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3 Things You Need to Do to Improve Your Off Man Coverage

Press man has been the rage for about two decades now.  Talk to a young cornerback and he’ll tell you that if you don’t play press man as a cornerback then you are faker than a $2 bill.

Ask any cornerback with some experience though and he’ll tell you a real cornerback can play both press man and off man.  When I go to 7on7 events and camps to evaluate young cornerbacks,  the first thing I look at is who is not afraid to play off the ball and who actually knows how to play off the ball.  What those two things tell me is that the player has been coached and knows something.  Just about any kid can go out to the park and play press man with their group of friends.  Any coach can go tell you to get up in a guy’s face and press him.  They don’t even have to tell you how to do it right and you don’t even have to do it right because just about everyone is doing it.

Now when I see a defensive back play off man with poise,  control and IQ I know we are dealing with a true servant of the position.  So with that in mind,  the question is,  how do you play good off man coverage?  I have a few things that will help you greatly.

(1) Improve Footwork

One of the number one reasons that guys don’t like playing off man is because they are not confident in their footwork.  Most guys are at the park trying to stab a wide receiver in the chest the moment he moves.  Few guys go out and really work on their back pedal.  That back pedal is going to be essential for you to maintain your cushion on the wide receiver as he pushes down the field.

Even less guys work on their weave which is your ability to remain in your backpedal while moving laterally.  Having a good weave allows you to handle the stem of a wide receiver who is attacking your leverage.

If guys aren’t working their backpedal then there’s little chance that they are working on their breaks out of the back pedal. When that wide receiver breaks off his route while you are in your pedal or even when you turn out of it,  you better know the proper way to stick your foot in the ground and get to his hip.

Finally,  turning out of a backpedal has provided some pretty good blooper tape for untrained defensive backs.  It looks simple but there is an art to doing it smoothly and with precision.  Working the turn consistently happens to be the best way to get good at it.  Raise your hand if you are shocked by me saying that.

If you click on the highlighted links in this first paragraph,  you will be taken to my basic tutorial videos on those elements of footwork that you will need.

(2) Develop Eye Discipline

This happens to be the hardest part.  Most poor coverage examples that you will see during a game at any level will start with a break down of the defensive back’s eye discipline.

Most defensive backs don’t train their eyes.  First because they don’t know how,  second because it’s difficult to do on your own.  Basically,  human beings have a tough time seeing their eyes while they are using them to see.  Crazy,  I know.  So the best way to get the eyes trained is to have someone there watching your eyes and giving you feedback.

If you do find yourself training alone quite often then have no fear.  You can still train your eyes.  To do so,  you are going to have to focus on them.  It’s tough as you want to focus on other easier things to evaluate during your drills like your feet and your hands.  You can see them but your eyes and feet take orders from your brain who collects data from your eyes.  It’s vicious cycle.  When you are training be aware of what you are looking at.  Sometimes just let your feet go on auto-pilot.  You’ve been focusing on them all your life,  let them do their thing while you pay extra attention to what your eyes are doing.  So,  for instance,  if you are working a W drill,  pretend that you are looking at the quarterback as you are back pedaling then as soon as you break turn your eyes to the cone and pretend that it is the WR.  Some day soon,  I will make either a video or write an article about eye training.  It’s the least I could do as the owner of a company called All Eyes DB Camp.

(3) Study Film

Sometimes after all the footwork and eye training it’s just great to have an idea of where a guy is going to go.  No great DB has ever been great without having some power of anticipation.  The only way to develop anticipation is by watching film of your enemy (also known as the offense).  One can not predict the future without studying the history.  An offenses’ film is their history and believe me,  it has a habit of repeating itself.

Carefully studying not only wide receivers but quarterbacks can give you some clues as to what may be coming.  Being able to eliminate certain routes either before the snap or within the first second or two of a play gives you a great advantage.  Now your footwork is smoother and your eyes work better when things are unfolding the way you expected.

Yes,  I know,  the current football society doesn’t reward you for playing off  man but for the sake of the longevity and legitimacy of your football career,  take an interest in learning how to play man to man seven yards off the ball.  Your coach will love you for it and I’m giving you the permission to tell him it was all your idea.

No There Isn’t A Secret Drill for That

Sometimes things in life are just simple.  They end up being so simple that you just refuse to believe them.  In your mind,  if it was that simple then everyone would be able to do it.  Here’s the thing about simple,  it scares a lot of people and the rest just get bored with it.

