How Xbox One's NFL App Makes Watching Football More Like Madden

The NFL is constantly looking into how to make watching football more exciting, more informative, and a better experience for fans. This goal has encouraged the organization to go after new, bleeding-edge technology to integrate with NFL broadcasts and shows.

Some of the additions over the years have been better than others--the Skycam is still, in my opinion, a terrible way to watch plays--but what Microsoft and the NFL are doing this year for the next update to the Xbox One's NFL app looks like it's bringing some good improvements to how fans watch football.

"Next Gen Stats" headlines the new features in the app. It provides a massive amount of information to viewers about player positioning and behavior. Last year, the NFL quietly began to roll out the Next Gen Stats program, which placed computer chips in players' gear to gather data.

Now, Microsoft is using that data. It lets fans see how a play happens via symbolic representation, showing exactly the routes receivers run, how defensive backs get fooled by pump fakes, or the mistake in a offensive lineman's blocking pattern that lets a defenseman through to get a sack. You'll also be able to see each player's speed during a play. Microsoft is using this speed data to also create a mini-game, of sorts, in the app. Each week, you can vote on which of a handful of players you think will run the fastest.

In addition, for fantasy football fans, Microsoft has dramatically increased the visibility of player performance in real time. Instead of having to dig through menus and jump out of games you're watching, now you'll be able to directly track specific players. The NFL app will then push notifications about their performance to you as it happens. During an example demo, as we watched a Patriots vs. Packers game, we received updates about Saints quarterback Drew Brees. It's an elegant way to get immediate updates about what your fantasy players are doing while still watching a live game, and it looks pretty similar to the pre-snap audible/hot route overlay in Madden NFL games. Microsoft actually told us during our demo that the app's testers have often spoken about its similarity to the video game series, because it gives fans virtual representation of information in more ways than was previously possible.

If you want a bit more information than just an Xbox notification, you can also now Snap stat pages from the app to the side of the screen. For example, if you're watching a pre-game show and you want to see who's in each team's lineups, you can snap the app to the right side and pull up team information while still watching the show.

Of course, to watch live shows through the app, you'll need to have a few subscriptions. A subscription to the NFL Network will let you view a bunch of football commentary shows through the app; Sunday Ticket gives you the ability to see live games. But even if you don't have any subscriptions at all--even Xbox Live Gold--you'll still be able to access the new, Next Gen Stats-enhanced replays, some clips of analysis and commentary, and all of the fantasy football support built into the app.

To me, it seems like the new Xbox app might mark a pretty significant change in how football is presented to an audience. Its past iterations have already let you watch a lot of football from your Xbox One system--the NFL recently broadcast the draft through the app--and now hardcore football fans have more ways than ever before to consume information. But the Next Gen Stats system might actually let casual viewers comprehend the sport better, with clear symbolic representations of football plays. Now you can more easily see how a receiver runs a route, or how a quarterback chooses his open receiver.

The newly improved app will be available for the beginning of the NFL season next month. How else do you want to see technology change the experience of watching football? Let us know in the comments.