2018, the Baltimore Ravens’ decision to select Lamar Jackson was based in part by using data analytics. The Ravens used a machine learning algorithm to analyze the performance data of college quarterbacks and identify the specific traits that were most predictive of success in the NFL.

Based on the analysis, the Ravens identified Jackson as a highly promising prospect and ultimately traded up with the Philadelphia Eagles in the first round to select him.

Given that three of the four quarterbacks taken before Lamar were questionnable picks that cost significantly higher draft capital (Baker Mayfield at 1, Sam Darnold at 3 and Josh Rosen at 10) it’s easy to see why teams are buying in on the value of data analytics.

 

https://www.schneiderdowns.com/our-thoughts-on/data-analytics-and-the-nfl-draft#:~:text=Data Analytics – Evaluating NFL Draft Prospects&text=The data analytics team use,addition to human scouting teams.