The National Football League is an organization that prides itself on the tradition and legacy of days gone by. However in an increasingly digital age, teams are turning to analytics and technology to gain every possible advantage they can.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have partnered with XOS Digital Inc, a leading provider of coaching technology, and Catapult Sports, creators of wearable sporting tech to create the XOS Thunder Radar. And while it doesn’t detect nearby storms, it has the capabilities to be a game-changer for player management.
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The Jaguars have worked with Catapult sports before. For the past three seasons, the players have worn motion tracking devices for every practice. These sensors allow coaches to gather analytical data about each individual athlete’s performance; acceleration and explosiveness, quickness in and out of cuts, reaction time, etc. to take some of the guess work out of scouting and remove reliance on the “eye test”.
XOS Digital then synchronizes the data gathered from Catapult’s technology with their own video coaching platform, XOS Thunder, to combine visuals with analytics. The XOS Thunder Radar program also records motions and draws and saves plays, cutting down on the time to enter them into the system.
The XOS Thunder Radar also gives all of this information in real-time, so corrections to a player’s technique can be made right away.
Athletic tracking systems in the NFL are not a brand new concept. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) signals have been used to track players’ speed and enhance in-stadium and at-home broadcasts of NFL games by showing the actual numbers behind a running back’s breakaway speed or the exact path of a wide receiver’s crisp route.
While this technology started out as entertainment value, teams are benefiting from the extra analysis. In a press release, Senior VP of Technology and Football Analytics with the Jacksonville Jaguars Tony Khan said that the team, “relies heavily on our Catapult system to optimize player performance.”
“We’re able to unlock new and powerful insights that will help maximize team performance. The entirety of this offering made investing in Thunder Radar an easy decision.”
In a Catapult press release, President for North America of Catapult Brian Kopp called working with the Jaguars and XOS Digital, “mutually beneficial.”
“Introducing our data into a platform used directly by coaches will make our system even more valuable. We look forward to bringing this integrated solution to mutual users, and teams that are looking for the next level in performance analysis.”
No one is saying this technology is going to turn the Jags into Super Bowl Favorites, but in a league where every advantage counts, it could help improve a roster already filled with young talent.