The Washington Commanders’ offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury is all-in on VR training, something the team’s star quarterback Jayden Daniels credits for accelerating his development, the New York Times reports.

A former quarterback for Texas Tech himself, the intense realism was clear to Kingsbury from the snap.

“The first time I put [the VR headset] on, I backed into the wall,” Kingsbury told NYT. “It felt like the [pass] rush was coming.”

Daniels is a big driver behind the Commanders’ adoption of the app, which was initially developed by German company Cognilize for top flight soccer players. Daniels says he owes his rapid progress to his Vr training, having used the app during his Heisman Trophy-winning 2023 season quarterbacking at LSU, and now leading the Commanders to a 5-2 record.

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Essentially, Cognilize’s app gives players like Daniels to the ability do mental reps at significantly lower physical strain than training on the field, allowing him to rush through plays at the highest speed to better hone his ability to read defenses.

Daniels explained how it work on the ‘All Facts No Brakes’ show with Keyshawn Johnson back in May:

“They load in the stadium you’re playing in, and it looks exactly like the stadium. And it’s moving faster than a human being would be moving. I’ll get in there, and say, they’ll probably give me 7 seconds to know the play. Pre-snap, I get to see the coverage and know where I’m going with the football, all before the play clock runs out.” That, and Kingsbury’s voice directs the VR sessions, giving Daniels real insight into virtual plays.

“It’s as real as game reps,” Kingsbury explained, adding that the VR app has become a major component of their weekly process. To boot, Daniels works with the app every morning, comparing it to a “flight simulator for QBs.”

“It’s a unique technology, and it’s definitely for the quarterbacks,” Kingsbury said. “I think it is more effective than them just watching the film. They’re going through their reads, they’re going through their progressions, they’re seeing it.”

Despite suffering a rib injury during the recent 40-7 blowout victory against the Carolina Panthers, raising concerns about Daniels’ availability for the remainder of the season, the news actually looks good. Daniels may only miss out on the upcoming game against the Chicago Bears—giving him more time to get mental reps in at his own speed in VR and recover from the injury without stopping training regime altogether.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Christian Schildwaechter

    That's an interesting use of VR training, which most people associate with realistic simulation, be it stacking boxes as a super market trainee or driving a virtual truck through Europe. But for most tasks actual realism is neither achievable in VR due to restricted movement or limited dexterity from clunky controllers and unreliable hand tracking, nor is "do the same thing, but in VR" even efficient for learning.

    The team doesn't use VR for physical training. Instead players are placed in a realistic looking scenario and quickly have to decide their next move, but then don't actually execute it. It's all about recognizing the situation and making the strategic best decision. Strategy is always a part of training, but usually on a whiteboard with clean top-down views of abstract player positions, asking for a matching play. Important, but leaving out the part where players have to first spot other players and then create that top-down view mentally.

    Here VR will be the most useful: instead of simulating the whole process, allowing to repeatedly run through short, but complex situations that require both quick evaluations and decisions. So supermarket trainees won't stack virtual boxes, but have to answer incomprehensible customer questions, or decide between first cleaning up a broken jar and opening another checkout for the annoyed customers waiting in long queues. Just like professional pilots don't train long flights with smooth landings like MSFS players, but instead get thrown into lots of nerve wrecking emergencies to gain vital experience.