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when the Baltimore Ravens announced in August that they had hired a director of football analytics, it was a rare public signal of the growing interest among teams in weaving statistical analysis into game-day, draft and free-agency preparation, and even into the management of workouts and injury rehabilitation

With advanced statistics, he notes, teams are able to see trends and adjust in real time. It used to be that teams would look back at how often they ran a play and how much it gained. Now, do they want to know Cam Newton’s completion percentage when a defense rushes three? Or four? Or six or more? That information is available week to week, allowing teams to tailor game plans with far greater specificity. Much of the work is also centered on figuring out some of the game’s most vexing problems — when to kick a field goal versus going for it on fourth down; what to do under the new overtime rules; when to challenge a call; when to use a timeout — amid the chaos of the sideline.

For most teams, though, the most intriguing application may come in player evaluation — projecting how college players will perform in the N.F.L. and figuring out how valuable one player compared with another