The NFL is in the midst of a technological revolution. The Next Gen Stats data is part of this. Tracking player speed and health and movements during practices and games helps teams monitor who needs a rest and when, who is doing their job and not, and more. Teams are evaluating everything from play-call efficiency to which schemes work better than others and which players are better in smaller roles than larger ones. Everything matters. 

Even how players on the field interact with one another, not just during games, but during practices. That leads us to Atlanta, where Falcons coach Dan Quinn has decided to mic up his defenders during practice to improve their pre-snap communication. Being able to tell who is talking and when, and perhaps more importantly, why, has allowed Quinn a window into the way things actually work on the field that he may not have had before.  

"We've got all this cool technology and we're trying to find ways to use it," Quinn said, per The MMQB. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Let's take a shot."

Quinn noted that the microphones are optional for his players, as he does not want to impose a burden on anyone who doesn't want to shoulder it. The players, for the most part, have been more concerned about public consumption of their practice words, and have said they'll do it so long as the information stays in-house.

"Guys say, 'I'll do it for the team, but I don't want it for the website.' They don't want it out in the public but they'll do it for their guys," Quinn said.

Safety Ricardo Allen is one of the players who has been wearing a mic, and he said it's resulted in more people talking to each other pre-snap in practices. There used to be four or five, and now there are as many as nine. 

"The defensive linemen often feel like 'If I can beat the guy in front of me, I'm good,' and the corner feels like, 'I'm on an island,'" Allen said. "But now people are thinking about how they can help their brother. Just because we see a certain thing doesn't mean you're always going to be right. Maybe we call out their best play from a certain formation, and they call something different. Well, you go back to your technique and your job. The majority of the time you wont be right, but if you're right six times out of 80, and you can make a pick or force a fumble, that stuff adds up. You only need to be right a couple times. You only need to be plus-1 or plus-2 in turnovers to give yourself a 75-80% chance of winning the game."

It obviously remains to be seen if this will help the Falcons at all on game-days, when they will presumably not be wearing the same mics. But if teams are going to try using everything at their disposal to win, why not give it a shot?