The Washington Commanders made the first significant outside hire of the Josh Harris era Friday, naming Eugene Shen as the team’s senior vice president of football strategy. In Shen’s new role, he will oversee all analytics and software development for the football operations.
Shen is a graduate of Harvard and has an MBA from MIT. Shen has plenty of NFL experience, working with the Baltimore Ravens from 2014-19 as the director of coaching analytics. Late in 2019, Shen moved to the Miami Dolphins, where he was the director of personnel analytics. From 2021-22, Shen was vice president of football analytics for the Jacksonville Jaguars, overseeing all data and analytics for the entire football operation.
Washington head coach Ron Rivera had the following statement on Shen’s hiring:
“Bringing Eugene’s level of expertise to lead our analytics and software development enables us to build on our data capabilities to help inform decision-making,” Rivera said. “Eugene brings a great deal of practical NFL experience, and we look forward to bringing him into our conversations about the vision of our team going forward. The willingness of our ownership group to follow through on their pledge to allocate resources to data and analytics is exciting for the future of the franchise.”
Harris, who assumed ownership on July 20, is ahead of the game when it comes to analytics. Harris has often spoken about the importance of analytics, and his hires with the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils support his commitment.
Shen begins his new role on Nov. 6.
Under former owner Daniel Snyder, the Commanders were named as one the least analytically based teams in the NFL. However, Washington has made strides over the past year. The Commanders hired football data scientist Preston Biro in June, who joined Doug Drewry, Washington’s football analytics coordinator, who has been with the franchise for four years.
“It’s an exciting time to be joining this legendary franchise, and I look forward to working with Coach Rivera and the front office to help shape the vision of the franchise going forward,” Shen said in a statement from the team.
“I have immense respect for the hard work that coaches and talent evaluators put into roster construction, team building and game strategy, and I believe that an increase in resources will provide further tools to inform the decisions we make as a franchise going forward as part of the ongoing work to become the best in the NFL.”
This is a significant hire by Harris as he will continue reshaping the Commanders over the next several months.