Ryan Best

This is my favorite XI — I just had to sneak Cole Palmer in there. Let's see yours!

Who do you think should be in England's World Cup starting XI? Our latest project allows you to compile your ideal lineup, share with your friends and compare your picks with other readers (and our experts). nytimes.com/athletic/inter…

Introducing @TheAthleticFC's new season-level player dashboard. Fuelled by data from Opta and SkillCorner, this dashboard should provide you with a one-stop shop for all your recruitment and scouting needs. Explainer here: nytimes.com/athletic/72430…

The Beast is here! The 2026 NFL Draft Guide is now available (interactive and PDF). nytimes.com/athletic/inter…

Our Olympic men's hockey forecast is now live at @TheAthletic 🥇🥈🥉 Full forecast here: nytimes.com/athletic/inter…

Playoff trees return this year to @TheAthletic. If you're the sort of psychopath who wants to know what happens when four AFC teams finish 12-5 and the playoff seeds are determined by deep tiebreakers, we have you covered.

What are your favorite NFL team's chances of making the playoffs if they lose their last three games? If they win out, can they get a No. 1 seed? Check out my latest with @TheAthletic to answer these questions (and any other scenario you can imagine). nytimes.com/athletic/inter…

Ahead of a big slate of Week 16 games, @TheAthletic has extremely detailed tables of every possible playoff path for every team, like these:

🚨 @TheAthletic's World Cup Draw simulator is live! 🚨 nytimes.com/athletic/inter…

The 2026 men's World Cup draw is happening tomorrow, so we made an interactive exploring all the possible draws and what they might mean for your favorite teams. nytimes.com/athletic/inter…

If you're interested in news, graphics and/or sports, please apply to work with us!! My DMs are open for anyone with questions!

I’ve been with @TheAthletic for a month and my first big project is out! We made a matrix showing trades between every pair of MLB teams from 2020 to 2024. There’s an interactive version live on the site! With @ZackMeisel nytimes.com/athletic/65211…

I've re-upped my #WNBA forecast ahead of the 2025 season, including the new @valkyries team! This Elo model will learn more about each team as the season goes, so follow along to see your squad's chances of ending the year with some new silverware 🏆🏆 ryanabest.com/2025-wnba-pred…

The Beast is here! The 2025 NFL Draft Guide - new and improved. nytimes.com/athletic/the-b…

Just a reminder that all the data FiveThirtyEight collected—polls, election results, and much more—is available for download (for now) on our GitHub page. github.com/fivethirtyeight

538 closing is a very sad end to a place that was always misunderstood by the companies that owned it. There are lots of smart people there who should be snapped up. Reach out!

@TheAthletic Huge thanks to @skyegould and @junghyekim for endless visual and data editing. @SandoNFL and @DavidDeChant were wonderful editorial collaborators. @ByJohnBradford plugged in to fill all the gaps (as he always does). Our dev team also helped make this thing possible at all.

It was a lot of fun working on these visualizations, the first big-swing one-off interactive graphics project our @TheAthletic graphics team has published. So much extra work was done by my team to also present quotes and conversations in a visually accessible and engaging way

NFL coaches are getting younger — but what are the dynamics behind this trend? How did we get here, and how have NFL coaches gotten where they are? @SandoNFL and I dive into the NFL's youth revolution along with some fun, detailed interactive visuals nytimes.com/athletic/59334…