I often get asked the question,  what drill can I do to help me with something I am doing wrong in another drill?  A more specific question would be “what drill can I do to come out of my back pedal faster?”  My answer when read by the person who asked the question can be deflating. “Back pedal and break”  or “Do the W drill”  Most of the times,  that’s not what a person wants to hear.  They want to hear about the super secret drill I taught my sons and the 100’s of others that I have coached and trained.

I know what it is.  We live in a society where things happen fast,  people thrive on quick results and there’s literally an app for every problem in the App Store.  Well almost everything.  Some things,  typically those things worth having,  still require time, patience and perseverance.  The time and patience come from performing simple drills many times.  The perseverance comes when you don’t get quick results,  still get it wrong and must endure the failures to get to the triumphs.

Sure,  I don’t show everything that I do on my social media accounts.  It took a lot of time, trial, error and personal research to acquire the answers that I have discovered.  I believe a man should be compensated for his time and expertise.  I also know that on some occasions there are some tweaks you can make to a drill to boost the acquisition of a skill.  By and large though,  becoming highly skilled at anything,  especially defensive back involves the repetitive execution of basic movements that are the essence of what you will do in competition on game day.  The problem as I stated in the opening is that this can become very boring for many.  Therein becomes the reason why most simply don’t become elite.  Only a handful of people know, understand and are willing to apply this principle.

People need to be entertained.  Some people need to be entertained while they are pursuing serious greatness or at least pretending to.  Instagram trainers will rack up 1000’s upon 1000’s of followers by showing film of their customers doing complicated drills with a high entertainment factor. It’s great to watch these things while you are slumped in a chair in the waiting room at the dentist.  Seeing that this person has amassed a multiple 1000 following will validate their “expertise”  However,  entertaining drills that don’t strike at the core of what you need to be elite means that the only entertaining you will do will be in the offseason and not on game day.

If you want to be elite,  take a page out of two of the more skilled athletes in their chosen professions,  Bruce Lee and Kobe Bryant.  Neither man grew tired of the basics and understood that a skill practiced 10,000 times will be damn near impossible to get wrong.

So in closing,  don’t shy away from doing basic drills.  Before you ho hum your way through them,  make the basic drill entertaining for you.  Here’s how.  Each time you do it,  try to do it better than the last time.  Also,  each time you do it,  focus on one specific aspect of the drill to strive towards perfecting that specific piece of the drill.  At the end of the day,  the old saying applies.  Don’t just do the drill enough to get it right.  Do it so many times that you can’t get it wrong.

Your Attention Please. One Play Can Be the Whole Game

The game has been a battle of back and forth.  Each team is shooting their shot and things are tight all the way through.  When all is said and done,  the winner stands tall by less than a touchdown.

That’s how many important games end in the football world.  If you are playing in the NFL then this is likely a weekly occurrence.  There is this saying that one play does not make a game but try telling that to a kicker that misses a last minute field goal or a defensive back that misplays a ball in the final seconds to give up a go ahead touchdown.

Often times in those close games,  things will come down to a final play and what happens on that play is highlighted in the aftermath.  Many times a close game won’t exactly come down to one final play.  Whether it does or doesn’t,  at some point in a close game there was a play that really mattered.

In my years of both playing and coaching,  I have witnessed plays that went the wrong way for a defensive back for one simple reason,  lack of focus.  There are many plays throughout a game and players will sometimes slack off thinking either that the play is not coming their way or that it is not important.  One of the biggest things you will hear a coach preaching is to never take a play off.   This is true for everyone on the field but it’s most true for the guys playing in the back end of the defense.

Make a mistake as a defensive lineman or a linebacker and there’s a chance that it won’t result in a touchdown.  Blow an assignment in the secondary and that usually means a big play is coming typically in the form of a touchdown.  Make enough of those type of mistakes in a game and you will definitely end up on the wrong end of the scoreboard.  However,  what about the close games that are decided by a touchdown or less?

The loss of focus by a defensive back can come in the form of a blown coverage assignment,  missed communication or sloppy technique.  All of those things can be catastrophic and in a game that ends up with a final score of 20-17,  your loss of focus could cost the team a W.

So how do we avoid losing focus throughout a football game.  Like anything else,  keeping focus is something that must be worked on in training sessions and practices if you want to master it in the game.  Keeping focus is not something that defensive backs typically focus on.  However,  you should.  You can have 54 snaps of great technique and positioning but play 55 could be the play you lose focus and that could be the game.  Yes,  there is pressure playing defensive back.

