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3 Reasons Why Former Quarterbacks Make Great DBs

The GOAT,  Prime Time, Deion Sanders,  Neon Deion was an elite DB,  we all know that.  However,  this new generation may not know what position he played in high school.  Yes, you guessed it,  quarterback.

In my time of coaching and training,  I have found that many of my best pupils were former quarterbacks.  Here are three reasons why former quarterbacks make great DBs.

Great Hands

Only one person handles the football more than the quarterback and that’s the center.  Quarterbacks have an intimate relationship with the football.  It’s a sin when playing quarterback to let the ball slip through your hands.  They bring that same mentality to the defensive back position.  Sometimes when you are raised as a defensive back and only a defensive back,  knocking the ball down becomes ok.  Former quarterbacks don’t bring that mindset.  If the ball is not caught when it comes their way then it’s utter failure.  Former quarterbacks turned DBs,  attack the football.

Solid Footwork

To throw a football effectively,  you have to have solid footwork.  What’s going on down below must matchup with what’s happening up top.  Quarterbacks do a lot of work with their feet believe it or not.  Through that work,  they develop a good amount of proficiency and efficiency with their steps.  As it turns out,  this is a key ingredient in being successful at defensive back.  Change of direction is a big part of the tasks for guys in the secondary and a quarterback has had his fair share of work in that department.

If they were a running quarterback,  then it goes without saying that they come over to the secondary with good feet.  A big part of their life was getting in and out of trouble and dodging defenders.  You don’t do that very well if you don’t have good feet.  Now that they are defensive backs,  they use those feet to go find trouble or cause it.

Knowledge of Offense

This would be the most obvious advantage that a former quarterback would have.  After spending all of that time as a signal caller,  a quarterback turned defensive back gets a pretty good understanding of how the offense moves.  They bring to the table a solid understanding of how WRs run their routes and what is going through the mind of the quarterback that they are now trying to intercept.  This solid knowledge of how offensive plays are supposed to work,  gives them the instincts they need to get the jump on a play and get into the passing lanes.  There’s no doubt that knowledge of what the offense is going to do is valuable and who knows that more than a quarterback.

I didn’t tell you all of this for you to go harass your coach to become a quarterback.  This article was written for you to learn from the things that make a quarterback a good defensive back a lot of the times.  Improve on the areas where they are strong.  Work on your hands,  it is important to convert the turnover opportunities that come your way.  Put an emphasis on taking the ball away.  Continue to work on your footwork.  Being efficient in your steps will get you to the ball faster.  Finally,  up your overall football IQ.  Quarterbacks not only have to know their plays but what the defense is going to do.   Why not know your defenses and what the offense is going to do?  Makes sense right?

One of the big ways you can up your knowledge is by studying film and also acquiring knowledge from people who are sharing it.  This is definitely my biggest aim in my member’s area.  Not only do I show you drills but I break down technique and coverages.  A combination of knowledge on these things are guaranteed to put you on the road to being elite.  I strongly suggest that you consider joining today.  Click here to sign up.

There is one potential draw back to a quarterback trying to come over and play defensive back.  Many quarterbacks don’t spend much time getting hit and are thus not all that physical.  Those guys can go play wide receiver.

For Defensive Backs, Speed is Something but Not Everything

When you enter a pro football training camp as a rookie you are on high alert.  You analyze everything going on around you and assess it all as either and aid or a threat.  Jimmy was a fellow cornerback  in the Seattle Seahawks camp and he was my roommate.  Jimmy ran a 4.2.

When we are all scrambling for roster spots as free agents,  Jimmy’s 4.2 was a threat or so I thought.  I could run but not a 4.2. With our team’s first round pick Joey Galloway sporting a rumored 4.18 forty,  Jimmy might look real good covering that guy everyday and that was going to bode well for him capturing the limited amount of roster spots.  However, Jimmy was gone with the first cuts in training camp.

I was obsessed with speed then and Jimmy’s quick release from the roster was the beginning of an eye opening.  Jimmy was ok in his back pedal, less ok turning and running and very limited in his football IQ.  All of his speed could not overcome what he lacked in these other important areas and so he was a step behind everybody including the WRs that ran 4.6.

