AP

The Broncos hired Mitch Tanney as their director of analytics this offseason and coach Gary Kubiak said Sunday that Tanney’s work won’t be confined to analysis of the team’s performance after games are over.

Kubiak said that he has had Tanney by his side while simulating game situations in training camp practices so that the two men can get comfortable working with one another ahead of the regular season. When September does roll around, Tanney will be in Kubiak’s ear during games to offer opinions about strategy.

“If we’re moving the ball or we’re doing formatting, I’ve got Mitch with me because he’s going to be on the headset, so we’re trying to practice,” Kubiak said, via the team’s website.

One of the ways that teams use analytics is to come up with expected outcomes based on down, distance and past performance and that’s likely to be the role Tanney is playing on the headset for Kubiak during the season. It’s a relatively new approach in the NFL so it’s hard to say what kind of impact it will have on the way games are coached, but it’s a copycat league and we’ll likely see more of it if Denver shows a knack for making the right calls on gut decisions this season.