One of the best ways to limit the plays in which you experience a loss of focus is to come up with a checklist.  Airline pilots and astronauts use checklists so why not defensive backs.  Having a series of steps you go through prior to each play can prep your mind to be on guard once the ball is snapped consistently.  Think about how focused a pilot or an astronaut has to be.  If they get sloppy,  lives could be lost.

Here are some examples of checklists that can be used to help you keep focus during a game.

For safeties:

(1) Check the formation
(2) Relay the call
(3) Communicate any alerts

For cornerbacks in man coverage:

(1) Align at proper depth
(2) Position myself with the proper leverage
(3) Place my eyes in the proper place

In both cases,  the checklists gets your mind off of possible distractions like the last play,  a talkative opponent or fatigue.  They get your mind keyed onto what is important for the play that is about to happen.  Just being able to do that is often times all you need to not lose focus.  A pre-snap checklist is a gateway into having the focus necessary to have a successful play.

One other thing,  players can sometimes get lulled to sleep.  An offense spends play after play attacking other areas on the field and ignoring you.  This can lead the player to believe that this is how it will be all game long.  Sometimes that is all part of the plot.  Somewhere in the booth,  a coach for the opposing team is watching you and taking notes.  Once they see you out of place or losing focus,  the word comes down to attack you.

Consistent use of the checklist can keep you out of this pitfall.  Football games can be two to three hours long or more.  They can consist of 40-70 plays or more.  As a defensive back you can be on point for 69 plays but on play #70 you lose focus and it ruins it for everybody.  Make focus a focus next time you are preparing for a game.

Want to Be A Good DB? Find Yourself A Weave

There are many steps to becoming a top notched defensive back.  Many of those steps have been covered in the many articles that have been written on this blog and placed in my member’s area on this site.

One of the more overlooked aspects of playing defensive back these days,  especially for corners is the backpedal.  More and more,  players and coaches are opting to just have their players turn to the side to cover wide receivers.  You know who is enjoying that the most?  Wide receivers.  Nothing excites a wide receiver more than to getting you turned to a side so they can have easier access to your back where human beings,  as of now,  don’t have eyes.

There’s a reason that I  called my company All Eyes DB Camp.  The most important tool you have as a defensive back are your eyes.  The best way to keep both eyes on a wide receiver and or quarterback is to remain square.  This goes for cornerbacks and safeties.

Why do cornerbacks need a good weave?  For starters,  it is essential when playing in off man coverage.  Often times,  in their routes,  wide receivers will stem the defensive back.  Stem means when a wide receiver works against your leverage either inside or outside to gain an advantage before they make their break.  If a wide receiver can successfully get inside of you on an inside route before they make their break,  they can ensure that you will behind them when the ball comes.  If they can successfully get outside of you on an outside route before they make their break,  they stand a really good chance of getting separation and to the football before you do when it’s thrown.

With that being the case,  having a good weave can put you in better position to hold your leverage and defend routes while in coverage.  A weave allows you to move inside or outside of a wide receiver trying to stem you without turning to the side or turning your back.  Why is that important? Because you don’t know which way that wide receiver will break.  Why not give yourself a good chance at breaking left or right when it happens?  Being able to weave gives you that chance.

For safeties who are in charge of covering a tremendous amount of ground when they are lined up either on the hash or in the deep middle of the field,  having a weave can get you to the ball faster.  Being able to move left or right without turning to the side allows a safety get off the hash in either direction with equal efficiency.  Similarly, it allows a safety playing in the post (middle of the field) to get to the numbers on either side equally as fast than turning one way or the other prematurely.

With a good weave,  a safety can move laterally based on the shoulder turns or movement of the eyes of a quarterback without committing one way or the other.  This allows him to force the quarterback to commit to throwing first before he commits to running one way or the other.  Football is a game of inches,  mastering a weave gives the safety a chance to get to a thrown football sooner than if he just simply turned and ran before the ball was actually thrown.

For more on the actual execution of a good weave,  watch this YouTube video I put together below.  If you have any questions,  drop a comment on the video or email me at cwilson@alleyesdbcamp.com.

Want to Be a Better DB? You Gotta Watch Ball Man!

I am sure the generation before me had this same thought but you guys nowadays have it easy.  My generation had betamax and VHS if you wanted to record your television.  If you wanted to listen to your favorite song on an album you had to fast forward and rewind on a tape after you ejected it and flipped it over to the other side.

I did much of my learning about playing defensive back in high school via television.  First of all,  that meant the game I really wanted to see had to be showing in my area that day and I had to be sitting in front of the TV to watch it.  If I had somewhere I had to be then I just missed the game  unless we had something called a VHS that could I record it with.  Of course,  you had to put the recordings on a tape and those cost money.