The NFL combine is upon us and it’s that time of year when the masses and the decision makers get obsessed with the physical numbers like height, weight, speed, etc.  Falling to the back in all this will be the things that really matter when the bullets start flying on the gridiron.  How smart a player are you? How in tune are you to your craft?  How well do you execute the various movements that will take place on the field 100’s of times per season? Finally, how solid is your overall mental approach to the game?

To further emphasize my point,  I grabbed some numbers for you to digest.  Here are the fastest 40 times for DBs from the 2014 NFL combine.  These players would have completed five years in the NFL and to this point,  given us a fairly good idea of what they are.

  1. Justin Gilbert 4.37
  2. Phillip Gaines 4.38
  3. Bradley Roby 4.39
  4. Jaylen Watkins 4.41
  5. Brandon Dixon 4.41

Without going into exact detail because I’m not here to single out players, three members of this group are already out of the league.  As a whole,  this group of five had produced 15 career INTs,  an average of 3 per player over four years and none of them have made a Pro Bowl.  There are a couple of solid players in this group but as a whole,  their production underachieves the 40 times if you are inclined to believe that speed is everything.

Here are the top 40 times for DBs from the 2015 NFL Combine.  These players would have completed their fourth season in the league thus giving us a fairly decent look at who they are as players.

  1. Trae Waynes 4.31
  2. Justin Cox 4.36
  3. Ronald Darby 4.38
  4. Josh Shaw 4.44
  5. Craig Mager 4.44
  6. Charles Gaines 4.44
  7. Doran Grant 4.44

There are seven guys on this list because four guys tied with a time of 4.44. Four of the seven guys on this list are currently out of the league.  Between the seven of them,  they have 13 career INTs with Waynes and Darby accounting for 12 of them.  No one on this list has been selected to a Pro Bowl as of yet.

There could be a number of contributing factors to the outcome of the players’ careers that I have listed.  However,  the point being made here is that speed does not conquer all.  As Jimmy learned in Seahawks’ mini-camp and I have observed over the years,  there are a number of equally or even more important factors that go into the success of a defensive back.  Speed is critical component in a defensive back’s make up however,  it’s not the only thing.

As players set out to improve their speed and other physical aspects of their game,  they must be mindful of balance.  Speed will only get you noticed but being able to last will depend largely on your knowledge of the game, mental approach and technique.  Young players will pour an overwhelming amount of their time into what the stopwatch says and do so to the detriment of all of the other skills that matter.  When they do so, their careers end faster than you can say four four forty.

For more information on some of the fastest 40 yard dashes ever run,  check out The Fastest 40 Yard Dash Ever.

For DBs It’s More Than Just Knowing Your Job

What does the Sam backer have on this play? “I think he has, uhhh, the flats? Or blitz, blitz, blitz. Man, I don’t know. I just know what I’m supposed to do on that play.” Is that how you sound when a coach is asking you about your defense? Chances are, if you are being honest with yourself, this is how you sound. If it is, you are nowhere close to being the player you can be.

That response from my players when I asked these questions would really irk me. Over time, I learned to cope with it because I would hear it so often. Football is the ultimate team game. In basketball, one man, like Michael Jordan, Shaq, or LeBron James, can take over the game. In baseball, a pitcher can get on the mound and throw a no-hitter. In hockey, a goalie can be on fire and, in all of those cases, the other team is going to lose. In football, 11 players on the gridiron must move as one for success to be obtained. So with that in mind, just knowing your job is not going to be enough for the 10 other players on your defense.

Nothing can make you more unsure about your job than not knowing the job of the others around you. For instance, in a coverage, you know you have the curl area. After the ball is snapped, you move into the curl area like you are supposed to, but no one is there. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a WR in the flats. “Who has that?” you ask yourself. “I don’t know,” you reply back to yourself, and that’s where the trouble starts.

