Recently reports came out that the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, Kenny Pickett has employed a helmet camera during his offseason workouts. According to ESPN, Pickett, and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan have decided to try out something that Tua Tagovailoa from the Miami Dolphins has shown off on social media.
Outkick.com
Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa pokes some fun at critics of his new helmet cam by strapping a Polaroid to his helmet for a few plays.
The camera has been shown to have numerous benefits for quarterbacks. According to Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel, it allows the coaches to infiltrate what was previously a sacred space. In addition, McDaniel said this can be especially helpful to young quarterbacks who may not have huddled in high school or college. It also gives any viewer the ability to study the field from the quarterback's perspective. That kind of accurate "field level view" wasn't possible before.
But of course, Pickett isn't happy with just studying the field from his own point of view or simply using it to study and improve his own game. He is already plotting how to take this to the next step.
Steelers' Kenny Pickett Wants An Unexpected Teammate In A Helmet Cam
Former Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor is now a scout for the Steelers as well a co-host of a podcast, Bleav In Steelers, with reporter Mark Bergin. On a recent episode, Bergin mentioned how when Taylor played back in the early 2000s, he made news for strapping an iPod Nano into his helmet so he could hear music while he worked out. Bergin jokes that the technology has advanced and Pickett actually has a camera on his helmet.
Bleav In Steelers
Bleav In Steelers hosts, Ike Taylor and Mark Bergin discuss the benefits of Kenny Pickett's new helmet cam.
"It's an extra step especially when it comes to the film study practice on what a quarterback might be looking at and how you can teach first, second, third reads especially coming off of coverages and depending on what the play is. I see it as an extra tool in the toolbox," says Taylor.
He goes on to say that he is glad to see technology being embraced and that he expects more and more young players to start implementing these cameras. Taylor says he would have loved to have had something like that when he played because he is a visual learner and this gives you the ultimate look.
Bergin agrees and says that he sees one of the best uses being for pre-snap reads and pre-snap alignments of the defenses. He said the ability to see where your eyes naturally go as a quarterback isn't necessarily possible, but the camera gives them almost exactly that information. To Bergin, it was not a surprise that Pickett had other ideas on how to put the cameras to work.
"I thought it was very interesting that Kenny Pickett says [he] would love to get a similar camera on Steelers All-Pro safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, to learn, to see how he is a ball hawk as a defensive player, and teach some of the same things, but what he is doing on the other side of the ball," says Bergin.
Taylor agrees and says that it doesn't surprise him either. From his perspective, Fitzpatrick is really the "quarterback" of the Steelers' defense, but cautions that watching some videos can't teach someone the skills that Fitzpatrick has.
"It's something you can't teach with Minkah and that's instincts. Coach T [Mike Tomlin] said he saw this before and the first very instinctive guy he saw was Troy Polamalu, a new Hall of Famer. So when you look at Minkah, yeah it will look good from the cam point of view, but when it comes down to them instincts, not a lot of players, especially at that position, are very instinctive."
Photo Credit: Karl Roser/Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick races to the end zone for a pick-six in the Week 1 victory over the Bengals.
It seems likely based on how Pickett meets with defensive coaches, sits in defensive meetings, and studies defensive plays, that he isn't just asking so that Fitzpatrick can improve his game. Rather Pickett can watch the game from an elite player's eyes so he can try to get inside his head and improve himself.
Bergin said he imagines that using the helmet cam will also help Pickett to learn to avoid possible "tells" that he might have. Small, inadvertent signals are a giveaway to the defense of what is coming up. He asks Taylor if he was able to read "tells" on film from opposing offenses and Taylor said he was taught to look to someone else.
"I gotta tip my hat to Ray Horton, my DB coach. He simplified the game so I picked up on a few tendencies when it came to a receiver or tight end. But Horton came through and was like, 'We're always playing offensive coordinator.' We were like, 'What do you mean by offensive coordinator?' He said offensive coordinators always have tendencies on first, second, or third down."
Taylor said Horton taught them to read those signs from the coordinator to determine what play was going to be called. He said that this kept the defense from trying to read so many different offensive players. But he said the offensive coordinators weren't the only ones with tendencies.
"That's when my game shot up. But Dick LeBeau got his tendencies too. It's like a chess match. Dick taught us the weaknesses to our defense so we understood how the offense was trying to attack us."
Steelers.com
Steelers QB Kenny Pickett celebrates during a game.
While the camera technology itself isn't new, this application of it in the NFL is. It should come as no surprise that someone as dedicated to his craft as Pickett is, would try to find new ways to use the technology to benefit his game and the team as a whole. Now we just need to see if Fitzpatrick winds up in a helmet cam.
What do you think of Pickett using the helmet cam? Are there other applications that could be helpful to the team? Tell us your opinion in the comment section below!
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