I would refer to those tapes constantly to gain the information I needed.  When I grew tired of having to fast forward to find the plays and the players I wanted to see in action,  I made highlight reels.  To do that,  I needed two VCR machines.  I won’t go into the ins and outs of what had to be done with the two machines to make the videos just know that it involved time, patience and energy.

This current generation has a load of resources.  First,  you have the ability to see any game you want from the comfort of your own home on any Saturday or Sunday.  Second,  if you missed the game,  you can watch it again on YouTube,  NFL.com or any other number of streaming services.  Moving to the part of the video you want is as simple as clicking ahead on the progress bar or clicking on the 10 second rewind or fast forward buttons.  If I woke up one day in 1980 whatever and had that available to me,  I would have thought I died and went to Heaven.

Yet with all this available to this generation,  too many young DBs don’t simply watch football whether live or on playback.  Saturday or Sunday afternoon finds you on PlayStation or XBox.  I will give it to you,  major distractions like that weren’t available to us in my time.  It would have been tempting.  Ultimately though,  I am fairly certain that my desire to acquire the knowledge would have pulled me away from the distraction and to the games.

To be elite you have to be smart.  To get smart you have to study.  To study,  you have to just sit down and watch games.  You can observe a lot just by watching.  Sit down and watch a full game from time to time.  It is necessary to observe the flow of a game,  how plays are called,  how defenses adapt and how defensive backs operate from play to play,  moment to moment.  Cut ups are great but sometimes you just have to get the feel of a game to learn how to play it.

I realize that our current culture has a lot of  youngsters feeling that they can just drill themselves to greatness.  You feel the more you do drills,  the greater you will become.  That has it’s ceiling.  Ultimately,  your brain gives you the power to institute the moves that you learned from the drill.  You have do drill your brain too.  Drill your brain by just sitting down and watching ball.

Not only should you watch current games but when you are determined to be elite,  watch old games.  Watch games from your youth or games before your time.  Mike Tyson was a vicious physical specimen with a killer mentality.  Ultimately that is not what propelled him to the top of the boxing world.  What did that was his love for the sport of boxing.  That love led him to be a boxing historian who watched hours of tape of boxers that competed before he was born.  In training and in competition,  Tyson understood the reason for every move and moment simply because he had watched the greats before him do it.

Watching old games helps you understand how the game evolved,  why certain players excelled and how you can mold yourself into similar or even superior greatness than them.  It happens subconsciously and you just find yourself making plays.  It will seem like it’s out of the blue but it really comes from the hours of observation of the game, the position and the players.

Studying the now keeps you in tune into to what’s happening.  Studying the past helps you see the future more clearly.  If you want to reach your full potential,  cut the TV on and start watching football.

4 Things You Are Doing Wrong in Your Press Man Stance

If you ever lined up to race someone or stepped in a batter’s box to hit a baseball,  you are aware that before someone yells go or a pitch is thrown,  you could win or lose.  Have your feet in the wrong spot and you will come out wrong in that race.  If you hold that bat in the wrong spot or line your feet up incorrectly and you’ll never touch that baseball with your bat.

In a similar fashion,  your stance in press man can set you up for victory or failure before the ball is even snapped.  With that in mind,  let’s talk about four common mistakes defensive backs make in their stance when they play press man.

(1) Hump in Your Back

Few good things happen in life and athletics when you have a hump in your back.  That means,  shoulders slumped in,  stomach tucked in and hips almost pointing upward.  There is very little power in such a position.  Any athlete in such a stance would find it extremely difficult to deliver a powerful blow with their hands or burst from one spot to another when their spine is throwing up The U.

Can some people survive like this?  Yes.  Would they be better if they didn’t?  Certainly.  A stance made for winning starts with your chest out and your hips facing straight ahead.  Now you can strike with your hands to redirect a wide receiver with some authority.  You wouldn’t slouch your back to squat 300 lbs.  Don’t do it to press a wide receiver.

(2) Feet Too Wide

Don’t send me any old clips of Deion Sanders.  When you are arguably the best athlete to ever play the game,  you can line up with your feet like they are at opposite ends of a surf board.  If not,  take my word for it,  get your feet at or somewhere near shoulder with apart.  You can ill afford to waste time,  pulling your feet back in to plant them,  to redirect them to respond to a wide receiver’s exit move.  You can try just to buck conventional wisdom but who wants to waste the time.  Get your feet under you so you can have some lateral balance.  You must be ready to move with power on those initial moves by the receiver.  You can ill afford to waste time bringing yourself to balance before you go chase the hip.