Not knowing who has the flats makes you move over there, especially when the QB gives it a look. Now you vacated the curl area to cover the flats right about the time that another WR moves into the curl area for an eight-yard gain on 3rd and 6. You knew your job, but not knowing the job of those around you made you unsure about your own responsibility. I’ve seen it happen time and again in my over 20 years in the game.

I played my best, and the best players I coached knew not only their job but the job of those around them. Knowing who has what makes you sure about your responsibilities. Let’s grab that same scenario and play it out from the perspective of a player that knows the whole defense. The play starts and the defender gets to the curl area. In this coverage, he knows that the defense gives up a throw to the flats and just rallies to make the tackle to keep it to a short gain. As the WR flashes across his face to go to the flats only four yards deep, he takes two steps to the flat and quickly returns to the curl to bait the QB, who wants a deeper throw on 3rd and 6. Having successfully baited the QB into thinking he will cover the flats, the QB throws the eight-yard curl route, which he promptly picks off because he knows that’s the area in the defense they want to protect.

Plays like this don’t really happen for guys that ONLY know THEIR job. If you want to reach your full potential as a DB or a defender, make it a point to learn not only your job but the job of those around you. Who knows, you may learn that football is a really wonderful game that’s more fun when you think about the team as a whole.

When it Comes to Playing DB, 80% of it Is Half Mental

 

If you are a baseball fan like I am,  you know where the subject line of this blog post came from.  The late Yankee great Yogi Berra was a man of odd speech and humor.  He coined the phrase that “80% of the game is half mental”.  It is true in baseball and also true in playing defensive back.

I was recently having a discussion with a young athlete in my direct messenger for Instagram and he was having trouble seeing the importance of watching videos to help learn how to play defensive back.  This really struck home to me just how much this current generation feels that they can just physically drill themselves into defensive back greatness.

The rapid growth of the Internet and social media is likely to blame for this thought process.  Much of Instagram’s popularity outside of it’s IG models comes from the fitness and training community.  Account owners have developed massive followings by posting workouts and drills on their pages. From this,  followers have come to believe that they can just duplicate the drills / exercises and success is right around the corner.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

When it comes to playing defensive back,  ignoring the mental aspect of the game will render all of the physical work useless. My most successful clients have made consistent use of the educational material that I post in my member’s area along with their physical training.  Some live in my area and can make it to or schedule sessions with me for the physical training.  They do so while also soaking up the knowledge provided about playing the position that I provide not only in sessions but online in my member’s area.  Others who can not make it to sessions,  grab the knowledge provided in the member’s area and apply it to the physical work they do where they live.

The strongest and fastest defensive back can be a liability if he does not know the intricate details of executing a movement or more so when to apply it. Football is still a game of scheming X’s and O’s to gain an advantage over your opponent.  If you’ve learned nothing else from watching the New England Patriots win 6 Super Bowls,  please learn that.  In virtually all of their 6 wins,  the Patriots were the less physically talented team.

By no means am I down playing drills or the physical work that is necessary to compete.  What I am trying to drive home is that the most important component involved in becoming a master of the position is mental proficiency.  The smartest players with physical talent are the ones that succeed the most.  Knowledge is most definitely the key.  It is the major reason why I created my member’s area.  30+ years of playing and coaching the game has driven home the point that without a well trained mind an entire body can not succeed.  Go Lock down your day.

DBs There Should Be No Excuses

I was a high school running back and truly enjoyed playing it.  Everybody wants to score touchdowns and be the center of attention.  However,  my future was not carrying the football.  Because I was a good athlete,  my coach would tell me “go play defensive back” and so I would.

There wasn’t a ton of coaching for me at DB outside of knowing where to be in the coverages that were called.  The best and most efficient ways to be in those places were left up to me to learn.  Since I had a desire to be the best,  I made it a point to gather as much information as I could about playing cornerback and doing my job to help the team.

You know YouTube,  Instagram,  Twitter,  Web pages,  the Internet?  Yea none of that existed when I was playing high school football.  There was no opening up my laptop and logging on to AllEyesDBCamp.com to acquire the knowledge and there was no email to receive little nuggets on how to lockdown a WR.

