As the 2017 NFL draft approaches, it’s clear that the Buffalo Bills need to find a talented wide receiver to pair with Sammy Watkins while providing quarterback Tyrod Taylor with another offensive weapon. The team holds the No. 10 overall pick and most NFL mock drafts have Buffalo taking either Western Michigan’s Corey Davis or Clemson’s Mike Williams in that slot.

But, in a draft that’s stocked with a deep pool of talent, the Bills may be able to find value in a later round by finally embracing analytics – and not just for in-game situations. As more information becomes readily available, more franchises are making the most out of the data to gain a competitive edge.

One metric that’s known to be used by at least one NFL team – the Seattle Seahawks – is called SPARQ.

With a tool like SPARQ, teams can evaluate a player entering the draft on more than just film.

What is SPARQ?

SPARQ is a metric that was developed by NIKE in 2004 with the intentions of standardizing and quantifying the athleticism of high school athletes. Standing for ‘Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction and Quickness,’ the tool combines a set of data based on various athletic tests and formulates those into one easy-to-read number. Now, instead of simply assuming that a player is an elite athlete because they run a fast 40-yard dash, there’s a combination of data that paints a full picture of an individual’s athletic ability.

The Seahawks, under head coach Pete Carroll, are the first team to embrace the metric in order to find unique athletes that may otherwise be passed over. This has especially helped the franchise develop into the perennial contenders that they now are, because they use SPARQ to draft elite athletes in the later rounds. Super Bowl MVP linebacker Malcolm Smith, wide receiver Jermaine Kearse, cornerback Jeremy Lane and running back Christine Michael are just a few of the late-round gems acquired due to the utilization of SPARQ.

A Seahawks blog, Field Gulls, led by Danny Kelly, Davis Hsu and Zach Whitman, now of 3sigmaathlete.com, reverse engineered the data in order to narrow down what they believe to be the closest equation to NIKE’s unreleased SPARQ formula, which Whitman refers to as ‘rSPARQ.’

SPARQ scores are measured using five categories of athletic testing from the NFL Scouting Combine – the 40-yard dash, the bench press, the vertical leap, the 20-yard shuttle and weight.

From there, these numbers are placed into the equation and given a score in which the higher the number the more athletic the player is. Most NFL players average a SPARQ score between 100-115 while good athletes score above 115 and the elite athletic freaks can have scores above 130.