Gang Green Nation
In the 2025 NFL draft, the New York Jets selected Arian Smith. Smith is a wide receiver drafted out of Georgia who, to put it lightly, struggled to catch the football. Obviously, catching a football is a big part of playing wide receiver, so the Jets have understandably been talking from the first day they drafted Smith about the need to clean up this issue.
Recently, reports have provided some detail on exactly how they plan to do this. First, it starts with some tried and true drills like using a Jugs machine to get additional reps. Second, he uses a relatively common drill across sports where he catches passes that are marked with specific letters for him to identify to force him to intensely focus on the ball. Third is perhaps most interesting though which is that he is using strobe light technology to improve his game.
Per the article shown in this tweet, “The lighting on the goggles flicker, switching between clear and opaque and in the process removing visuals from Smith’s eyesight and thus forcing him to process things in the moment faster… The idea is to train the brain to ignore outside stimuli – and to laser in on the things that matter.”
Whether this novel tactic will pay off remains to be seen, but it sure feels nice to have reason to think that the Jets are at least adopting the most up-to-date technology in an attempt to improve player performance. If nothing else, it is a bit reassuring to know that the Jets are aware that they’re trying to win games in the 21st century.