My education was based on either going to the library,  searching for where the books on sports were located and then scanning the many aisles and shelves to find books that were written many years ago.  There was also my favorite learning weapon,  using the VCR to tape games involving great DBs and secondaries.  (I think I may have to explain what a VCR is but I’m going to just tell you to Google it. :-).

I would watch and tape the games when they were live and then replay the hell out of them studying every move, turn and technique.  Play, stop, rewind, slow mo.  I drove my father nuts because he knew I was going to wear the machine down but I just had to know exactly what they were doing.  It took me hours to learn what you can now learn in minutes. God forbid if I couldn’t be at home to watch the game and I forgot to set the VCR to record a game.  There was no going to YouTube later to watch the video someone put up of the contest.

In time,  I found a list of people who were selling old games on video tape.  I just had to see certain DBs in action.  I spent the money,  sent away for the tapes and I would have them lightning quick in 2 to 4 weeks.  Yes,  you were doing things if you got people their merchandise in less than 30 days back then.  I thought it to be a worthy investment of my money saved from my after school job at Little Caesars.  “Pizza Pizza!”

It’s 2019.  Technology has advanced at light speed.  You don’t have to tear out a form from the back of a magazine,  fill it out and put it in the mail along with your check to get games on VCR tape.  You don’t have to make sure you set the VCR to record and hope you have enough space on the tape in the machine to get the whole game.

I endured all those things because I wanted to be great.  How great do you want to be? Getting the knowledge you need to dominate on the field is literally as easy as 1, 2, 3.  The knowledge is there if you want to seek it.   Hours, Days, Months and Years of video tapes, coaching and studying by yours truly has been condensed and is being provided for you in my All Eyes DB Camp Member’s Area for you to use.  It requires less time and money from you in 2019 than it did from me in 1988.  Don’t let it go to waste.  Become a member today.   Join the All Eyes DB Camp Member’s ARea Click here.

Be a Technician if You Want to Survive at Defensive Back

As a young athlete you spend a lot of time trying to improve your speed,  quickness and strength.  Those are necessary things to have to success in sport but where many fail to put the quality of amount of time in is at perfecting their technique.

Speed, quickness and strength are tangible things that can be measured and thus they become a little bit more fun to train.  By tangible I mean that the results can be easily seen.  At the beginning of the year you were running a 4.7 forty and now, at the end of the year,  you are running a 4.5.  Ten weeks ago you were bench pressing 225 lbs.,  now you are bench pressing 265 lbs. The results are easy to measure and see so that is where your focus goes.

With that said,  even with improvement in those areas,  a lack of technique will have you failing as a defensive back.  Getting stronger and faster is only half the battle.  If you are going to excel as a defensive back,  you need to spend at least an equal amount of time in perfecting your technique.

All the speed in the world won’t help you if the turn out of your back pedal finds you two steps behind the WR every time.  A 300 lb. bench press is useless on a misplaced jam on a WR in press.  The quickest feet will not get you out of trouble if your technique lacks the necessart balance.

There is an art to playing defensive back.  If there wasn’t then you could grab any world class track athlete and drop him into the line up on Saturday or Sunday with great success.  We are in an era in sport where we have fallen in love with measurables (40 time, shuttle time, bench reps).  Truth of the matter is that the technicians in sport and especially DB are the ones who tend to hang around because they seem to be able to make the most plays.

The road to being the technician you want to be,  need to be,  have to be starts with knowledge.  It starts with knowledge not only on how to move but where to move to.  Make sure that you are seeking that knowledge from someone who has been there and knows what they are talking about.  Social media is loaded with a ton of “experts” on movement.  Make sure you know where you are moving to and why.

Over 25 years of playing, coaching and researching has been poured into my training of athletes,  this website, my Instagram account and my member’s area (where the good stuff is).  If you are not local and can’t get to me for in person sessions,  you are cheating yourself by not joining my member’s area.  At the very least,  know the real deal while you are trying to become the real deal.  Life is short and a career in athletics is even shorter.  There’s no time to waste or it can all be over fast.