(3) Too Much Weight on Your Toes

I see this one a lot and some trainers may want to argue with me on this.  Again,  balance is key.  You can not be at the line of scrimmage waiting on your toes for the offense to snap the ball.  You will not be on balance.  If you want to dispute me on this,  go look at a baseball player in the batter’s box or watch a basketball player in front of a player with the ball before they have made their move to the basket.  Neither athlete is up on his toes waiting.  They will have both of their feet firmly planted on the ground.

To effectively push in one direction or the other,  an athlete must have his whole foot on the ground.  One of the most explosive things an athlete can do is dunk a basketball.  To get up in the air,  he will plant his entire foot on the ground to lift up to the basket.  He will not be placing only the ball of his foot on the ground.  Now that you know this,  there is zero advantage to being up on your toes like you have on high heels waiting for a wide receiver to explode off of the line of scrimmage.  If you are a player,  stop doing this.  If you are a coach,  stop coaching this.  It puts the DB at a disadvantage. If nothing else,  you run the risk of losing your balance waiting for the snap and taking a false step at the time the ball is actually snapped.

(4) Not Low Enough

Now this can be flexible,  to a point.  When I am working with new defensive backs,  I often have to tell them to get lower in their stance.  I also tend to emphasize this more since we are not working with pads on.  Whatever your stance is in shorts,  you will likely be higher with the weight of equipment on.

So why lower in your stance?  You have to effectively load your quads and hamstrings to push out left, right or back.  There’s no way around that.  There’s the old saying ‘if you stay ready,  you never have to get ready.”  If you are too high in your stance,  you will have to bend anyway once the WR moves so that you can load the leg muscles to push in the necessary direction.  So do you want to waste the extra half second doing that or do you want to save yourself that precious time by already having the proper depth?

The other thing that being low enough gives you is horizontal balance.  If you’re too high at the line,  there’s a chance a wide receiver can come off the line into you and put you on your back.  It’s not a move they do often but they will do it.  If it’s done to you once,  you will never ever want it to happen again.  God forbid if it’s on film and hits the dozens of social media networks hungry for content.

Your stance in press man is about power and comfort.  Practice the first part so that you can achieve the second part with the proper alignment.  Practice being lower, with your feet closer together,  with your chest out and your feet under you.  Get comfortable doing that so that when the time comes,  your comfort level exists in a stance that readies you for success.

For more on your stance,  check out the video below I put together on YouTube.

Am I A Safety or a Corner?

So you are young in the game of football or perhaps your coach has moved your over to the dark side (aka defense).  Perhaps you have been contemplating a move to the side of the ball where aggression is not frowned upon (also known as defense).  Your athletic traits say you should play in the secondary but where exactly?  This article will help you answer that question.

I know what you are thinking.  You are thinking this article is going to be about what physical traits matchup with each position.  Wrong.  There are  plenty of articles and videos out there about that topic written by amateurs and professionals alike.  What my experience as a coach has taught me is that whether you are a safety or a corner really has more to do with your mentality.  What part of the game and in particular playing defense,  really lights your fire.  When you have figured that out as a player,  you will likely make all the other things work.

There have been cornerbacks that have thrived at the position when they did not have the ideal speed or size.  Likewise for safeties.  What I have noticed for those guys has been an undying passion for what it is they do.  This is why I say that where your heart lies is where your feet should also.  With that being the case what are those mental attributes you need to examine to determine whether you are a corner or a safety?

(1) Do You Love to Tackle?

Notice I didn’t ask if you if you like to tackle.  I asked you if you love it.  If you love tackling then most likely you are a safety.  Yes,  when playing defense,  everybody has to want to tackle but when it comes down to loving it,  that’s not most cornerbacks but it’s most likely most safeties.  When that 200+ lb. back comes roaring through the gap that the linebacker failed to fill,  it’s the safety who has to be there to get him on the ground and give the defense another chance.  To do that,  it’s best that you love tackling.  When wide receivers are feeling real comfortable running across the middle,  is your instinct to want to jump in front of them to bat the ball down or lower your shoulder into their ribs so they are less enthusiastic about bending a route into the middle of the field?  If your answer is the latter,  you might be a safety.

(2) Do you Love 1-on-1 Match-ups?

