Matchup would be a part of the model. My experience with predictive modeling in various domains has taught me that people tend to underestimate how predictive they are (NFL offensive/defensive coaches are no exception).

I'm interested in doing some predictive modeling for a couple of project ideas I've been kicking around. Are there any specific resources you would recommend as good starter material?

Agreed. Also, assuming you could create a successful predictive model the advantage would be short term. All coaches would hop on the bandwagon.

How optimistic of you.

It could still be useful for finding tendencies, though.

Visualization of rushing tendencies using this very data http://labs.juiceanalytics.com/spider/index.html