While the Jets did most of their spring work in silence, HC Aaron Glenn got his quarterbacks plenty of camera time on the field. Beginning with rookie minicamp and continuing all the way through the final mandatory minicamp practice, Jets quarterbacks were equipped with GoPro cameras on top of their helmets.
"It's my first time ever doing it, but it's definitely cool," said starter Justin Fields of the GoPro experience. "Just basically kind of just hearing the play call again and kind of just going through making sure you're just doing everything within the process of the play. I like the GoPro a lot."
First-year offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand said the use of the tiny cameras was a game-changer.
"It's awesome," Engstrand said. "I'm just telling you -- I can't believe we didn't do this before. It is unbelievable. We can hear him call the play in the huddle. We can hear him at the line of scrimmage, making his check, whatever it needs. So, you can see his eyes, where he's going, and then you can see him go through the progression. You can see everything from his vantage point. And we also get some nice tidbits of commentary in there, which is pretty fun to hear, too."
Quarterbacks coach Charles London also emphasized the video and the audio advantages as the cameras allows players and coaches to enter the huddle, walk up to the line of scrimmage and then review each step in the progression.
"It is a great learning tool because not only is it a camera, but it's also a microphone on there so you can hear the play call in the huddle. You can hear the communication at the line of scrimmage," London said. "We talk about progression. We can we see instead of trying to guess, well where'd your eyes start there? Well, you go back and watch it, you can see where his eyes started. You can see how he went in his progression. So, it's been a great learning tool for the guys and having him hear himself call the play in the huddle, OK, maybe I need to be a little bit cleaner about that or I hear how maybe a receiver thought I said, whatever it may be. So, it's been a great learning tool for everybody, and the offensive line guys can watch it to hear how things are going up there, the communication."
At rookie minicamp in May, the Jets experimented with the GoPro with first-year pro Adrian Martinez and rookie Connor Cook. After successful reviews, Fields and backup Tyrod Taylor had the cameras mounted on their helmets for OTAs and mandatory camp.
"We've used the mic before so quarterbacks can hear themselves calling the play, but I've never had used the GoPro before," Engstrand said. "So, I think the combination of it, it's been great. We tried it out in rookie minicamp and everybody liked it and especially the way you go watch the film and you have your normal film and kind of the last thing that intercut in there is the quarterback's view of it and his play call. So, it's been really good for us."
When the Jets return to the practice field next week for the start of the training camp, the cameras will be attached to their quarterbacks each play. And while the GoPro cameras have become a valuable educational tool, the compact and lightweight cameras will also continue to capture some colorful commentary as well.
"They only turn it on when you're actually on the field, but I mean some funny things have definitely been said and they've definitely been picked up for sure," Fields said.