If the part of the game that excites you is lining up against another man play after play and keeping his hands off of the football then you might be a cornerback.  Some guys just love the feeling that gives them.  Some guys just thoroughly enjoy studying a guy’s every move and foiling his plans come game day.  If that’s you then corner may be where your passions will meet it’s purpose.  At safety you aren’t often put in that situation.  There may be times where you are called upon to match-up on a tight end all game because he’s a menace but by and large you are taking a view of the whole offensive unit and must divide your focus not only between a set of wide receivers and the quarterback but the other team’s ground game as well.  Following around a guy like you are on a FBI sting typically is a job for a cornerback.

(3) Do You Love X’s and O’s?

If you play for me,  everyone has to get in their playbook and study film.  However,  just because I or a coach makes you do it,  doesn’t mean you will love it.  If studying playbooks and opposing offenses brings you immense joy then you might be a safety.  As I stated in the paragraph above,  safeties are responsible for dissecting an entire offense.  Everything from the split of the wide receivers to the alignment of the offensive line gives you clues about what is to come.  From your position directly in front of the offense,  you can observe all of those things and plan accordingly.  Safeties typically have one of the highest football IQs on the defense.  Cornerbacks typically just want to know what the coverage is and go about their business.

(4) Do You Love Running?

On good defenses,  everybody runs but nobody does more running than a cornerback.  This is especially so if your team is running a heavy press man scheme.  Press man means that you are running no matter what.  It can be a fullback dive and that miserable back up wide receiver is going to sell you on that go route that’s not coming.  Loving running doesn’t mean you have to be a track star.  It simply means that you don’t mind doing it play after play.  For cornerbacks,  there’s also nothing like that run play to the opposite side of the field that you have to go run down followed by a trip to the huddle to hear the call “Cover 1” come in for the next play.  When that happens,  you better love running because that’s what you will be doing.

Being a safety doesn’t mean you won’t run.  It doesn’t mean you don’t like to run but it does mean that you will do less of it than a corner.  From your position,  often in the middle of the field,  you are closer to the action.  You are also often looking in at the play and can throttle it down when the back is stopped cold at the line of scrimmage.  A corner in man coverage does not have that luxury.  I will say this,  if you don’t like running,  do not,  I repeat,  do not play corner.

(5)  Do You Love Communicating?

When I say communicating I am not talking about talking trash.  I mean do you like relaying information to others from things you observe.  One of the stark differences between corners and safeties is this component.  By and large cornerbacks find it hard to communicate formations, movements, etc. as they like to be locked in on the man or men that are lined up fairly close to them.  Safeties, on the other hand,  typically like seeing the formations, alignments, motions, etc. and communicating to the rest of the defense.  Safeties are in the advantageous position of being directly in front of the offense and yards back where they can see the total picture.  Being able to communicate what they are seeing is vital to a defenses’ ability to stop a play.  If you enjoy this part of the game then you are more of a safety than you are a corner.

(6) Do You Love Technique?

As I have stated with each of these questions,  they are all important to every position in the secondary.  However,  whether or not you love it will determine where you might excel playing defensive back.  If having perfect technique is something that you strive for then you might be a cornerback.  Cornerback is a more technical position than is safety.   When you are lined up in front of a wide receiver playing man to man as corners often are then it’s basically a battle of techniques.  A slip in your form for even a second and you can find yourself on the wrong side of a long touchdown pass.

On the flip side,  a safety with strong technique will excel but things aren’t as urgent for them where technique is concerned.  An extra step in making a turn or a delay in reacting to a move by the offense and there is time to make it up.  That is less so for the guys on the edges playing closer to the wide outs.  If being obsessed about where your eyes are,  what your feet are doing and where your hands are placed is what drives you to play the game then you might be a cornerback.

There you have it.  As I have said before in posts on this website,  80% of this game is mental.  So with that in mind,  whether or not you are a safety or a corner has more to do with your mental approach as opposed to your physical traits.  When you love something,  you will be surprised at the lengths you will go to in making it happen.  If you can truly answer yes to all of the questions I asked in this article then congratulations you are either an A1 player or on your way to being an A1 player that can line up at safety or corner.  Now you can start taking assessment of what your physical traits may be and how they matchup with the duties of either position.

 

Know Your DB History: Dre Bly

I have a treat for all of my sub 6 footers playing corner today.  This one is long overdue but it is here now.  If there was one guy that played this game that knew how to get his hands on the football consistently,  it was the one featured in this post.

Lost and forgotten in the era that saw Deion Sanders and Rod Woodson give way to Champ Bailey and Charles Woodson into Darrelle Revis and Richard Sherman was a 5’9 7/8′ cornerback out of North Carolina named Dre Bly.

