FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Terry Fontenot was taking part in hooky from an Atlanta Falcons OTA exercise day in Cooperstown, N.Y., in June when he obtained a shock in his resort room. The Falcons’ normal supervisor spent the day watching his son, Kaiden, play within the Cooperstown All-Star Village baseball match. That night time, he sat down along with his pc to overview movie of the Falcons’ on-field session he had missed again house.
“I’m watching apply, and also you’ve obtained the completely different views, the sideline, the tip zone, then a better finish zone view and one other view proper down the road of scrimmage,” Fontenot defined. “So I’m clicking via the views, and hastily I hear one thing. I’m like, ‘What’s occurring?’ Then hastily I’m within the huddle.”
Fontenot was listening to after which seeing the footage from cameras the Falcons have hooked up to the helmets of quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix Jr. for apply classes this offseason.
“I knew we had talked in regards to the chance, however hastily it’s simply in our common movie,” Fontenot stated.
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Atlanta’s teaching workers has gained helpful perception from the footage, coach Raheem Morris stated. In trade, the coaches have needed to hear an array of playful complaints from the gamers.
“I joke with them that it’s form of just like the KGB: ‘You guys take heed to all the things I say,’” Cousins stated. “The huddle was my time, however now you guys are in there and the huddle is bugged. I inform my teammates, ‘You guys should not getting let off the hook.’ For those who say, ‘What’s the play right here?’ the entire constructing is aware of. It’s in all probability extra like a spy approach than the rest, however suggestions is suggestions, and it’s yet one more device.”
Easy with it @themikepenix 🎯 @cwash82 pic.twitter.com/1Ouc3C1PtV
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) August 14, 2024
Penix, a rookie, stated he has benefited from with the ability to hear how Cousins, a 13-year veteran, calls performs and manages the huddle and snap cadence, however he hates the sound of his personal voice.
“I really feel like my voice sounds completely different in individual, however apart from that, I just like the view,” he stated. “It’s a cool factor.”
Matthew Bergeron, a 6-foot-5, 323-pound offensive lineman, doesn’t have to fret about listening to his voice within the huddle, however he’s unsure the digital camera offers him essentially the most flattering angle.
“I feel it made me look bizarre once I watched movie,” he stated. “I regarded rather a lot greater than I assumed I regarded. It’s not my finest angle, however it’s angle to observe movie.”
Penix additionally doesn’t suppose the digital camera provides him correct credit score for his canniness.
“Typically on the GoPro, you’ll be able to’t actually see what I’m studying,” the quarterback stated. “9 occasions out of 10, I’m wanting off a defender. So, my GoPro may be dealing with this fashion, however actually I’m studying over there.”
(The “GoPro” digital camera isn’t really a GoPro. It’s a DJI Motion 2 mannequin.)
The Falcons teaching workers tries to find out the place the quarterbacks are wanting with the footage, and thus how they’re studying the protection and going via their passing progressions, however essentially the most helpful side is the sound, first-year offensive coordinator Zac Robinson stated.
“The largest device is listening to the communication and the way the blokes are getting out and in of the huddle,” Robinson stated. “I do know it’s large for Mike as a younger man simply studying the method of what it’s imagined to sound like.”
When Fontenot heard the helmet digital camera suggestion, he assumed the thought began with Robinson, who adopted Morris from the Los Angeles Rams’ teaching workers. Truly, the person behind the cameras is Jake Stroot, the Falcons’ fourth-year video director.
Stroot obtained the thought when he noticed the Miami Dolphins utilizing the cameras throughout joint apply classes in Miami in 2023. He pitched them to the Falcons teaching workers, and Morris appreciated the thought.
“You may see precisely what the quarterbacks are taking a look at when they’re barking via cadences,” Morris stated. “You might be grading your coaches there, too. You may see the movement between Zac Robinson and Kirk.”
The cameras maintain half-hour of footage every, and Stroot’s workers has 4 for every quarterback, which they swap utilizing magnetic holders a number of occasions every apply session. The cameras run all through the staff’s 11-on-11 apply work.
“We tried it out within the spring, and so they appreciated it, and it has grown from there,” Stroot stated. “The audio half is actually particular simply to listen to the cadence and stuff. All the blokes are actually digging it.”
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Watching the helmet digital camera footage and chopping it into clips for the teaching workers is “essentially the most fulfilling a part of my day,” Stroot stated.
“The eagerness that Kirk reveals remains to be very a lot there, and that’s very evident from listening to him speak,” Stroot stated.
The helmet cameras have added 4 hours of footage for Stroot and his workers to work via daily. The video workers already was recording apply with 9 aerial cameras and 6 floor cameras every day, accumulating almost 20 hours of footage from every apply, all of which is minimize into clips and made accessible to the teaching workers inside half-hour of the tip of apply.
The Falcons even have added sideline video screens throughout apply that present the earlier play instantly so gamers and coaches can get fast evaluations between snaps. Placing them in place and working them additionally fell to Stroot.
“That’s simply the mindset of him and his entire division,” Fontenot stated. “If there’s a brand new individual within the video division, the very first thing he says is, ‘Our mantra is “no” doesn’t exist. We don’t say no.’ Anyone comes down and so they ask for one thing, the primary reply is sure and so they determine it out.”
The Falcons employed Stroot away from the College of Georgia in 2021 after asking Bulldogs coach Kirby Good for permission to speak to him.
“We interview him, it goes properly, and once I referred to as Kirby to inform him we had been hiring him, there was an expletive,” Fontenot stated. “He stated, ‘I’m so comfortable for him, however man it is a robust loss.’ As quickly as Jake is within the constructing, you see why.”
The Falcons and Dolphins are believed to be the one NFL groups at present utilizing helmet cameras, and Stroot says no different skilled groups have approached him for recommendation on implementation, although a number of schools have.
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Defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake thought the cameras had been a device of the Falcons’ social media staff when he noticed them pop up on the apply area.
“However then Rah confirmed it within the staff assembly, and it was actually cool,” Lake stated. “Bought me pondering, ‘Possibly I need to put a kind of on Jessie Bates so we are able to flip it the opposite method as a educating device.’ I feel it’s genius.”
Bates stated he may begin reviewing the footage to see how he appears to be like from a quarterback’s eyes.
“It’s cool to see,” the security stated. “Rah pulls it up within the staff assembly room typically, and to see how Kirk processes issues and the way excited he will get to today is cool. He talks a bit of s— as properly. I would like to begin getting some footage of that, for certain.”
Along with reviewing his efficiency for every play, Cousins makes use of the movie to self-scout his wealth of “dad joke” comedy materials.
“I get a greater really feel for the way I come throughout,” the 36-year-old quarterback stated. “I’ll say a joke I assumed was fairly humorous, after which I’ll return and take heed to it and say, ‘Don’t say that.’ I’ll watch it and suppose, ‘I assumed I used to be cool, however I’m a nerd.’”
(Photograph of Kirk Cousins: Todd Kirkland / Getty Photographs)