Getty Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander called back to his safety on Kirk Cousins in 2020 ahead of the team's season opener on September 11, 2022.
The Minnesota Vikings are less than a month away from their season opener against their NFC North rival Green Bay Packers — a highly anticipated matchup between the top two teams in the division.
And it appears the Packers are pulling out all the stops to gain an edge on their competition, including Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins.
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Packers Are the 1st Team to Use Futuristic Throwing Machine
On August 15, ESPN’s NFL Nation Packers beat reporter Rob Demovsky tweeted a video of a Green Bay staff member showing how the Packers have been using a state-of-the-art pitching machine this offseason.
The “Seeker,” which manufacturer Monarc Sports calls “the world’s first robot quarterback, is a JUGS machine that is programmable, allowing it to perform like a robot quarterback, punter or kicker.
The Packers staff member explained in an example that safety Adrian Amos, who has a personal Seeker at home as well, can program the machine to throw a ball at a specific speed and angle.
“He can watch film on Kirk Cousins and say when Kirk throws a 30-yard corner ball he has it out in 44 mph in 3.1 seconds. Then he can go back in the safety spot with [a sensor] on his hip… and now that ball is out to him in exact Kirk Cousins settings,” a spokesperson at Packers training camp said, per Demovsky. “Turns pass break-ups into picks, essentially prepares you for whatever quarterback you’re going to play.”
In essence, Amos can see continuous reps of what a corner route may look like from Cousins without a hitch or break in action.
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The Packers are the first NFL team to try out the “Seeker” from @MonarcSport
It’s like a JUGS machine on steroids.
Another demonstration showed the Seeker sending rapid-fire punts with specific hang time and distance dialed in. A Packers linebacker said in passing, “This is how the robots are going to win the war.”
Here’s the Seeker in action doing rapid-fire punts set to a specific hang time and distance.
Meanwhile, LB Kirk Olivadotti walked by and said: “This is how the robots are going to win the war.” pic.twitter.com/vV1YicQykl
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) August 15, 2022
Green Bay is clearly investing into the future development of their players. A JUGS machine currently costs a little under $4,000 on the company website. Meanwhile, the Seeker, which continues to rise in price with ongoing innovations in programming and technology, is last reported to cost at least $50,000, according to Forbes.com.
Seeker Helped Fuel LSU, Justin Jefferson’s Title Run
If anyone knows the benefits of using a seeker, it’s Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson.
While at LSU, Jefferson and the rest of the Tigers receiving corps were introduced to the Seeker while training for his senior season.
The challenge: catch 10,000 balls that summer. Seeker turned that season-long challenge into a month’s task.
One LSU receiver could catch 572 balls in an hour with the machine, allowing him to complete the goal in 20 days.
Love seeing the @LSUfootball pass catchers getting the most out of their custom Seeker!
Also getting awesome feedback from their staff on massive increases to #SpecialTeams effectiveness 👊🐯
#Football #Collegefootball #CFB #NFLSU #NFL #SEC #WideReceiver #LSU #Tigers #WR #TE
The Seeker was more than just a standoff shooter for LSU. Using “Monarc Pulse tags,” receivers could track their speed, location, acceleration, reaction time and rep efficiency.
“These wide receivers, they don’t need a quarterback. Now they can run routes where you put in the play scripts and let them actually have a practice without a quarterback,” LSU athletic director of training John Marucci told Saturday Down South in 2021. “They just wanna catch footballs.”
It paid off for LSU’s prolific passing game that season. They caught a combined 241 passes for 3,991 yards and 51 touchdowns in Joe Brady’s revolutionary offense en route to a national title.
Special teams also benefited greatly from the Seeker. Before using the Seeker, LSU could carve out roughly a dozen punt cover reps in three minutes.
That number spiked to 52 with the Seeker.
“At LSU, for their special teams, they saw a 450% increase in the number of reps that they were able to receive in a three-minute period,” Monarc co-CEO Igor Karlicic told CBS Sports. “You go from eight to 12 reps to 52 in the same period. That’s a quantum leap in the amount of reps you can get.”