INSIDE THE SESSION: Press Man Drill

This video is a clip from one of my All Eyes DB Camp sessions,  hence the reason for the name “Inside the Session” Duh!

Nevertheless,  with this group of high school aged athletes in South Florida,  we are doing the kick slide and get up drill.  As pointed out in one of my more recent What Did He Do Wrong member’s area posts involving AJ Terrell in the college football championship game,  cornerbacks in press man will often run into trouble failing to get their hips up the field fast enough to cover vertical routes.  Many times,  they will round off their turns and chase jams on WRs that are already outside of their frame and getting up the field.  What this causes is the DB to either get stacked or fall behind the WR and neither of those things are good.

The drill I am running in this session prevents this from happening to the defensive backs.  I am not talking over the audio in this video.  All the audio you hear is from me coaching up the players in the drill at the actual session.

First thing you are going to hear me emphasizing is the need to stream line the drill.  So I separated the groups by cornerbacks and safeties.  During the first time through the drill,  the safeties are the DBs and the next time the cornerbacks are the DBs.  You will hear me telling the players to hustle up and get lined up and to hurry to the line when it is their turn.  So much time gets lost in training or in practice during setting up and running drills.  All players on defense need to learn to have a sense of urgency in practice and especially during individual periods.  Individual periods are crucial to developing the skill level of players.  Second,  as players,  learning how to move quickly through practice and training sessions will only make you more impressive to coaches on your team and at all the camps you go to where you are heavily evaluated.

The next and the most important thing you will hear me emphasizing as it pertains to this drill is for the players to not round off their turns once the player moves outside of their frame to get up the field.  Playing defensive back is about angles and this is one of the more crucial areas where that is the case.  Sometimes you could be doing great things at the line of scrimmage and lose the rep simply from having an inefficient turn.

You will also hear me mention things like staying in your kick slide until its time to run and when you run do run,  do it vertically not horizontally.  It’s a little thing that means a lot in press man.

The rest,  you will pick up by watching the video and listening to me coach the players of various degrees of experience and skill perform the reps.  I would love your feedback on this video though so reach out to me at: cwilson@alleyesdbcamp.com with questions and comments.  Thank you for being a member.

• Author
• Recent Posts

alleyesdbcamp

Owner at All Eyes DB Camp

Chad Wilson is the founder of All Eyes DB Camp and a former standout defensive back for the Miami Hurricanes. After an elite collegiate career, Wilson spent a season with the Seattle Seahawks before transitioning into coaching. A 3-time Florida state champion defensive coordinator, he has spent over 20 years developing the "All Eyes" blueprint that has produced NFL All-Pros and stars like Xavien Howard, Patrick Surtain II, Tyson Campbell, Minkah Fitzpatrick and more. His coaching system is proven at the highest levels—his own sons, Quincy and Marco Wilson, both excelled as starters in the SEC before being drafted into the NFL.

Chad is the author of "101 DB Tips"—The Ultimate DB Reference Guide. You can find more information on the manual and how to order your copy in the sidebar and footer of this page.

Latest posts by alleyesdbcamp (see all)

• These 4 Drills Will Drastically Improve Your Off Man Coverage - February 25, 2026
• How Elite DBs Read Route Concepts Before the Snap - February 25, 2026
• When it Comes to Playing DB…. Smooth is Fast - February 18, 2026