Aaron Rodgers and the Packers were monitored with advanced metrics over the past few seasons at Lambeau Field.

For two years, Lambeau Field acted as a laboratory for what is possible in understanding the National Football League. During the 2009 and 2010 seasons, 20 cameras set up around the Green Bay Packers’ hallowed stadium were used to test the next phase of analyzing football.

Using optical recognition technology, the cameras tracked each player as he flew around the field, collecting information and quantifying what has long been a cliché thrown around the league.

The tracking cameras had figured out game speed. It was capable of placing a number to the tiny marginal differences in speed barely picked up by eye. It could put a time span on a running back’s burst from the snap to the line of scrimmage, or a linebacker’s recognition of a run play to the moment he swarmed to the play.

Using the same technology that has made SportVU a revelation in the NBA, STATS — a longtime game statistics provider to the NFL — is ready to bring these cameras to the football field.

By tracking the X, Y and Z coordinates, every object on the field can be quantified. Where advanced analytics have already gained a foothold in the league, its merger with scouting and game action may be the next step in its evolution.

SportsVU is being used by 15 teams in the NBA, according to reports, and there is a clamor for the NFL to join in.

There is a dichotomy between organizations that want to use and implement the technology available, and the league office that is unwilling. The NFL does not even let teams use computers in the coaches’ box during games — perhaps at the risk of one team gaining a competitive advantage.

Paraag Marathe, the 49ers’ chief operating officer, called it an "anti-technology rule."

"That’s a little bit 1940s still," he said at the MIT Sloan Sports Conference in March.

But while being governed by a technophobic league, some are waiting for the next step.

John Pollard, STATS general manager, said five teams have already reached out to ask about installing their cameras during a practice — a period in which the NFL does not prevent their usage.

Unlike the NBA, the NFL does not give individual teams the option to decide whether the technology is appropriate for them. It is all or nothing. For now, it is nothing, after the camera tracking program came in front of the league’s competition committee in 2010 but did not pass. This past season, they had tracking cameras in several stadiums, but only on an experimental basis.

"John would like the league to put that stuff in," said Tony Khan, the senior vice president of football technology and analytics for the Jacksonville Jaguars. "I would like the league to put that stuff in."

"Hopefully, leaguewide, they integrate either SportVU or a comparable product or a better thing if there is one."

SCOUTING IN THE LEAD

There already is a technological movement afoot. Teams are looking for new ways to streamline their scouting process or cap management. To make their work easier, simpler, faster, better.

In March, SAP — a multinational analytics and business software provider — announced a partnership with the 49ers. They had built a scouting application for the Niners, at the club’s behest, allowing scouts to file their reports electronically, create a universal system for the front office and make reports available at a click. To do so, the Niners allowed SAP programmers to spend hundreds of hours with the front office, question their needs and shadow them.

Then they built a system individualized for them. At the Sloan Conference, they marketed the archetype to any interested NFL teams and allowed them to buy the service and have it modified for their needs.

Pollard noted that 49ers general manager Trent Baalke has been working for years to stay ahead of the curve. Pollard knows what that drive looks like. He made his entrance into the league with the Saints, hired away from Microsoft, and developed a similar system for New Orleans.

That later led him to STATS, where he developed the ICE and X-Info systems, which are used by 12 teams. It is a multi-level statistical and scouting system that tracks in-depth stats like cornerback burns and can split up plays by success, personnel packages and direction.

In the lead-up to the Fiesta Bowl, Chip Kelly, now the Eagles’ coach, used it to prepare his Oregon team for Kansas State.

"They’re V-12 engines," Pollard said of front offices and coaches. "What type of grade fuel am I going to put in that engine? What we’re trying to do is put the best fuel in front of decision-makers."

The NFL has also taken steps. In a project they call Next Generation Stats, they experimented with placing computer chips into players’ shoulder pads last season, first reported by CBS Sports. Brian McCarthy, a league spokesman, said the league would track how fast players are running, the distances covered, and potentially more. He said tests are ongoing.

However, the database of information would be collected for public consumption — for fantasy and perhaps for a health and safety purpose.

"We’re different in many ways than the NBA," McCarthy said. "They’re on their own and we’re at a different stage and we’re just not making things public yet."

During the 2009 season, according to an ESPN report, the NFL allowed four companies to install cameras in stadiums and track play. However, Mike Jakob, the president of SportVision, one of those companies that was allowed access, said no system is currently being used in the league by any company. The SEC, Pac-12, and Big 12 will electronically track players during the upcoming season, according to an AL.com report.

SportVision, which runs Pitchf/x in baseball, runs a system in which they would put tracking devices on players during games. SportVision, Jakob said, has the capability to offer real-time location of players, allowing for information like spacing at the line of scrimmage and distance between the quarterback and wide receiver.

"I would say football coaches and teams have been much more focused on video than raw analytics, as opposed to a sport like baseball," Jakob said.

"There’s definitely a trend to wanting more and more analytic information, particularly if they can combine analytical information with video. … It feels like on the whole the sport of football is a couple of years behind baseball, as an example. That’s a sport that’s put more focus on analytical data, but I’ve definitely seen a movement to catch up."

A HEALING AID

As the NFL begins to integrate technology, one of most important points of impact could be in injury analytics. It is a difficult field, with accurate data hard to come by.

Teams have tried to fight the injury scourge in crude ways. Some develop injury profiles, scouring through large numbers of injury reports and players’ injury history to come to an assumption about which ones should be avoided. Older defensive ends that have had knee injuries are an example of a profile to be avoided, because they are often unable to come back with the requisite amount of explosiveness.

But technology allows for a more acute picture. The Jaguars use it while watching players rehab from injuries, tracking how much stress and workload they undergo to ensure that they receive the proper amount.

Khan pinpoints the Niners and Falcons as the two best teams in the league at injury mitigation. Dave Caldwell, the Jaguars’ new general manager, came from the Falcons.

And the Jaguars have already been using their own practices. They have GPS units that they can use during practice and accelerometers to track stress on a player. It allows them to not only keep track of the amount of miles walked or run by a player, but also the amount of high-intensity running they undergo. In turn, they have an odometer on them to make sure they don’t overwork.

"I think they’ve already proven to be very interesting and we’ve revamped some things so we can use them better," Khan said.

Still, there is a limit. As much as teams press and prod, for now they are limited to practice. Khan cannot wait until they can also track information during games.

"We can only do as much as the league allows us to do," Khan said.

In the NFL, Sundays are still the final frontier.