During Tuesday’s first practice of minicamp, a novel addition appeared on the sidelines of the Green Bay Packers’ practice field: a giant video monitor.
“It caught my attention,” quarterback Jordan Love said after practice. “For the first time since I’ve been here, it was frosty to see it. I have a little replay in training, so you can just take a look and see what you would see in the video, but I was in training, so it was pretty frosty.
This monitor is located outside the practice field, along the sidewalk separating the Don Hutson Center from the grass. The goal is to allow players and coaches to re-watch a previous rep and provide them with real-time feedback, rather than waiting for pre-training film sessions.
In theory, this should result in more productive practices where players and coaches can adapt and correct on the fly, rather than waiting until the next training day to implement what was discussed in the meeting rooms.
“I think you get immediate feedback,” coach Matt LaFleur said after Tuesday’s practice. “I think the more immediate the feedback, the more beneficial it can be.
“Obviously, when you’re in season, I think it’s a little bit easier to use because you usually play in a block of five or six plays where the main focus is offense and defense, and that will allow you to look at certain things. We wanted to experiment with it today.”
The Packers placed a huge video monitor on the sideline. It appears to show replays so players and coaches can take a look at it right away. Recently, among others, the Falcons did this. pic.twitter.com/Uv0vu4kvKD
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) June 11, 2024
There have been several other teams across the NFL that have implemented this sideline monitor during practice. ESPN’s Rob Demovsky mentioned that the Atlanta Falcons are one of the teams that uses the monitor, while LaFleur noted that Josh Jacobs used one when he was with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Right now, as LaFleur put it, the Packers are experimenting with the screen to see if they would like to implement it during training camp and the regular season. Admittedly, in the off-season, squads typically consist of 90 players and there are many drills going on simultaneously, so using the monitor as a teaching tool at this time of year can be more of a challenge.
However, in a season when smaller blocks of plays are stacked on top of each other, the player-to-coach ratio is much smaller and there are many more offensive situations compared to defense, the opportunity to utilize the monitor as a coaching tool can be fully explored.
“I think it’s definitely something that will help,” Love added, “and just allow you to watch the field because you don’t really get a chance to see the replay like you would in a game, so I think it would be beneficial for us.”
