Jets’ QB Darnold using high-tech training
Sam Darnold zipped pass after pass down the field, knowing each one of them counted. Literally. The New York Jets rookie quarterback was at his old stomping grounds of San Clemente High School in California last month, just a few weeks before being the No. 3 overall pick in the NFL draft , tossing “smart” footballs equipped with computer chips calculating his every throw.
It was high-tech training that Darnold and Jordan Palmer, his mentor and a former NFL quarterback, believe will help him — as well as other signal callers around the country — improve skills through unique and meticulous data.
Darnold and Palmer are serving as advisory staff members for Wilson, which makes the official balls used by the NFL. The Chicago-based company has been incorporating technology and per-
formance-based data with its Wilson X Connected Football, which debuted two years ago. Now, Darnold and Palmer are helping develop the next-generation version that will enhance film sessions and, possibly, on-field production.
“I think it’s really cool to come out here with Wilson and give them my feedback on what it really takes to be a quarterback and what I’m looking for in this data,” Darnold said in a video provided by Wilson, “and help kind of build the prototype that is going to push this game to the next level.”
Wilson hopes to have the 2.0 version of its Connected Football technology available for a wide release to college and pro teams later this year. In the meantime, the company is gathering feedback from some players and coaches at both levels, including Darnold and Palmer.
“Before this technology, it was really just based on the eye, the naked eye,” Darnold said, “being able to look at the film and based on a throw, you might look at your feet, your hips or something like that, to tell you what might have happened, what might have gone wrong.
“Now with this technology, it gives us hard evidence, hard data to be able to look back on and figure out exactly what happened and what might have gone wrong and what we can improve on and keep improving as a quarterback.”
Darnold’s involvement with the Wilson technology began over a year ago when he was working with Palmer, who played in the NFL for parts of eight seasons and has become one of the country’s elite quarterback trainers. One of the biggest criticisms of Darnold at USC before last season was a glaring flaw in his mechanics: an elongated motion with which he’d drop his right arm a bit when he wanted to air out a pass.
After one of Palmer’s buddies told him about the first-generation Wilson X Connected ball, he decided to use it — and it confirmed his theory.