Patriots QB's Testing Out Cameras on Their Helmets
For any fans who are into technology, the Patriots appear to be testing out a new perspective that give them a different vantage point than they had previously.
The quarterbacks have been spotted wearing cameras on their helmets, which gives the coaching staff a better view of what each player sees as he's looking down field and making their reads. Coaches often ask the question, "what did you see on that play?" Now they have film to back-up exactly what happened, and so far head coach Bill Belichick has been open to this experiment.
"It’s something we haven’t done before so we’ll take a look at it and see how effective it is or what we can get out of it," said Belichick on Sunday. "I’m not sure exactly how effective that will or won’t be but it’s something we’re trying that’s a little bit new. We’ll see how it goes."
"Anything we can do to help instruct and coach the players better, that’s part of our job."
This isn't exactly a new development, with the New York Giants being a team that experimented with it back in 2011. Back then their video director spotted the camera at a trade show and implemented it in their practices, but it's a trend that seems to be catching on as this offseason quite a few teams have tried this out, and the results seem to be pretty positive.
According to this article the footage from the earlier cameras seemed to be a little shaky, but Belichick didn't feel the one his players were using were a problem
"I don’t think that’s the issue, no," replied Belichick when asked about that topic, telling reporters that he's looked at the film and that they've, "been using it for about a week now."
The Chicago Bears used it to evaluate their quarterbacks during their rookie minicamp back in May, as well as footage of Danny Amendola trying this last year with the Rams.
Amendola's footage showed what the receivers see as the quarterbacks throw them the football, although that perspective is obviously the opposite of the QB's vantage point. Michael Vick used one during the Pro Bowl last year, although the video from that isn't the best quality.
Here's a better quality video of the goPro Helmet Cam on Pitt Quarterback Tom Savage:
