Quarterbacks—those football field generals that get so much attention in the National Football League (NFL)—have for decades used wristbands to speed up communication and improve play efficiency. These wristbands, sometimes used for just abbreviated play calls, have a wildly different level of adoption from team to team and player to player. Historical precedent, individual preference, and team-centric offensive strategy come into play when a quarterback decides to use this weapon in-game or not.
Tom Brady might be the most decorated quarterback in the history of the NFL. He controversially wore one when he played for the New England Patriots. This accessory should have served as a handy playbook for the millions of citizens. It employed some of the same shorthand notations, for instance, “38,” used to encode Yale’s detailed play calls like “0 Out Slot 62 F Slim Z Montana Flare.” Their capacity to take complicated game plans and break them down into simpler, more manageable bites has helped wristbands become a favorite tool of most quarterbacks.
Trevor Lawrence, the young phenom for the Jacksonville Jaguars, understood the advantages of wristbands early on in his burgeoning NFL career as well. He had a conversation with his new coach Liam Coen, the Jaguars’ new coach, to explain his desire to use a wristband. That’s where Coen’s understanding of offensive play-booking helped Lawrence with the minutiae, freeing him to focus on execution.
Dak Prescott has made it clear that he does not want to wear a wristband. Prescott has an unshakeable confidence in the power of memory and direct communication with his teammates. To him, this strategy is much more successful than scanning a wristband when the stakes are high.
A further colorful example is Case Keenum, who is now the backup quarterback for the Chicago Bears. Keenum has used wristbands that contain up to 200 plays printed double-sided on several pages. This extensive repertoire allows him to adapt quickly to varying game situations. He relies on a personal “dirty dozen” list. This list breaks down the 12 most crucial calls that the offense needs to get right when they’re sweat-drenched and under duress.
The use of wristbands in football has a somewhat cool backstory. In 1965, the then-running back-turned-emergency-quarterback Tom Matte was famously given one for a desperate game by the Baltimore Colts. Matte’s creative instrument of the wristband helped carry the Colts to a stunning 20-17 upset win. That creative thinking created a wave that quarterbacks across the league quickly got on board with.
To better understand the current attitudes toward wristbands, a survey was conducted among quarterbacks and coaches from 18 different teams. The findings revealed a wide array of viewpoints on the positive and negative aspects with the use of wristbands in games.
Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury is one of the standouts that would rather not wear wristbands. He articulated his feelings about the device, stating, “I just didn’t like it as a player because I didn’t like putting my eyes down, and so I just haven’t done it.” This enlightening perspective underscores just how personal and varied play-calling preferences can be between NFL signal callers.
Teams like the San Francisco 49ers let their quarterbacks wear wristbands in games. They do not allow them to be used during the offseason. This policy illustrates a wide chasm between competing coaching philosophies, in terms of preparation and in-game tactics.
Wristbands typically carry animated play menus. These menus feature base runs, third down plays, dropback passes, empty formation calls, alerts, and all sorts of other pre-snap calls. These devices provide extraordinary advantages to quarterbacks. They assist them in rapidly communicating with their fellow players and verifying play calls from their coaching staff’s on-field or off-field—i.e., sideline—personnel.
Their time-saving feature, which has been the biggest benefit of the wristbands, is especially impressive. They decrease play-calling time by at least four seconds. This enables these rookie quarterbacks to immediately enter NFL huddles and run plays without missing a beat. This rapid-fire dialogue is especially important in life-or-death, high-stakes scenarios where seconds matter.
Joshua Dobbs, an NFL quarterback, reinforced the practical advantages of wristbands by stating, “A wristband doesn’t mean you can’t process the offense.” It’s a feeling that players all over the league are getting these days. They work to have instant access to knowledge as well as develop their intellectual capacity on the court.
For some players, wristbands aren’t a natural fit right out of the box. As Joe Flacco mentioned, there were some challenges learning to adapt to such a new tool. He remarked, “When I first started using a wristband, there’s a piece of it that was harder because instead of saying [the call] and picturing it as you’re saying it, you’re just reading words.” These are the kinds of changes we see with players learning to incorporate new techniques into their on-course game plans.
Even Sam Darnold had a similar story when the subject was reflecting on his own early wristband gaffes. “That’s a mistake that I made early in my career,” he explained. These qualitative observations all point to an anecdotal narrative of the learning curve involved in implementing new play-calling methods.
This view on the purpose of communication differs between players and is often not understood. Jimmy Garoppolo emphasized the importance of clear communication amidst the chaos of a live game: “It’s just a way to communicate a lot easier with all the noise we have to deal with.” He explained that one misinterpreted word through headsets could completely change the design of the play.
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