“There’s a lot of really good talent that doesn’t make any NFL rosters, full stop.” BreakAway Data’s Steve Gera on XFL Partnership

By Reid Johnson

On the August 19, 2022 edition of The Markcast, co-founder and president of BreakAway Data Steve Gera sat down to talk through his company’s partnership with the XFL, the talent they’re seeing being scouted for the league’s return in 2023, Jordan Palmer’s hiring to help train the XFL’s quarterbacks, and more.

Throughout the last few months, the XFL had head local regional showcases around the US to look for talent ahead of their return to the field in February of 2023. Steve Gera and his company BreakAway data has been working alongside the XFL and the players at those showcase to provide the most up-to-date and reliable data for both the league in terms of scouting potential talent, and for the players looking to better their skillsets.

“So we're an athlete data company. What we do is we do really two core things. One is we put performance data in the hands of athletes. The second thing that we do too, is we have a product called field labs, which is an on-field biomechanics lab. We figure out exactly how much, how fast they get off the line of scrimmage, how much bend they actually get, do they accelerate or do they decelerate when they're actually in that, how's their burst...So what we do is we quantify all that.”

The XFL through their showcases and other scouting programs has seen hundreds of players across the country just this summer alone, what does Steve Gera think of the level of talent that’s available to the XFL, considering the USFL is already in full-swing planning for season 2 and many players are still tied up in NFL training camps.

“Listen, there's a lot of really good talent that doesn't make any NFL rosters like full stop. There's plenty of really good talent to have some compelling, you know, leads, especially with the XFL. Here's what I'd say is that after going to those showcases, I was really, I wouldn't say surprised, but I was, I was just, I was excited, about really two core things. One how much talent's actually out there, and then B, how much excitement is out there. The guys who were showing up to these showcases and the guys who were playing at this level, they love the game more than anything.

Along with the data-tracking and analytics that BreakAway Data can provide, Gera is confident that they can help the XFL discover the best talent possible.

“In today's game when coaches are so creative in creating one-on-one matchups and schemes, the name of the game in today's football is how do you find those undervalued talents who may not have ‘NFL measurables’  but are really damn good at one thing? There are a lot of athletes out there right now, and a lot of football players who are really good at some very specific things. And we were able to uncover a lot of that.”

The XFL announced this week the hiring of Jordan Palmer as their head of quarterback development, I asked Steve his thoughts on Jordan’s hiring and his role at XFL.

“There's a lot of really great quarterback coaches out there, but I don't know if you can find anyone better than Jordan right now, as far as like actually being able to take different styles of quarterbacks and get the best out them. He's amazing at doing that understanding, you know, a specific QB and then how to not to try and make them play the way that Jordan wants to see them play, but what I've seen is he just accentuates the best qualities out of quarterbacks. He does a tremendous job, probably the best in the business right now, in my humble opinion, as far as getting the best out of them.

Steve Gera also believes the XFL’s centralized approach to training and housing its players for the first three seasons will pay dividends to the level of play that hits the field.

“I think the thing that, that really gives you an advantage over is as frankly, just like kind of the quality control of the athlete development. Is it allows you instead of having eight teams spread out all over the place and so your knowledge is all of a sudden, very distributed, the great thing is is that by having all the knowledge of the league in that, in that tight confinement we're gonna see a lot of dividends on everything from return-to-play, when players get injured to personalized athlete development. Now you're gonna be able to reach back and forth between all the different people who are gonna be involved and you're gonna be able to solve and get some good solutions for specific athletes across all the different teams, and that's gonna raise all ships.”

Be sure to check out my full interview with Steve Gera of BreakAway Data at the link below!