Amazon is set for its third season of Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, and there’s a lot for them to be excited about.
Some of that’s the improved schedule (starting with Bills-Dolphins Thursday at 8:15 p.m. ET), which play-by-play voice Al Michaels (a noted critic of past NFL on Prime schedules) called “by far the best of all” of the schedules they’ve had to date.
There are reasons for Amazon to be excited beyond that. Some of that is about their announcing team (Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit, and Kaylee Hartung) and studio team (Charissa Thompson, Richard Sherman, Tony Gonzalez, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Whitworth) getting yet more reps together. Another part is about expanded AI-powered “Prime Insights” features (especially around defense) that they’ll bring not just to their Prime Vision with Next Gen Stats alternate broadcast but also the main broadcast.
Those expansions will include the “Defensive Alerts” feature on potentially-rushing players (included throughout last season on that alternate broadcast, but also featured on the main broadcast at times) being on the main broadcast every week.
This year, we will also see new coverage identifications, pressure alerts, and a “Defensive Vulnerability” look at what areas of the field might be ripe to attack. On a conference call Wednesday, Sherman (who has a notable perspective here as not just the only former defensive player on the Prime Video set but one of the few former defensive players overall with a high-level media role) said he thinks these features can be excellent ways to educate fans about what goes into defense at the NFL level.
“No question, no question. I don’t think the casual fan understands absolutely anything about defense and what’s going on. They think everybody’s in man coverage and zone is one thing. A guy was in the area, and a guy caught the ball, then he was responsible for it, things like that.
“But I really like it. I think it’s going to get fans more excited to watch the games, at least feel like they’re more informed. Especially the defensive alerts with the pressures coming and identifying where their eyes should be on the play when a pressure is coming, or identifying the weaknesses and the coverages and where their eyes should go.
“When you watch football your whole life, or you prepare for it like an athlete and somebody competing in the games, you watch it totally different than a casual fan, just watching the quarterback receive the ball. Then the running back has it, and then he’s running right, or he’s running left.
“Now you’re like, ‘Okay, I see the pressure, I wonder why that pressure.’ It starts to make the game more for the fans. I think it’s going to be incredible.”
Sherman said the Sam Schwartzstein-led Prime Vision with Next Gen Stats team has done a great job developing this, and his fellow studio analysts have helped.
“Sam Schwartzstein and that team have done an incredible job over the years developing the software,” he said. “Whitty and Fitz have had input in it. I’ve had a sprinkle of input in it. I’m sure Tony has had some input in it. It’s just a really cool system that I think is going to revolutionize the game if the coordinators and the defensive coaches and the offensive coaches get a hold of it.”
Fitzpatrick added to that, saying he thinks these developments make it easier for casual fans to get into the game on a more strategic level and praising CBS analyst Tony Romo for his past work there.
“I would just add to that really quick to say—I always go back to a few years ago; my wife has seen a lot of football over the days, wasn’t necessarily a football fan until having to watch 17 years of NFL football. But she told me she really liked Tony Romo, and I said, ‘Yes, he’s cute.’ She said, ‘No, I like him because he tells me where to put my eyes.’ And that’s something that always stuck with me because that’s what these alerts are doing.
“Everybody watches the quarterback, right? This is just giving another option to say, ‘Look, this is where the action is or this is where the action has a high probability of happening or occurring.’ I think that’s the coolest thing about this, is just giving the viewers a place to look to predict. ‘Look, this is where the action’s going to be.'”
Here’s some more information on these specific new features from an Amazon release:
1. Defensive Vulnerability
The first AI-powered TNF feature that steps beyond highlighting players to identify key areas of the field. A proprietary machine learning model uses thousands of data points before the snap to analyze defensive and offensive formations, and highlight where the offense will—or should—attempt to attack.
2. Pressure Alert
TNF’s latest AI-powered model that tracks defenders attacking the offensive backfield during live action and highlights those that are in position to disrupt the play.3. Coverage ID
Coverage Identification, another new feature set to debut this season, uses an AI model combined with live player tracking data to identify the defensive scheme (e.g. Zone, Man) for fans in real time before the snap.
We’ll see how fans receive these features, but it’s certainly notable to hear the Prime Video cast weigh in on them and explain why they think they’ll help.
