Dallas Cowboys

Cowboys begin using drones at practice

Published May. 12, 2015 1:53 p.m. ET

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In the NFL, if you're not ahead of the game when it comes to the utilization of technology, you will easily fall behind. When said technology also improves a team's ability to maximize game tape, it makes sense that every coach would want to get their hands on it. Head coach Jason Garrett and his Dallas Cowboys have engaged in an experiment to use drones to film practice during the team's rookie minicamp.

Garrett explained why he's excited about the opportunity for the team to use drones.

“Film has been a big part of this game for a long time," Garrett said in an interview after the team's rookie minicamp, according to Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News. "Typically you have an endzone shot and you have a sideline shot. We use a lot of handheld cameras on the ground, we use this thing we call the Joe Pole, which gives you higher ground angle. One of our coaches went down to SMU for their spring practice and he saw they were using it. They liked the angle. We got a chance to see it, so we decided to take a look at it. We’ll use it again over the course of the off-season. Hopefully it will be a good thing for us, give us a different angle.”

So what advantage does a drone actually provide for a football team? It's all about the angles.

“The drone angle is interesting because it gives you a chance from behind to see all 11 guys on offense and all 11 guys on defense, but from a lower angle,” Garrett explained. “Often times, you have to kind of pull yourself way away to get the all-22 shot. This allows you to be a little closer, so you can coach better. You see hand placement, you see where they have their feet and where they have their eyes. I think that’s important. You can look at the players and coach them better when you’re that much closer to the action.”

You can expect to see the same drones flying around when the Cowboys open up their first set of OTAs on May 26th.

(h/t Blogging The Boys)

Photo Credit: John David Mercer/USA TODAY Sports

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