 

Have a DB Mentality

By: Chad Wilson – All Eyes DB Camp
IG: @alleyesdbcamp

If you’ve played defensive back and especially cornerback for any amount of time you are familiar with the saying “you have to have a short memory”.  I also know that this saying is often not taken seriously by many defensive backs who play the game so let’s take a deeper look at what that means.

In this era of PFF (Pro Football Focus) where every catch by a WR you may be covering is analyzed and those stats used to compare you to someone else,  it is easy for defensive backs to get caught up with how each catch affects their stats.  For lack of a better term,  these defensive back grades were created by “geeks”.  These are guys who are brilliant at one thing and that is analyzing data.  They can not, for one second, put on the pads and do what you do so why concern yourself with their compilation of numbers?

I have witnessed defensive backs going in the tank because a WR they were covering caught one ball.  One ball!! Wide receivers train too.  They work hard too.  They will catch footballs.  The trick for you, the defensive back, is to not let that affect you.  In fact,  your mentality should be after a WR catches a ball is that means I will have another opportunity to make a big play because the quarterback will try me again.

A surefire way to self destruct as a DB is to get overly concerned with a completed pass or even giving up a touchdown.  Some DBs don’t allow a WR to catch one single ball and as a result they rarely get balls thrown at them.  They end their games smelling like soap because they didn’t get any work.  There’s noting wrong with that.  Other DBs allow balls to get caught occasionally,  see a lot of action and as a result get more interceptions.  There is room on a defense for both types.

I am not recommending that you go out and make it a habit of letting WRs catch footballs but I am saying don’t get bent out of shape when they do.  Focus on the next play and not your opposing QBs passer rating when targeting you.  Leave that stuff to the geeks.  Keep the football and DB mentality to the guys on the field actually in battle.

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Remember we post daily DB tips and have a host of videos and breakdowns in our member’s area to make you a better, stronger, playmaking defensive back. Click here for the All Eyes DB Camp Member’s Area.

Dynamic Duos: Part I Patrick Surtain and Sam Madison

Dynamic Duos: Part I – 2000 Pat Surtain and Sam Madison – Miami Dolphins

 

By: Chad Wilson – All Eyes DB Camp
IG: @alleyesdbcamp

I’m kicking off a new series here on All Eyes DB Camp called Dynamic Duos as I pay homage to some of the best cornerback duos in history.  The only thing better than a guy locking down his side of the field,  is the guy on the other side also locking down his side of the field too.  Here’s a look at a pair of guys who did just that.

Who better to get this started with than a pair of local Miami locksmiths that I also happen to know personally.  There’s no doubt that Pat Surtain and Sam Madison can arguably be considered the best duo of cornerbacks in Miami history during their career as Fins.  In 2000,  no one was better than these two.

When your offense is ranked 26th overall with your quarterback throwing as many interceptions as TDs and you still make the playoffs,  the defense had to be on point.  That was definitely the case for the 2000 Miami Dolphins.  One of the big reasons for that was the play of Surtain and Madison at the corners.

Surtain,  in his first season as a full time starter for the Dolphins was a total menace to opposing offenses grabbing 5 interceptions and piling up a ridiculous 21 pass defensed.  He added to that,  two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

Madison was equally as troublesome for quarterbacks matching Surtain’s 5 Ints and broke up 11 passes.  Madison also had two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries returning one for a touchdown.

I would be remised if I did not add that Safeties Brian Walker with 7 INTs and Brock Marion with 5 INTs played a big part in Miami being #1 in interceptions and #5 in the NFL that year in pass yards allowed.

Surtain and Madison are both high school coaches in Broward County, Florida passing on their lockdown ways to future generations.

Know Your DB History: Ronnie Lott

By: Chad Wilson – All Eyes DB Camp
IG: @AllEyesDBCamp

There have been many great safeties to play this game but no list of the top safeties makes sense or is complete without Ronnie Lott’s name on it.  To say that Lott made an impact when he played the game would be a tremendous understatement.

Known as one of the most vicious hitters in the game during his playing days,  Lott’s playing career began at Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California.  Lott was a standout running back, wide receiver, quarterback and safety during his time at the school.  The school’s current stadium is named in his honor.

