It started with the commercials.

How we found American football

Our relationship with the game began in 2017, almost by accident. We decided to watch Super Bowl LI for professional reasons. As marketers, we were curious about the famous Super Bowl commercials and wanted to understand why brands were willing to spend so much money for a few seconds of airtime.

Then the game started.

Within the first few minutes, the commercials stopped being the main attraction. We were absorbed by the strategy, the physical courage, the constant tension between individual talent and collective discipline, and the way one small mistake or one brilliant decision can change an entire game.

By the end of the night, we had fallen in love with American football. We felt that we had discovered one of the most exciting, intelligent, dramatic, and strangely noble games ever created.

Becoming Texans fans

We chose the Houston Texans as our team and have supported them ever since. We watch every Texans game we can. We follow the roster, coaches, draft, free agency, injuries, depth-chart battles, and the players fighting for the final places on the team.

And honestly, we watch far more than just the Texans. During the season, there are very few NFL games we are not interested in. Football became part of the rhythm of our year: for half the year we watch football, and for the other half we talk about how every team is preparing for the next season.

The problem with the NFL offseason

There is only one truly bad thing about American football: the offseason is far too long. The period between the Super Bowl and the first preseason game can feel endless.

But the offseason is not empty. Players leave and arrive. Veterans are released. Rookies are drafted. Undrafted free agents fight for opportunities. Position rooms are rebuilt. Teams become younger, older, deeper, cheaper, more expensive, safer, or riskier.

Transaction feeds tell you that a player was signed or released. News articles discuss the biggest names. Draft coverage focuses on the earliest selections. What is often missing is the complete picture: who replaced whom, which position room improved, where the team lost depth, and whether the roster actually became stronger.

That is the question behind RosterVerdict.

Why every roster move matters

We believe there are very few meaningless roster moves. A player who is almost unknown today may become an important starter next season. A player nobody selected in the draft may earn a major role. A late-round pick may eventually become one of the greatest players the sport has ever seen.

Tom Brady was selected in the sixth round. Many other valuable NFL players entered the league with little attention, limited expectations, or no draft selection at all.

That does not mean every unknown player will become a star. It means every player deserves to be evaluated in the context of his opportunity, expected role, development, and value to the team. RosterVerdict therefore looks beyond famous signings and first-round picks to explain who arrived, who departed, who stayed, and how each position room changed.

Better compared with whom?

There is an old joke that says you do not need to run faster than the bear. You only need to run faster than the slowest person beside you.

NFL roster building works in a similar way. A team should not be evaluated in isolation. A roster may become slightly weaker and still improve its competitive position if its division rivals became much weaker. Another team may make several good additions but still fall behind because its closest competitors improved even more.

That is why RosterVerdict looks not only at whether a team became stronger or weaker, but also at how it compares with its division, conference, league, and scheduled opponents. The question is not simply, “Did the roster improve?” It is also, “Did it improve enough?”

A football project built by data people

We have worked in marketing and data analysis for most of our careers. Marketing teaches you not to confuse activity with results. Data analysis teaches you that one number rarely tells the whole story. Product work teaches you that information is useful only when people can understand what it means.

RosterVerdict brings those ideas into football. We primarily research, verify, and enter information manually from publicly available sources. We do not build our database by scraping or copying other websites. Public facts become inputs into our own analysis, comparisons, and roster evaluations.

Our scores are not intended to replace scouts, coaches, film study, or football judgment. They are tools for organizing the roster story and making it easier to understand.

Why we built RosterVerdict

We originally created RosterVerdict for people like us: people who love the NFL season but also follow the months between seasons; people who care about roster depth, position-room changes, late-round picks, undrafted players, contract decisions, role changes, and training-camp battles.

We hope RosterVerdict helps answer one simple question: Did my team actually get better?

And if it also makes the long offseason feel a little shorter, then the project has already achieved something important.

Thank you for being here.
Maksym and Olha Kononenko
Founders of RosterVerdict

Independent by design

RosterVerdict is an independent football-analysis product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the National Football League, the Houston Texans, or any other NFL team. Team and player names are used only for identification, reporting, commentary, and analysis.

Read more about our methodology, our editorial standards, or the full Terms & Legal notice.

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