Jan 24, 2026 update: We released Impact Plays for the conference championships. The feature surfaces players whose execution changed a play, whether or not they touched the ball.

Traditional box scores are primarily outcome-driven; they capture the key events that conclude a play, but do not always reflect every player who influenced it. As a result, important contributions tied to alignment and role-specific execution can be understated or overlooked.

Rather than relying on box-score events, we analyze the quality of a player's performance using tracking data, evaluating how well they execute their responsibility within the context of their specific role and alignment on a given play. Each performance is compared against historical benchmarks for players in the same role and alignment, enabling a role-aware evaluation that fairly assesses impact across all positions.

This approach allows us to consistently identify contributors beyond ball-dominant roles, while still capturing exceptional performances from players in ball-dominant roles when their execution truly stands out. When a player meaningfully outperforms expectations for their role, the play is surfaced as an Impact Play, revealing influence that traditional outcomes alone cannot reliably capture.

Read on below to see how SūmerLive works.

Where does the data come from? Short answer: we build it.

Every pressure, route, coverage, and outcome you see in SūmerLive is generated in real time by a deep learning model trained on raw tracking data and validated by Sūmer experts.

How It Works

The model processes player and ball movement during live games. Its job is to identify what's happening on the field as plays unfold: formations, coverages, pressure types, route concepts, targets, and outcomes.

It's trained on licensed Genius Sports tracking data and validated by our internal football experts—more than 500 years of combined NFL experience across scouting, coaching, and front offices.

On every snap, the model charts over 20 distinct data points and this number only increases as our model improves. 

Built for Speed and Accuracy

Live charting is different from film analysis. There's no replay, no second look, no time to review. The model has to be right the first time.

To validate the model's accuracy, our experts chart plays independently, without seeing the model's output. Only when our experts agree with the model at least as often as they agree with each other is the data signed off and available for public usage. 

That process ensures what you see in SūmerLive is both fast and reliable.

Why It Matters

When you check SūmerLive for pressure rates, route efficiency, or coverage tendencies during a game, the answer doesn't come from manual tagging or crowd-sourced stats.

It comes from a model trained to see football the way evaluators do. Now applied in real time.

Check it out here: sumersports.com/live