Upon entering USC to begin his college football career,  Lott and NFL Hall of Famer Marcus Allen were both being considered for the illustrious tailback and safety spot on the team.  Head coach John Robinson decided to move Lott to defense when he realized that Lott was the better tackler. The move turned into Hall of Fame inductions for both players.

At USC,  Lott would have an All American career intercepting 14 passes including 8 in his final season as a Trojan.  His 1978 USC team would earn a share of the National Title.  Lott is both a member of the Trojan’s Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.

In 1981,  the San Francisco 49ers made Lott their first round draft pick (8th overall).  Playing cornerback for the 49ers,  Lott made an immediate impact nabbing 7 interceptions as a rookie and scoring on three of them.  That 1981 49ers team would go on to win the first of four Super Bowls during Lott’s time with team.

Lott spent his first five seasons playing cornerback grabbing 23 interceptions for the 49ers.  In 1986 he made a full time move to free safety and led the NFL in interceptions that season with 10.  It was at free safety that his legend as a big hitter really took shape.  The NFL film archives are loaded with film of big hits delivered by Lott as the leader of tremendous San Francisco defense. If you weren’t alive to see it,  I urge you to go find some clips on YouTube.  Lott was one of the league’s toughest players and once opted to have the tip of his pinky finger amputated rather than have surgery on it and miss time.

Ronnie Lott would play 14 total seasons in the NFL (10 with 49ers, 2 with the Raiders and 2 with the NY Jets).  He is ranked 8th on the NFL’s all time leading interception list with 63.  He scored 5 times, forced 16 fumbles and had over 1100 tackles.  In 2000,  Lott was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

Know Your DB History: Charles Woodson

By: Chad Wilson – Owner – AlleyesDBCamp.com
IG: @alleyesdbcamp

We all know that Prime Time is the GOAT but many of you may not know the person I consider to be the 2nd best defensive back of all time and he goes by the name of Charles Woodson.

Woodson was a standout three sport star at Ross High School in Freemont, Ohio.  He graduated from the school as the all time leader in rushing yards and scoring.  He was also his team’s starting point guard and ran track.  Among the many awards he won as a senior in high school was Mr. Football Ohio.  It was a shock when Woodson,  an Ohio native, chose Michigan as his school but the reason was simple.  Every school,  including Ohio St., was recruiting Woodson as a running back but the future Hall of Famer wanted to be a defensive back.  That would be the first of many wise decisions he would make during his football career.

At Michigan,  Woodson would start as a freshman and lead the team with 5 interceptions.  He was responsible for a total of eight takeaways enroute to being named Big Ten Freshman of the Year.  In year two,  Woodson set the Wolverines record for pass break-ups with 15 and was a Jim Thorpe Award finalist.  His junior season would be the most memorable. Woodson would intercept a career high 7 passes,  while adding 231 yards receiving and three touchdowns while playing part time on offense.  At the end of the season,  Woodson would become Michigan’s 3rd ever winner of the Heisman Trophy beating out Tennessee’s Peyton Manning.  Woodson is the only primarily defensive player to win the award.

After three great season’s at Michigan,  Woodson declared for the draft and was selected 4th overall by the Oakland Raiders in 1998.  For the next 18 seasons,  Woodson would go on to be one of the most dominant defensive players in the game.  Woodson was the NFL rookie of the year in 1998, a 9 time Pro-Bowler,  4 Time All Pro – First Team.  He led the NFL in interceptions in 2009 and 2011.  He was named to the NFL’s all Decade Team for the 2000’s.  He also was a Super Bowl champion while playing for the Green Bay Packers in 2010.

Woodson was known for his lockdown coverage as a cornerback and high IQ when playing safety.  He used his athleticism and intelligence at both positions to become one of the best playmakers in NFL history.  Woodson retired in 2015 with 65 interceptions, 33 forced fumbles, 155 passes defensed, 20 sacks and a ridiculous 13 defensive touchdowns.  In 2020,  Woodson will be inducted into Pro Football’s Hall of Fame.  There’s no doubt about it.  Not bad for a former high school running back turned DB.

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