NFL
What are the new improvements in the 2023 NFL quaterback helmets?
With the idea of raising player protection levels, NFL went on a quest, and they’ve just announced a quarterback-specific designed helmet release today.
The new quarterback helmet was manufactured by the American company Vicis and is the third of the series of specific position-designed helmets after ones already used by the offensive and defensive linemen. This was the League’s proactive response to the disappointing stats and a growing number of quarterback concussions by 18%. More than half of these concussions were produced during a head-to-ground impact.
According to Dr. Ann Bailey Good, a mechanical engineer for Biocore, which operates the lab tests, the new quarterback helmet, Zero2 Matrix, did 7% better at reducing impact severity than the most popular helmet worn by quarterbacks last season.
Design differences and improvements
Jason Neubauer, an executive for Vicis, explained the technology behind the design:
“The unique thing is that it has a deformal outer shell, which means when you take an impact in any location on that helmet, it will deform or basically dent in that location to absorb the impact,” Neubauer said. “What that means for us, as designers or engineers, as we’re looking to optimize it for different types of impacts, we’re able to change unique locations to try to optimize the impact mitigation in any one area.”
The NFL and the NFLPA already approved the use of this helmet and put the research data in their informative bulletin given to the players before every season. It’s interesting to find out that this informative bulletin contains a list of approved helmet models and designs, with recommendations on models that were protection quality downgraded or not recommended for use anymore, like some helmet models from just three years ago.
NFL:
The NFL executive Jeff Miller was satisfied with things progressing like this and felt encouraged for the future:
“Hopefully, we can continue to stimulate that either with position-specific helmets designed for each position group or for a general all-purpose helmet to be able to say to players: ‘Work with us, be willing to change helmets because better and better products are coming online every year.’”