Bigger, Faster, Stronger

9/21/2014 Matt Chambers 3 Comments

I recently attended Tableau Conference 2014, and I attended a session given by Andy Kriebel, Jewel Loree, and Peter Gilks. The session was focused on starting a data blog as a means to build a portfolio using publicly-available data. I was so inspired by the session that I decided I would start my own data blog. I had been browsing a few datasets, and I found an awesome dataset on NFL Combine data.

When I looked at the data, I wanted to visualize the impact of forty-yard dash and max repetitions of 225 on draft position. Once I finished those, the theme of the visualization started to come together as Bigger, Faster, Stronger. Initially, I looked at the players just by size, but the more interesting analysis for me was finding the players who are both big and fast.

The Bigger visualization actually looks at the combination of speed and size. First, I calculated the surface area of the player's body by using this calculation. I then divided the player's forty-yard dash time by the player's body surface area to calculate the Speed to Size Ratio (SSR.) I suspected that Calvin Johnson would possess the most elite combination of size and speed, but the analysis confirms it as well.

Here is the final product: