'That's going to take over the league': Why NFL teams are using giant videoboards to get an edge

ATLANTA -- Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins faced fourth down near the end of practice Wednesday, and his first read, wide receiver Darnell Mooney, was double-teamed. So was running back Bijan Robinson.

Cousins saw tight end Charlie Woerner one-on-one down the right sideline with safety Jessie Bates III and decided to air it out. Bates got a hand on it, but the ball caromed into the arms of a falling Woerner for a touchdown.

The Falcons offense erupted, except for Cousins, who looked up at a giant screen that was showing a replay. He wanted to make sure Woerner was inbounds.

Touchdown confirmed, and Cousins began to celebrate.

This summer, for the first time, the Falcons have two giant videoboards adjacent to the practice field at their training camp facility. They join several other teams that use the technology for real-time analysis of plays -- which are on a loop until the next play -- instead of waiting until practice is over. The process allows mistakes to be identified and corrected much sooner, but there are drawbacks.

"I'm sure that's going to take over the league in time," Cousins said. ... "I look over and a teammate may be asking something, I'll be like, 'Hold on a second, I'm trying to watch this clip.'

"So, it's a great resource. I think what it does, it just clears up some of the mystery."

The Los Angeles Rams started using the screens in 2018. Rams coach Sean McVay said he got the idea from coaches who worked with Jon Gruden when he was with the Oakland Raiders, as well as coaches who worked with Jim Harbaugh at the University of Michigan.

"It's been a really beneficial thing for us," McVay said. "To be able to have that, [and] have [players] really use it. Coaches use it to be able to kind of correct in real time."

Falcons coach Raheem Morris was the Rams' defensive coordinator the previous three seasons, which is how the screens ended up in Atlanta. Morris made sure there would be one screen up in time for OTAs in the spring -- and two for training camp.

McVay isn't sure who first used them, but he has a theory why they're popping up at more practice sites around the league.

"All the good coaches are good thieves, too," McVay joked. "So I stole that one from Coach Gruden, and Raheem stole it from us."

Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell also was on the Rams' staff with McVay and Morris, including when they won Super Bowl LVI, and O'Connell brought the idea with him to Minnesota.

The Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks and Houston Texans are all using videoboards in training camp. The Carolina Panthers began using them this summer for the first time. The Green Bay Packers had a couple of them up during minicamp, but not for training camp.

"I don't want to use it in camp because I don't know who's in the stands," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said.

But LaFleur plans to bring it back during the season.

"I think the more immediate the feedback, the more beneficial it could be," he said. "Certainly when you're in-season, I think it's a little bit easier to use, in terms of usually you're operating in like a block of five or six plays where the offense is up and the defense is up, and it will allow you to look at some things."

In Atlanta, the screens are set up on stanchions near the sides of each end zone. The Falcons have giant poles set up behind both end zones and on the sidelines that have cameras pointing down, to get the full scope of the field. Those cameras send video directly to a server that gets uploaded to the team's internal system.

In previous years, coaches could access that video on tablets after practice.

They still can, but now the video clip of the last play also gets fed to two 84-square-foot screens on the sidelines that face the field, courtesy of the work of Falcons video director Jake Stroot and his team. Atlanta has video employees manning tents at the bottom of all three cameras with two monitors apiece inside.

"[To] give you that immediate feedback will allow you to make those corrections in real, live time and to be able to repeat something, so you don't leave something on the grass to have to wait till the next day," Morris said. "That immediate feedback for us is really important."

Some players use it more than others. Cousins swears by it, while other Falcons said it hasn't necessarily been as useful for them. In Los Angeles, Morris said it was hard to get All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey "off the board to the next play at times."

Houston Texans gaurd Shaq Mason said the boards are so helpful they can become a problem.

"I actually try to stop looking at it, because I'll do a play then I'll just come back to the huddle and I'm looking up the whole time trying to see what I did," Mason said. "It's very helpful, but it also can be detrimental, because you're looking at the last play instead of the next play.

"You can definitely use it, but it can hurt you."

Falcons rookie defensive lineman Ruke Orhorhoro said he'll use the videoboards to see what could be effective techniques when rushing the quarterback.

"Like if I felt like I could've got through there, I'll go look at it real quick," Orhorhoro said. "And then see like, 'All right, if I would've cleaned it up this way, then I would've got through there.'"

At a recent joint practice, Rams fourth-string quarterback Dresser Winn was watching Matthew Stafford and the first-team offense work against the Los Angeles Chargers in El Segundo, California. After a play, Winn turned around and looked up -- and then realized the Chargers didn't have a screen like the Rams do at their training camp home, Loyola Marymount University.

"I'm not going to act like I can see everything at all times," said Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur, who is Matt's brother. "Sometimes I'm focusing on one or two things, to be able to get that and really get that video, that picture, that plays in your head so you can go coach whoever you got to coach.

"It's one thing to go into a meeting room, but even coaches after 10, 15 minutes sitting there, if you're in the back of the room, not the one coaching, those can be long days. Those players, you don't know exactly what they're always hearing at that moment, but if you can do it on the sideline in real time, I think that's big."

Mike LaFleur joked that he "wished we weren't talking" about the screens, because they're a "competitive advantage."

"I'm gonna continue to steal anything I thought was really good in L.A.," Morris said, "because I've got a shiny piece of jewelry at my house because of it."

ESPN Rams reporter Sarah Barshop, Texans reporter DJ Bien-Aime and Packers reporter Rob Demovsky contributed to this report.