Josh Allen using 3D technology to 'clean up' mechanics after injuries changed throwing motion (2024)

ORCHARD PARK - Josh Allen now resides in an NFL neighborhood reserved for superstars with nine-figure contracts, but that does not mean the quest for improvement ever ceases.

The Buffalo Bills quarterback is coming off four consecutive 4,000-yard passing seasons and in three of those, he finished top five in the NFL MVP balloting. He has also completed 65.5% of his passes and thrown 137 TD passes in that span, but those aren’t really the numbers he focuses on.

“I think that there’s inefficiencies that every quarterback can find,” Allen said, meaning over the last four years he has also failed to complete 34.5% of his passes which includes 57 interceptions. “You show me the perfect throw, I’ll tell you something wrong with it probably.”

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That’s why during the offseason - as he has done dating back to 2020 which just so happens to be the season of his breakthrough - he is working with Chris Hess, owner of Biometrek, a Newport Beach, California-based sports science company whose mission statement says, “We harness state-of-the-art bio-mechanical movement technology to objectively measure the unique way your body moves. We bring our mobile studio to you, to help optimize movement, avoid injury and track progress.”

In layman’s terms, Biometrek uses a technology that features a 3D Motion Capture system that, as Allen explained, is “digitally mapping our throwing motions and just seeing what we can tighten up on and improve on and just having that in the back of our mind. If you can deliver the ball as consistently as possible, it takes less to think about and then you can focus more on what the defense is presenting. So yeah, just trying to be as efficient as possible with my throwing motion.”

The matrix of high-speed cameras used by Hess - a former Kansas State long snapper - gives Allen a view of his entire process from the moment he takes the snap until he is following through after delivering the ball, with emphasis placed on pelvis rotation and making sure the pelvis is forming a fulcrum for the torso to rotate around, elbow extension, and internal shoulder rotation.

“For each quarterback, the key is finding the most efficient throwing motion for how their body moves and is constructed,” Hess told Sports Business Journal a few years ago.

Allen felt that by the end of last season his mechanics were screwed up, partially because of the injuries he suffered during the season. His instincts were correct because he said when he went back and reviewed the tape, he could see the problems more clearly.

“Going back to last year, obviously a couple little tweaks whether it was in the shoulder, the elbow, whatever it was, it changes how you throw it just a little bit because your body is shielding itself from pain,” he said. “So making sure that I’m just kind of getting back to how I’m supposed to throw and what my body is capable of doing. Just trusting what the data is saying right now and just trying to feel it above all else.”

Allen said that in compensating for the discomfort in his golden arm, “It just kind of changed how I was releasing and delivering the ball. That’s what the video showed, that’s what I was feeling. You could kind of see I was getting pretty low and wide with the ball.”

Thus, part of the work he has done to get back on track has been happening before OTA practices, and now this week’s mandatory minicamp, get underway.

“Getting back to some drills and some work that we do before we get into practice stuff, just subtle reminders of where to hold the ball, how to turn and where to release it,” he said. “It’s something that we’ll be working on this next month that we have off and just trying to go into training camp, ramping up the right way.”

Allen laughed when he was asked to compare his mechanics now to when he was in high school and then in college at Wyoming. Obviously, it’s way better now.

“Yeah, it’s completely … I mean it’s night and day in terms of the type of thrower I am and where I held the ball, where I released the ball,” he said. “Looks like a different guy. Sometimes it’ll pop up like when I click on YouTube, I’ll see a video and I’m like, ‘Who’s that throwing the ball?’ And it’s me. It’s kind of gross to look at it sometimes, but I don’t think it’s as gross anymore.”

Allen actually compared the work he is doing with how professional golfers alter their swings, even if it’s just the most miniscule of adjustments.

“I wouldn’t call it a complete overhaul of my throwing motion, but definitely some things to work on and clean up,” he said. “Anytime you go through something like that, sometimes it’s gonna feel really good, sometimes it’s not gonna feel really good. It’s just like changing your swing in golf, as long as you’re trusting it and you keep working on it, each and every day results will come.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out every other Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Josh Allen using 3D technology to tweak throwing motion after injuries