Inside the Patriots new 160,000 square feet football facility, the New Balance Athletics Center, there are meeting rooms for each position group on the roster.
The coaches and players spend hours in these meeting rooms during the season, but one goal of the New Balance Athletics Center was to find innovative ways to break up the monotony of classroom work. That's where the Virtual Room and its state-of-the-art technology come in. The virtual room is a 10,500-square-foot indoor turf field that's the width of an NFL game field, with painted hash marks and numbers.
Two large screens let you project an opposing offense or defense, allowing players to run through video game-like simulations. A divider also sections off the room, allowing multiple position groups to work without interruption. The Patriots use the space for walkthroughs, onboarding new additions to the roster, and letting players bank mental reps. According to head coach Mike Vrabel, the virtual room was an important addition for Patriots owner and President of the Kraft Group Jonathan Kraft and is changing how the Patriots teach their players.
"That was something that was important to Jonathan [Kraft] when we started looking at the building, his blueprint for that. Then for Stretch [John Streicher] and I to be able to go in, figure out how we wanted to do it," Vrabel said. "It allows our coaches and our players to leave an individual meeting room, to walk out a door into a mobile classroom, and to be able to change, basically, the dynamics of how we teach. So many things are built off of splits and landmarks on the field. Then be able to watch the play on the screen and look at the installation. It's just another opportunity for our players to learn and to get ready for the football game."
Patriots secondary coach Scott Booker also recalled how far the virtual technology has come, reminiscing about the setup he and Vrabel had years ago during their days in Tennessee. Booker said the Titans would roll projectors into their indoor practice bubble to create a makeshift virtual room. Now, the Patriots have a dedicated space featuring the latest tech in the field to help their players.
"We have the ability to take these guys into a virtual room, full field in the building and a big TV, and it's like they're playing on the field," Booker said. "It's a great facility, a great teaching tool. It just gives the players another opportunity to learn without sitting in a chair and writing stuff down. We got playbooks and all that type of stuff, but we got to bring the picture to life. How do you bring the picture to life? On your feet, watching and reacting to what the offense is doing so that allows us to do that."
Patriots quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant also described how Drake Maye and the quarterbacks utilize the space, adding that the coaching staff uses end zone angles from the TV copy of games to simulate live reps.
"What I like to do, I got this from Ken Dorsey, so I'll give him his flowers. I think he's in Dallas now. We would clip out the end zone shots from the TV copies so it looks as if you're the quarterback watching the game," Grant said. "We watch them on Fridays and Saturdays and just talk about our rules, our reads, our progressions. It's a different teaching setting where you can get them on their feet and get them walking around a little bit, so I think the quarterbacks enjoy that."
Along with full-position groups using the space, the virtual room also lets players bank mental reps. When he arrived in Foxborough on roster cutdown weekend, RB Cory Kiner went through mental reps in the virtual room to learn the Patriots playbook.
"As a new player coming in, I'm behind the eight ball a little bit coming to a new team a week before the season. I was in there with the coaches or another player walking through plays on special teams and in the offense. We use them as a team every single day," Kiner told Patriots.com.
Similarly, LB Darius Muasau echoed Kiner's assessment of the value the virtual room has for new additions to the Patriots roster.
"The virtual room is very unique as far as the learning atmosphere and everything that's able to go on in that room is crazy. We can do a walkthrough and we'll just put the film up there and we see the opponents right in front of us," Muasau said. "It's a good way to learn. It helps me as a hands-on person."
Another way the Patriots use the virtual room is to keep rehabbing players mentally engaged. For example, RB TreVeyon Henderson missed a few weeks with an ankle injury recently, returning in the Week 2 win over the Steelers with a 39-yard touchdown run. While he rehabbed his injury, Henderson got "reps" in the virtual room.
"I think it's really helpful. When I was hurt, not being able to be out there with the guys, I was able to get mental reps by putting the film on the big screen," Henderson said. "When I got (to the Patriots), that was my first time using it."
With the lion's share of game reps going to the starters during the regular season, players further down the depth chart are also utilizing the mobile classroom, as Vrabel calls it. For instance, rookie QB Behren Morton, who is familiar with the VR concept from his days at Texas Tech, finds himself in the virtual room often.
"We use the virtual rooms a lot, especially being a rookie: rookie minicamp, OTAs and leading up to fall camp. We were using those every day," Morton said. "It's convenient because it's right outside the meeting room. If guys have a question and we want to walk through it, you can just step outside your position room."
At Texas Tech, Morton had a virtual room inside the Red Raiders football facility, one of the first of its kind at the college level. The rookie said they're similar, but the Patriots virtual room has the convenience of being attached to the meeting rooms, which differs from the Texas Tech facility.
"This one is more convenient. The Texas Tech one is just a little bit further away. It's pretty cool because you have the position room, team meeting room, and stuff like that right there. You can't beat it," Morton added. "We put (the film) up on a huge TV screen and it's like getting a live rep. We use it a lot and it's a big help."
With coaches chasing edges to stay a step ahead of opponents, the Patriots are using the mobile classroom to enhance how they teach their players while keeping up with technological advancements in the football space. Whether it's walkthroughs, integrating new players, or keeping injured players mentally sharp, New England's virtual room is a great resource inside the New Balance Athletics Center.
DISCLAIMER: The views and thoughts expressed in this article are those of the writer and don't necessarily reflect those of the organization. Read Full Disclaimer