How was Dre Bly introduced onto the scene?  As a redshirt freshman at the University of North Carolina when he pulled down 11 interceptions earning him All American honors.  Only five people in history have done so in their freshman seasons and Bly is one of them.  Over the next two seasons at North Carolina,  Bly tallied up nine more interceptions and left college as the Atlantic Coast Conference’s all time leader in interceptions with 20.  Alphonso Smith of Wake Forest would later break that record with 21.

Bly came to North Carolina in 1996 out of Western Branch high school in Portsmouth Virginia where not only was he an all state football player but an elite baseball player as well.  Bly would obtain first team All American honors twice while at North Carolina in both his freshman and sophomore years.  He’s the only player in ACC history to be a consensus All American twice in his career.

After three season in Chapel Hill,  Bly entered the NFL draft.  His lack of eye popping workout numbers (5’9 7/8″ 186 lbs. 4.51 (40) and 35 in. VJ) kept Bly out of the first round and ended up being the 41st pick in the 1999 NFL draft by the St. Louis Rams.  Though he was rarely a starter for the Rams during his four years with the club,  Bly had big production.  Over his four years,  he started just 25 games but had 14 interceptions.  He returned three of those interceptions for touchdowns and totaled 247 yards in interception returns.  In his rookie season,  the Rams won the Super Bowl.   After four seasons,  Bly left the Rams and signed with Detroit where he became a full time starter.

Bly spent four seasons in Detroit and averaged nearly five INTs per season.  He returned two of his 19 picks for touchdowns and made the Pro Bowl twice.  He was also an All Pro in his first season with the Lions.

Bly would then move on to Denver for two seasons pulling in 7 interceptions there and then three INTS in 2009 as a member of the San Francisco 49ers.  Bly would eventually resign with Detroit in 2010 before retiring that year.

In all,  Bly would total 43 interceptions in his career which is more than names like Lester Hayes and Darrelle Revis.  Bly would also score 8 touchdowns as a pro while tallying up 652 interception return yards.  In 2014, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Currently,  Bly is the cornerback’s coach for the North Carolina Tar Heels.

 

Two Hand or One Hand Jams in Press Man?

I often get asked this question about press man coverage.  “Coach do you prefer two hand or one hand jam in press man?”  My answer initially is typically one people don’t like.  “It depends”.   This article explains.

First of all,  when it comes to coaching defensive backs,  every coach has his own way.  Some coaches are sticklers for their particular technique.  Others will let you do your thing as long as it is working.  Today,  I am going to talk to you about what worked for me as a player,  what I taught as a coach and what I instruct now as a trainer.

My mode of thinking on this is simple.  When a receiver is close enough to you for you to touch him,  whether or not you use one hand or two hands to jam him depends on his positioning.   If the wide receiver is within your frame (i.e. directly in front of you) then use two hands to jam him.  For those worrying about your hips getting locked because you threw two hands,  understand that this does not matter because the wide receiver is directly in front of you.  We don’t know whether he’s going right or left.  Obviously,  using two hands allows you to gain better control over the wide receiver than using one.  The logic is that if he is directly in front of us,  use all that we can to control him.  This is an ideal position.

It makes little sense,  in my opinion,  to use one hand to jam a WR directly in front of us when we don’t know which way he’s going.  Throwing one hand in that situation almost commits us to opening one way and that way could be the wrong way.

So now that we have established that,  when do we use a one hand jam?  You don’t have to be a genius now to figure this one out given what we’ve just discussed.  We use one hand on the jam when the WR has exited outside of our frame (i.e. moved outside of our shoulders either to the left or right).  To get into their route,  a WR will typically exit outside of you left or right unless he’s a tight end who his trying to run right over you.

So with that in mind,  when the WR exits and he is close enough,  it is time for us to use one hand in our jam.  Which hand do we use?  We use our off hand (i.e. the hand further away from the WR).  Why do we use the off hand?  We do so because it is now that we do not want to lock our hips.  By using our “off hand”,  we allow our hips to open so that we can kick slide at a 45 degree angle and move in a way that keeps us in close contact with the WR.

If we use the hand nearest to the WR,  our hips get locked.  When that happens we can not slide at a 45 degree angle and we put ourselves at a disadvantage when it comes time to open up and run down the field.  If we shoot the near hand to make contact with a WR that is outside of our frame, we will lose precious steps upon our turn should the WR continue up the field as expected.

The purpose for us in jamming once the WR exits our frame is to touch him if he’s close enough while also keeping our body in a position to turn and run effectively should the route continue on that path.

