Philly Leader

With 11 cameras circling the practice fields at the NovaCare Complex, Patrick Dolan's team captures every move the Eagles make, recording and readying it for review. Thanks to a new oversized video screen measuring 7 feet by 12 feet, coaches and players can instantly access replays of the previous snap seconds after it happens.

"Players and coaches can see it right away and they can make immediate corrections," said Dolan, the team's vice president of football technology, who joined the Eagles in 2013. "The big board is like the video screens at Lincoln Financial Field, where guys can look up and get immediate feedback. It's new for us. We've been about the tablets – we were the first team to use the tablets at practice in 2014 – and there have been other teams using the boards, so we're augmenting."

Dolan's team works around the clock to ensure smooth operations for the Eagles. In addition to filming practices and games, they manage meeting room functionality, collaborate with coaching staff on plans, and handle audio technology for practice sound systems. Every play is shot from multiple angles.

Dolan oversees seven full-time employees along with one intern; even scouts contribute by shooting video with hand-held or Pole-cam cameras.

"One of the things that has been really cool is that the entire team buys in," said Dolan. "It is a complex operation and it requires our entire team to make it work. The men and women with me are outstanding; they are valued, and there is no way we can accomplish what we accomplish without everyone playing a huge part in the process."

Video technology has significantly evolved since Dolan began his career as a graduate assistant at the University of Pittsburgh when he worked with 16-millimeter film.

During Training Camp, Dolan's team films both morning on-field practices and afternoon walkthroughs using five to seven cameras. They also cover late afternoon team meetings.

"We want to be efficient and we don't want to have a meeting interrupted because of something glitching," said Dolan, who previously worked ten seasons for the Steelers before building the Browns' video department from scratch in 1998. "This is year number 37 for me and every day is something new."

"But I love this," he added. "I love the practices and gameday experiences are second to none. We're part of a team and our mission is to win... If you would have told 12-year-old Pat Dolan that I was going to work for 37 years in the NFL, I would have signed up right then."