The NFL and NFLPA stated that a quarterback-specific helmet will be made available for the first time during the 2023 season as part of the announcement of their yearly helmet testing results. When a quarterback’s helmet contacts the ground, 50% of all concussions occur. These impacts will be less severe thanks to this helmet. In tests specifically designed for quarterbacks, the VICIS ZERO2 MATRIX QB outperformed the most common helmet used by quarterbacks last season by 7%.
The most recent development in helmet technology is the creation of helmets tailored to the needs of particular position groups. To provide players with more individualized protection, position-specific helmet designs take into account the distinct locations and velocities of head blows for each position group. The league provides advanced video footage and data from mouthguard sensors to helmet makers in order to inform their improved designs. In the upcoming years, more positions will be subject to position-specific assessment.
An offensive and defensive linemen-specific helmet was first introduced in the 2021 season, and now a quarterback-specific helmet has been added. The top two helmets in the 2023 NFL-NFLPA rankings are now two OL and DL-specific models.
According to Jeff Miller, NFL Executive Vice President for Player Health and Safety, “Helmets customized to the unique experiences of a position group promote player safety.” This represents the next step in the market for better helmets, which is expanding quickly. We’re pleased to provide the information required to develop and produce superior machinery.
The NFL and NFLPA‘s annual helmet laboratory testing results reveal ongoing improvements in helmet safety. 50 helmet models, three of which were new, were ranked by two jointly chosen biomechanical engineers. In keeping with a pace of development in helmet performance that has increased by nine times since before the program’s inception in 2015, two of the new models placed in the “Top-Performing” group.
Seven helmets from the “top-performing” category in 2020 have been “newly-prohibited” for the upcoming season.
Other Players
Per Reinhall was startled in the early 2010s while watching a football game by the sound of helmets crashing fiercely against one another. His television echoed with the audible cracks of the crashes, which gave him an idea.
There has to be a better way, Reinhall reasoned. Although the mechanical engineering professor at the University of Washington was aware that such blows were inevitable in football, he started to think about ways to reduce the likelihood of head injuries as a result.
Samuel Browd, a pediatric neurosurgeon at UW who was concerned about the amount of kids he had to medically remove from sports due to serious concussions, approached Reinhall a few years later.
Reinhall presented Browd with a concept for developing soft-shell helmets that might more effectively absorb impacts during their meeting over coffee. They worked together on initial ideas that ultimately inspired them to launch VICIS, a helmet brand, in 2013.
VICIS, which was purchased by Schutt in 2020, is generating headlines ten years later. From minor football leagues to the pros, the company’s helmets are in use. Some well-known NFL players wear helmets, including Maxx Crosby, Joey Bosa, Nick Bosa, Tua Tagovailoa, Russell Wilson, Derek Carr, Jimmy Garoppolo, Kenny Pickett, and Russell Wilson. All 32 NFL clubs have ordered VICIS helmets for the 2023 season.
The five helmets made by VICIS that perform the best in terms of lessening the severity of head hits are those tested in the lab by the NFL and NFLPA in 2023. Players remain healthier and there is more stability in the line up according to editors at sports betting news.
In a phone conversation conducted earlier this month, Reinhall stated, “I believe that we changed the entire industry.” “I think we had a significant impact on the industry, so to speak — pardon the pun — and made it safer,” the author said.
The “local deformation,” which refers to the idea that the area where impact occurs really absorbs impacts, is the most distinctive feature of VICIS soft-shell helmets. When there is a collision with a typical hard-shell helmet, the entire helmet structure moves.
According to VICIS vice president of product development Jason Neubauer, “the way it’s typically described to people is the difference between a bumper on a typical car built today versus a 1980 (Ford) Bronco that was a huge piece of steel.” “Unfortunately, these days, if you get into a fender bender, often times your entire front end is perhaps damaged. On the other side, it also indicates that you didn’t have to because the entire front end fell way and absorbed the impact.
VICIS has the adaptability to fine-tune that absorption in some spots without compromising other locations thanks to the helmets’ malleable outer shells. This has made it possible for them to design helmets that are molded for particular position groups and people. The Zero2 Matrix QB is made for quarterbacks, the Zero2 Matrix ID may be customized to a player’s head shape, and the Zero2 Trench was the first helmet made particularly for offensive and defensive lineman.
Although no helmet can entirely avoid concussions, VICIS is a frontrunner in the field when it comes to lowering head injuries. The NFL and NFLPA claim that over the past five to seven seasons, between 20 and 25 NFL concussions per year have been avoided because to better helmet designs made possible by improvements from VICIS and other businesses. Companies must keep looking for methods to advance their equipment after a season in which there were 149 concussions, according to the NFL – a rise from 126 in 2021.