Fairly cut, dry and simple.  I have included a video below with more on this to give you a visual and a few more tips on using your hands to jam at the line of scrimmage in press man.  Enjoy it and should you have any questions,  feel free to reach me via email at cwilson@alleyesdbcamp.com

Should I Move to DB?

Many times I get asked in via email and DM if an athlete should move to defensive back.  As much as I get asked that question,  I am pretty sure there are many other guys who are asking that same question in their own heads.  Today I am going to use this article here to address it.

First,  I will start off by saying,  I grew up wanting to be a running back.  The first individual player that I ended up liking was a running back for the Los Angeles Rams named Wendell Tyler.  You young guys are going to have to google that name,  it’s not widely known.  Wendell was a double whammy for me.  He played for my favorite college football team at the time (UCLA Bruins) and was also playing for my favorite NFL team (Los Angeles Rams). There was just something about that blue and gold I guess.

There was also something about putting the ball in a guy’s hands,  making a whole bunch of defenders miss with sharp cuts and athleticism then having the crowd cheer for you as you scored a touchdown.  Soon my all time childhood football idol came along for the Rams in the form of Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson.  Dickerson was Wendell Tyler x 10.  So,  by the time I started playing organized football,  I was all about being a running back.  To make a long story short,  I developed into a pretty good running back but I had a friend who was certain that I would make an even better defensive back.  He was persistent about it and as I matured in the game,  there were coaches who made the same observation.  By the time I started getting recruited to go to college,  the move seemed clear and Deion Sanders had come along to add some pizazz to playing cornerback.

For many of you,  the dilemma is still raging on inside your head so here are four things for you to consider when deciding if you should move to defensive back.

Are You A Good Athlete?

Sure,  football in general requires you to be an athlete.  However,  the best athletes on the football field are the defensive backs.  Don’t try to debate me on this you wide receivers!  Special teams units are loaded with defensive backs for that reason.  Sure you can survive at defensive back if you aren’t the greatest athlete but it’s going to be tough.

You give yourself a much better chance to be a playmaker and to handle the many responsibilities of defensive back if you can move your feet fast,  have reasonable speed and jump + change direction.  These are major requirements for the position.

Are You Undersized at Your Other Position?

Like me,  while I was a good enough athlete to play running back at a high level in high school,  my days were probably numbered.  I graduated from high school at a whopping 163 lbs.  That does not make for a long life at running back.  Perhaps you are a decent athlete playing linebacker at 185 lbs.  Or you are a defensive end at 200 lbs.  who is likely not going to grow anymore.  If you have some smarts and good feet,  you may benefit from a transition to the secondary.  Depending on your level of athleticism,  you can play cornerback or safety.  Commit yourself to studying the position and you can be making a transition that could extend your playing career.

Not Featured on Offense?

Are you playing offense but you are hiding in the shadows? Do you think that your athletic talent is not being realized and utilized on the offensive side of the ball?  Are you the back up tailback that never really gets any carries?  Are you the 3rd option as a wide receiver on all of the pass plays?  Are you in high school playing wide receiver for a team that throws the ball 10 times a game?  This might be a fine time to flip over to the dark side.

Perhaps it’s being selfish or it’s just being smart.  Why ride the pine if you are a worthy athlete that loves playing if you can move over to defensive back and help your team keep points off the board ?  You may love offense like I did as a youngster but trust me,  when you start making plays on defense,  you will break up with your girlfriend offense and marry a strong woman named defense.  If you are a good athlete like I mentioned before,  strongly consider it.

Are You Naturally Aggressive?

Defense is the part of football that is about toughness.  Sure there are some offensive teams and systems that require roughness but basically all successful defenses require aggression.  If being aggressive is in your DNA,  perhaps you were born to play on this side of the ball.  If you are of the correct size and have the required speed + agility,  a move to defensive back could change your career.  The more aggressive position in the secondary out of cornerback and safety is safety.   However,  aggressive cornerbacks can be tremendously successful.  If you possess cornerback traits and are aggressive,  make that move.  If you are more of a safety type that won’t mind coming up and hitting running backs and tight ends,  then give moving to safety a thought.

The most recent 2020 NFL draft produced 48 defensive back draft picks.  This was easily the most heavily drafted position as it is every year.  There are five offensive lineman on the field,  usually four defensive lineman on the field and many times four wide receivers.  Despite that,  defensive backs have consistently outpaced those positions and others when it comes to getting drafted.  So what I am saying is that there is a demand for defensive backs.  If you can answer yes to one,  some or all of the questions I have asked in this article then you may be ready to meet that demand with a position change.

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