The Patriots are adding to their analytic department.
According to a source, the Patriots have hired Ekene Olekanma as the team’s director of coaching analytics. Olekanma comes to New England from San Francisco where he worked as the 49ers “Football R&D Coordinator” for the last two seasons.
Teams around the league have invested in football analytics. In a 2024 survey, conducted by ESPN, the 49ers were voted one of the top analytically advanced teams in the NFL. In that survey, the Patriots were voted among the least analytically advanced and only trailed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Under Mike Vrabel, this department has been expanded in Foxborough. The Patriots’ analytics staff includes director of research Richard Miller, director of football strategy Marshall Oium, and vice president of football operations and strategy John Streicher.
In that ESPN survey, people were asked which analytics staffers would become general managers. Olekanma was among 14 people to receive at least one vote.
In college, he was a linebacker at the University of Toledo. There he graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering in bioengineering. He earned a Master of Science in data science from DePaul University. After working as a data scientist and data analyst, he entered the NFL, working as a coaching research and development analyst fellow with the Baltimore Ravens during the 2021 season.
After that, Olekanma was hired by the 49ers as a ‘Football R&D Analyst’ in 2021. He was promoted to ‘Football R&D Coordinator’ the next year. According to San Francisco’s website, Olekanma worked on different analytical projects for the 49ers coaching staff. That included self-scouting, opponent research, metric creation, and player evaluation.