NFL debate looms: Should teams have the option to watch all 22 videos on sideline tablets during games?

New England Patriots center David Andrews returned to the sideline after a drive a few years ago, pleased with the job he had just done blocking for quarterback Tom Brady.

Little did Andrews know, however, that an image captured by cameras and displayed on field boards distributed to NFL teams told a different story.

Legendary offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia came screaming. Although Andrews felt he had completely blocked his man, the picture showed him out of place and Scarnecchia was not interested in a debate. He let Andrews hear it.

The next day, a video of the game during a film review with the offensive line revealed that Andrews had actually really blocked his guy. Scarnecchia, a man prone to passionate scoldings, said he was sorry for the outburst.

“It felt good when he apologized,” Andrews said. “So the pictures are great, but they don’t tell the whole story.”

Coaches and players have many stories like this. Sometimes the pictures taken for review on the sidelines are taken at Exactly at the wrong moment and someone gets trashed even though they haven’t done anything wrong.

But now the NFL is nearing a tipping point in a nearly decade-long debate that could completely change the way teams make in-game adjustments. The question is simple and will likely become more important this offseason as rule changes are considered: Should or not use all video rather than just photos on the sidelines? The league’s competition committee has raised the issue twice, in 2016 and 2018, and both times held the discussion amid a generation of coaches who were not receptive to the change.

Former Patriots coach Bill Belichick looks at game photos on a Microsoft Surface tablet during a game in 2016. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Now, however, as a wave of younger coaches take over the managerial positions, there appears to be a greater appetite for change, and the league has quietly offered teams tryouts. Both last year and this year, the NFL released All-22 sideline video access for a week of preseason games, allowing coaches to familiarize themselves with the technology as they consider whether or not to favor a change that the league need to explore new ways to test their video systems.

It sparks a fascinating debate about the use of technology and its potential benefits.

In the last two debates, the most influential and experienced coaches largely rejected the idea of switching to video access on the sidelines. Their argument was essentially that there should be a reward for the coaches who are smart enough to correctly identify what the other team is doing in real time or from images, and that providing sideline video access to everyone would dumb down the product would create a level playing field for less experienced coaches.

On the other hand, many members of this younger generation of coaches now emerging argue that sideline videos would instead give the best coaches a higher profile. If sideline videos help you know exactly what the other team is doing and how they will defend a particular play, the smartest and most adaptable coaches would make in-game adjustments from the sideline. Therefore, they argue, video does not create a level playing field but actually rewards the team with better coaches who can teach their team a new plan more quickly.

“To me, it would just push the chess game further,” said TJ Yates, 37, the Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks coach who spent seven years as an NFL quarterback. “That’s one of the things coaches love most about the game and the job. Your entire week of preparation is a game of chess. They anticipate what they will do and vice versa. The video is just an in-game version of it. That’s why I only see good things in it – but I’m a younger coach, I understand that.”

It’s too simplistic to say that younger coaches support the change and older ones don’t. Six years ago, Sean McVay opposed the change and said through a Rams spokesman that he remained opposed to sideline video. It’s also worth noting that McVay, the league’s third-youngest coach at 38, is a member of the 10-member competition committee considering rule changes. But the most vocal coaches opposed to a move six years ago were Bruce Arians, Mike McCarthy and Mike Zimmer.

“When I watch the video, I will never be wrong,” Zimmer, the former Minnesota Vikings head coach, said in 2018. “I’m against it because I think it takes some of your true coaching skills to go away and do it the same for everyone, for good and bad coaches.”

Now the mood of some coaches could change.

“It would be great if we had video on the sideline,” said Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, the league’s youngest coach at 37. “Why wouldn’t you want the video on the sidelines?”

Although the Rams’ Sean McVay is one of the younger coaches in the league at 38, he remains opposed to the use of All-22 video on the sideline during games. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

The league’s second-youngest coach, Jerod Mayo of the Patriots, also supports the change.

“If everyone had video, I don’t know what the problem would be,” he said.

In 2013, Microsoft signed a five-year, $400 million deal with the NFL to become the sole vendor of spin-off tablets and ensure all teams use Microsoft Surface devices (Microsoft has since renewed this partnership for an undisclosed price ). Previously, teams had a printer on the sidelines that printed out pages of images, and it was an assistant’s job to put all the pages into a folder for coaches and players to use.

Teams will receive 20 league-provided tablets per sideline and 12 in each dugout during games. The tablets receive twelve images per game, which are transmitted almost in real time, the league said. The images are taken at various points during each game and typically include both pre- and post-snap shots.

But the technology for playing video on the sidelines has been around for years. After the initial debate on the issue, the league let teams try it out during a preseason game in 2016. And the technology has spread far beyond the NFL.

Many coaches have a similar story when they first encountered it at a recent high school game. For Macdonald, it was when he was recruiting a player in 2021 while working for the University of Michigan. When he showed up to the high school game, he couldn’t believe there was a big-screen TV on the sidelines where coaches could rewatch plays instantly, something that has become common practice at major programs even at this level .

“I thought that was pretty cool,” Macdonald said.

College football made rule changes this year to introduce similar technology. They allowed coaches to communicate using microphones built into a player’s helmet to share play calls and, for the first time, enabled video review of previous plays on courtside tablets. That’s why we turned to Bill O’Brien, a former NFL head coach who is now at Boston College, making him the rare NFL coach who uses video technology every weekend.

“I think it helps the flow of the game,” O’Brien said. “It helps the rhythm of the game, the players understand how to play better and there is less sloppy play. I really believe that.”

Yates added, “So the high school makes the video, the college makes the video, and we’re the only ones stubborn enough not to make it.”

While the NFL has not yet adopted the technology for games, it is becoming increasingly common throughout the league during practices.

When Jon Gruden was the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, he installed a television on the field for practice purposes where you could quickly watch the previous practice or game. McVay brought this idea to the Los Angeles Rams and it spread from there. At least six teams (the Rams, Falcons, Vikings, Browns, Packers and Seahawks) use the technology in practice.

A cool new addition to Vikings practices is this giant outdoor television. It shows the all-22 view of the last drill/game on the loop, allowing coaches and players to learn in real time. The Rams do it – that’s when Kevin O’Connell came up with the idea. pic.twitter.com/KJUjwTIdT0

– Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) May 17, 2022

Coaches said it allows them to discuss a teaching point with a player and fix the problem seconds before another repeat player. It also allows them to correct a play on the fly, a departure from the days when they had to watch video after practice, make the correction during a meeting, and then try the modified play at practice the next day.

“We obviously always go back and look at the tape,” McVay said during training camp. “But if there’s something that maybe we didn’t see, that’s a really good opportunity to get the problem fixed right away.”

Wide receiver KJ Osborn initially admitted it was an odd addition to the practice field when coach Kevin O’Connell brought it to the Vikings. He joked that it looked like a movie night.

“But after we started using it, I realized it was really helpful, and now I think every team should have this,” Osborn said.

The exact rule change proposals the league’s competition committee will consider this offseason won’t be determined for several months. But with the proliferation of on-field video in high school, college and NFL practices – and after video review was allowed during a preseason game – it appears the league could be headed for another debate over whether the technology should be introduced or not.

“I think it might just help develop the game,” Yates said, “and, hey, maybe it’ll give the guys at First Take something to talk about.”