Lewis introduced readers to Brandon Ally and Scott Wylie, former college athletes who had worked with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients and were “studying how humans perceive and process information.”
When they watched the 2014 NFL Draft, they wondered if they could tweak the existing tests that helped them understand these degenerative diseases and apply that knowledge to sports. What if they could quantify a player’s ability to process information on the field?
Instead of the commonly known Wonderlic test, Ally and Wylie “sought something different – a quick test that did not allow for reasoning and forced the athlete to make instinctual decisions without thinking.”
According to Lewis, Ally and Wylie started a company called S2 Cognition and “contracted teams – like LSU – to vet their product.”
As Marucci began to see the scores, he was taken aback. Good cornerbacks and receivers performed better than most. The more he thought about why — they have to quickly make decisions and improvise when things don’t go as planned — the more he understood about players who had long piqued his interest.
By the time Jefferson arrived on campus, Marucci was sold on S2’s value. Each Tigers player took the 30- to 45-minute test, and Jefferson, a skinny two-star recruit from just outside New Orleans who arrived late to camp, scored in the 91stpercentile in a database normed to NFL players. Furthermore, he tested well in three categories integral for many successful receivers: search efficiency, decision complexity and improvisation.
“It was like, ‘Holy s—, he is off the charts,'” Ally told Lewis. “He can see the field really well. He can find space. He can filter through if/then rules very quickly. And then he can improvise, not only finding alternatives but also making in-flight adjustments. When he leaves the ground, he can adjust his body to a poorly thrown ball.”
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