Dolphins Embrace Technology For Draft
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins have always been at the forefront of trying out new ideas. From live fantasy football updates before the NFL made it mandatory to hand held TV screens that allowed you to control what you watched while sitting in the stadium watching the game. Heck the Miami Dolphins even added full wireless internet so their fans would have a much better experience. Forget about the giant jumbotron in Dallas that eats up half the upper seating view, the Dolphins brought tech to the fans’ hand.
Now the Dolphins are bringing tech to their draft.
Miami Dolphins Digest writer Andy Cohen visited the Dolphins GM this week to take a look at the new 80″ “big board”. A digital touch screen that instantly updates and provides countless amounts of information from video to numerical tendencies. You can read his entire article here on MiamiDolphins.com.
I like tech. I like it a lot and as much as I can embrace it, I do. I like the fact the Dolphins are taking innovative steps to improve their draft, free agency, and team evaluations. Yes this quasi-tv does all that. The question is whether or not it will work? Very few teams if any are using the technology today. Tampa Bay was the first and only team to use it last year. Hickey brought it to Miami with him. As stupid as it sounds, what happens if the power goes out? At the time you are ready to make your pick. What’s the reboot time because I can tell you my computer isn’t exactly lightning speed anymore than my 73″ TV is.
O.k. I kid, well sort of. The Dolphins have always used either a dry erase board or a magnet board. Simple switch and move was easy enough but there was always an element of human error. That can be said for computer error as well. The Dolphins, I would hope, will still rely heavily on the men who sit down with the players themselves. The scouts. This isn’t football’s version of “MoneyBall”. There still must be an element of instinct on the part of the person making the selection. A computer is great to spit out facts and figures but can it predict who exactly will be the right fit for your football team vs. the value of the selection or the money they receive? Not likely. Hopefully that is where the GM comes in.
As we wait for the draft in May it’s easy to try and understand what a GM or team is thinking without actually ever knowing what they are really thinking. A digital big board won’t shed any more light on the subject. Maybe though we won’t be blaming the GM for bad decisions but instead we can blame “HAL”.