As the New Orleans Saints tried to mount a comeback during a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday Night Football, some viewers at home already knew what was going to happen. Kind of.
Amazon offers three different broadcast options for TNF, including ‘Prime Vision’ with Next Gen Stats. It is one of the coolest broadcasts in sports because of its advanced artificial intelligence technology, which was largely developed by former creator of the XFL2020 Rules and Technology and Stanford offensive lineman Sam Schwartzstein.
The ‘Defensive Alert’ feature is powered by artificial intelligence to identify defensive blitzes before the snap. Players that the A.I. believes have a high probability of blitzing are highlighted by a red circle.
It rarely misses— even when the human eye might think that it did.
The self-learning model analyzed thousands of different defensive plays throughout NFL history to gain an understanding of movement patterns. Those patterns provide a good sense of whether a player is going to blitz or not.
To further help the model, RFID chips in every player’s shoulder pads send real-time information about acceleration, orientation and motion. From there, it puts everything into a computer-based algorithm and identifies players who rush the passer of 60% of snaps or less. The focus is not on the four down lineman who fight to get into the backfield every play.
Amazon’s A.I. blitz model brings viewers at home into the game like never before.
In a sense, the Defensive Alerts are intended to provide the viewers with a greater understanding of the game as if they were the quarterback trying to read a defense on the other side of the line. There were multiple instances during Thursday’s game between Jacksonville and New Orleans where the model saw the play unfold before the ball was snapped.
It highlighted both potential blitzes on 3rd-and-7 during the first quarter and correctly predicted the Nickel coming off of the edge.
Alvin Kamara did not have access to the technologically-advanced broadcast. He missed the blitz and did not pick it up as a blocker. Derek Carr got rocked as the threw.
Other examples include Patrick Surtain’s tackle for loss against the Chiefs a few weeks back. Amazon knew that Surtain was coming. Patrick Mahomes did not. He did not audible out of the play call, and the play was stopped in the backfield.
Not long thereafter, the A.I. model caught an all-out rush before the Kansas City offense had a chance to check into proper protection. Mahomes got sacked.
Amazon’s blitz predictor has changed how fans can watch football. It is a remarkable technological advancement that adds an extra element of intelligence to the broadcast, and it is only a matter of time before NFL teams themselves start clamoring for use of the A.I. for themselves!