Demetric Felton Jr., a former standout player for UCLA and in the NFL, is developing a digital platform designed to help athletes more efficiently learn and understand team playbooks. The initiative stems from his own experiences with the challenges of quickly absorbing new schemes and terminology during his professional career.
During his rookie season with the Cleveland Browns, Felton, now 28, was required to learn both wide receiver and running back positions. Later, when he joined the Cincinnati Bengals' practice squad, he encountered unfamiliar terminology, making the process feel like learning a new language on the fly. "Why don’t teams have a better system to onboard players because guys get traded all the time and have to be able to learn a lot of this information on their own and fast?" Felton stated in an interview with the California Post. "It’s stressful, and it costs opportunities; it can cost missed plays and lost games."
With his playing career recently concluding and taking on a player development assistant role with the Browns, Felton is creating an online platform that aims to immerse players in all aspects of a team’s scheme. The system will incorporate interactive demonstrations and quizzes to gauge player comprehension. It will feature modules specific to different positions, enabling players to learn their responsibilities in various scenarios. For example, a running back could study pass protection duties against different blitzes, carrying that knowledge onto the practice field.
"If we can create ways for players to put themselves in that situation in an accessible way to mimic the type of stress that that situation puts them in, we can then be able to make it instinct or a reflex on the field," Felton explained. "Throughout my playing career, I always felt like I played the best when I wasn’t thinking and I just reacted, and when you’re confident that you know your responsibility, it allows you to play that way and that’s our whole goal with building this."
Felton hopes his platform, accessible via mobile devices and laptops, will help dispel the perception that players who struggle with playbooks lack intelligence. "I feel like the NFL and all football levels have a learning, teaching and player development problem," Felton said, "and that we can be a lot more efficient with it through technology."
He has completed a working demo for running backs and plans to expand the platform for other position groups. Felton believes the tool can eventually be adopted by teams across all levels of sport. Early feedback from NFL players who tested a version at a recent MIT founders academy was positive. "They love the ability to mentally rep a full play while they’re studying," Felton noted. "It was reaffirming to know that this is a real problem that we can solve and that I’m the right person to solve it."
Felton's dedication to his new venture reflects his transition from playing, where he recorded 20 catches for 189 yards and two touchdowns in two seasons with the Browns, to a role focused on aiding player development. "I’m not retiring because I don’t love this game," Felton wrote on Instagram. "I’m retiring because I know there’s a football player out there who needs me."