FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Terry Fontenot used to be enjoying hooky from an Atlanta Falcons OTA exercise month in Cooperstown, N.Y., in June when he were given a awe in his resort room. The Falcons’ common supervisor spent the month staring at his son, Kaiden, play games within the Cooperstown All-Celebrity Village baseball match. That night time, he sat ill along with his laptop to check movie of the Falcons’ on-field consultation he had neglected again house.
“I’m watching practice, and you’ve got the different views, the sideline, the end zone, then a higher end zone view and another view right down the line of scrimmage,” Fontenot defined. “So I’m clicking through the views, and all of a sudden I hear something. I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ Then all of a sudden I’m in the huddle.”
Fontenot used to be listening to and upcoming sight the photos from cameras the Falcons have connected to the helmets of quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix Jr. for follow periods this offseason.
“I knew we had talked about the possibility, but all of a sudden it’s just in our regular film,” Fontenot mentioned.
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Atlanta’s training team of workers has won decent perception from the photos, tutor Raheem Morris mentioned. In alternate, the coaches have needed to listen an array of playful court cases from the avid gamers.
“I joke with them that it’s kind of like the KGB: ‘You guys listen to everything I say,’” Cousins mentioned. “The huddle used to be my time, but now you guys are in there and the huddle is bugged. I tell my teammates, ‘You guys are not getting let off the hook.’ If you say, ‘What’s the play here?’ the whole building knows. It’s probably more like a spy technique than anything else, but feedback is feedback, and it’s one more tool.”
Easy with it @themikepenix @cwash82 pic.twitter.com/1Ouc3C1PtV
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) August 14, 2024
Penix, a rookie, mentioned he has benefited from with the ability to listen how Cousins, a 13-year veteran, yells performs and manages the huddle and snap cadence, however he hates the tone of his personal resonance.
“I feel like my voice sounds different in person, but other than that, I like the view,” he mentioned. “It’s a cool thing.”
Matthew Bergeron, a 6-foot-5, 323-pound offensive lineman, doesn’t have to fret about listening to his resonance within the huddle, however he’s no longer certain the digital camera supplies him probably the most flattering attitude.
“I think it made me look weird when I watched film,” he mentioned. “I looked a lot bigger than I thought I looked. It’s not my best angle, but it’s a good angle to watch film.”
Penix additionally doesn’t suppose the digital camera provides him right kind credit score for his canniness.
“Sometimes on the GoPro, you can’t really see what I’m reading,” the quarterback mentioned. “Nine times out of 10, I am looking off a defender. So, my GoPro might be facing this way, but really I’m reading over there.”
(The “GoPro” digital camera isn’t in reality a GoPro. It’s a DJI Motion 2 type.)
The Falcons training team of workers tries to resolve the place the quarterbacks are having a look with the photos, and thus how they’re studying the protection and going thru their passing progressions, however probably the most decent facet is the tone, first-year offensive coordinator Zac Robinson mentioned.
“The biggest tool is hearing the communication and how the guys are getting in and out of the huddle,” Robinson mentioned. “I know it’s big for Mike as a young guy just learning the process of what it’s supposed to sound like.”
When Fontenot heard the helmet digital camera advice, he assumed the theory began with Robinson, who adopted Morris from the Los Angeles Rams’ training team of workers. In fact, the person at the back of the cameras is Jake Stroot, the Falcons’ fourth-year video director.
Stroot were given the theory when he noticed the Miami Dolphins the usage of the cameras right through joint follow periods in Miami in 2023. He pitched them to the Falcons training team of workers, and Morris appreciated the theory.
“You can see exactly what the quarterbacks are looking at when they are barking through cadences,” Morris mentioned. “You are grading your coaches there, too. You can see the flow between Zac Robinson and Kirk.”
The cameras secure half-hour of photos every, and Stroot’s team of workers has 4 for every quarterback, which they change the usage of magnetic holders a couple of occasions every follow consultation. The cameras run all the way through the group’s 11-on-11 follow paintings.
“We tried it out in the spring, and they liked it, and it has grown from there,” Stroot mentioned. “The audio part is really special just to hear the cadence and stuff. All the guys are really digging it.”
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Gazing the helmet digital camera photos and chopping it into clips for the training team of workers is “the most enjoyable part of my day,” Stroot mentioned.
“The passion that Kirk shows is still very much there, and that’s very evident from hearing him talk,” Stroot mentioned.
The helmet cameras have added 4 hours of photos for Stroot and his team of workers to paintings thru each month. The video team of workers already used to be recording follow with 9 aerial cameras and 6 field cameras every month, gathering just about 20 hours of photos from every follow, all of which is trim into clips and made to be had to the training team of workers inside half-hour of the tip of follow.
The Falcons even have added sideline video displays right through follow that display the former play games in an instant so avid gamers and coaches can get fast opinions between snaps. Placing them in playground and running them additionally fell to Stroot.
“That’s just the mindset of him and his whole department,” Fontenot mentioned. “If there’s a new person in the video department, the first thing he says is, ‘Our mantra is “no” doesn’t exist. We don’t say negative.’ Any person comes ill and so they ask for one thing, the primary resolution is sure and so they determine it out.”
The Falcons rented Stroot clear of the College of Georgia in 2021 next asking Bulldogs tutor Kirby Mischievous for permission to speak to him.
“We interview him, it goes well, and when I called Kirby to tell him we were hiring him, there was an expletive,” Fontenot mentioned. “He said, ‘I’m so happy for him, but man this is a tough loss.’ As soon as Jake is in the building, you see why.”
The Falcons and Dolphins are believed to be the one NFL groups lately the usage of helmet cameras, and Stroot says negative alternative skilled groups have approached him for recommendation on implementation, despite the fact that a number of faculties have.
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Defensive coordinator Jimmy Pool concept the cameras have been a device of the Falcons’ social media group when he noticed them pop up at the follow subject.
“But then Rah showed it in the team meeting, and it was really cool,” Pool mentioned. “Got me thinking, ‘Maybe I want to put one of those on Jessie Bates so we can flip it the other way as a teaching tool.’ I think it’s genius.”
Bates mentioned he would possibly get started reviewing the photos to peer how he seems from a quarterback’s visible.
“It’s cool to see,” the security mentioned. “Rah pulls it up in the team meeting room sometimes, and to see how Kirk processes things and how excited he gets to this day is cool. He talks a little s— as well. I need to start getting some footage of that, for sure.”
Along with reviewing his efficiency for every play games, Cousins makes use of the movie to self-scout his wealth of “dad joke” comedy subject matter.
“I get a better feel for how I come across,” the 36-year-old quarterback mentioned. “I’ll say a joke I thought was pretty funny, and then I’ll go back and listen to it and say, ‘Don’t say that.’ I’ll watch it and think, ‘I thought I was cool, but I’m a nerd.’”
(Photograph of Kirk Cousins: Todd Kirkland / Getty Pictures)
