Zebra Technologies, the company that makes the player-tracking RFID chips in NFL shoulder pads, is extending the technology to the Senior Bowl to help scouts evaluate potential draft prospects.
The chips, which will be on each individual player’s equipment, will begin tracking players during practices and also during the game. NFL coaches, scouts and general managers, who have grown familiar with Zebra’s chips over the past two years of the company’s partnership with the NFL, will receive player tracking and performance data to assist in their evaluation of top college players ahead of the NFL draft.
Just like the chips that track NFL players during games (there are also chips in game balls), the RFID tags for the Senior Bowl will track athlete movements on the field. They’ll provide accurate information about speed, acceleration, distance traveled by period, drill and throughout the entire practice session, which will then be fed into a software platform that scouts and coaches can use to analyze and evaluate prospects.
The Senior Bowl last year had partnered with Catapult and XOS Digital to use wearable devices provide real-time player performance data to talent evaluators during the game for the first time. The sensor-filled Wilson X Connected Football was also used. This year as the Senior Bowl adopts Zebra technology, the Catapult trackers will no longer be used.
Zebra has been providing chips that can tell where a player or ball is on the field within six-inches of accuracy to the NFL for game-tracking purposes for the last few seasons. The NFL uses much of the data collected to build Next-Gen Stats, which teams then display on their stadium video boards and on social media pages, and broadcasters air during breaks.
With Zebra’s Senior Bowl partnership, Zebra will similarly share tracking data highlights on social media channels from the game next weekend through the NFL draft in April.
Roughly a third of professional teams now also use its chips in practice jerseys to track player performance in between games, including the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints. The information not only helps coaches analyze performance, but it also aids in the overall development of each athlete by monitoring triggers that might deteriorate their health or cause injury.
“The New Orleans Saints benefit from the data provided by Zebra as it gives us the visibility we need to make the right calls during each of our practices and in preparation for our games,” New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton said in a statement. “Our recruiting efforts will also be enhanced as we can better evaluate and scout college players based on data generated at the Senior Bowl.”
Last year, the NFL and Zebra announced that they’d be working with Amazon Web Services to develop new ways to visualize the gameday data heading into next season (which will mark the fifth season of the Zebra-NFL partnership).
The league said it plans to provide deeper insights and offer a broader range of statistics involving real-time location, speed and acceleration data, such as a receiver’s ability to get open and an offensive line’s ability to protect the quarterback.