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Amp Your Game Up with Film Study

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

Everybody wants to make plays but not everybody knows how.  Everybody wants to make plays but not everybody wants to put in the work to be a playmaker.

In our heavy training and “Do It For the Gram” society,  everyone thinks the sole key to being a great football player is working out.  Working out is only part of the plan to becoming a great player.  If you don’t want to put in the time to study the game,  the most you’ll ever become is a guy who “looks like” he could be a good player.

If you are really serious about being a playmaker at defensive back you have to be able to anticipate what the opponent is going to do and the only way to be able to do that is to study film.  Many young players shy away from this part of the game.  In my experience only a small handful of defensive backs truly enjoy and get into studying their opponent.  Most prefer to spend their time taking out opponents on Call of Duty or Fortnite.

One of my big sayings is that “success is not an accident”.  Many people will look at Deion Sanders and say he ran a 4.2 forty and that’s why he was so great.  You’d be dead wrong.  Despite all of his physical gifts,  Deion Sanders was big into studying his opponent.  He was one of the first DBs to use portable DVD players to study opponents while on the bus and planes to games.  If Deion Sanders had to study film to be great then you better believe you have to also.

We can get into exactly what you need to study at some point later on but for now,  put the film on and start taking a look at your opponent.  It’s impossible to watch too much film.  Sometimes,  just watching film over and over,  you just pick up things that you will be able to see once game time comes.  Football is a game of inches,  you can gain a whole foot by knowing where your opponent is going before they go there. Study up!

Do Your Drills Match Your Scheme?

Do Your Drills Match Your Scheme?

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

Ever heard the curtains don’t match the drapes?  Well get your mind out of the gutter.  To make my point,  you can’t have floral print curtains with pinstripe drapes in your living room.  Likewise on your defense,  one must cooooooooordinate when it comes to drills and scheme.

Many a time I have seen DB coaches fall in love with drills they either picked up online or at a clinic and make them part of their regimen.  While there is nothing wrong with that,  you must ask yourself “is what we are doing daily in practice what we are likely to do on gameday?”

There are a lot of great drills out there and some of those drills hit home on the basics but if you are a predominantly press man football team,  do you want to spend most of your individual period working on back pedaling and coming out of breaks?  If you rarely play press,  do you want to spend a great deal of time working on mirror drills from a press alignment in practice?  That might give your cornerbacks great feet but will it help them play off the ball for 50 snaps on Friday or Saturday?

The same way we don’t take a hammer to the woods to cut down a tree,  is the same way you don’t send your guys on the field on game day with the wrong set of tools for the job.  Determine the scheme that you are playing.  Take a strong look at what your players are doing the most on game day and apply drills that will maximize their game day movements.  It seems like a simple concept but a lot of times DB coaches will fall in love with certain drills and they don’t really apply to the scheme that their particular defense is running.

One other point I want to make.   In most schemes,  the cornerbacks and safeties have different responsibilities and often a different set of required skills.  If you are the only defensive back coach for your team,  be sure to split your drill time up between those drills that are advantageous for the cornerbacks and those working skills for the safeties.  If you have an assistant that you can trust,  consider having a time during your Indy period where you split up the corners and safeties to get more time doing position specific work.

When game day comes,  your entire unit will benefit from more specific work that applies to the scheme that is being run by the coordinator.  Happy coaching.

Know Your DB History: Darrelle Revis

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

With the announcement of his retirement today,  it seemed only fitting to do this edition of the “Know Your DB History” on the man who had a term named after him,  Darrelle Revis.

As a high schooler at Alquippa High in Pennsylvania,  Revis played running back and defensive back.  He also returned kicks and threw the occasional touchdown pass. He was also an outstanding player on the school’s basketball team averaging 25 points per game and ran track.

Revis Island became a big thing in the mid 2000’s as Darrelle Revis made a name for himself locking down opposing NFL wide receivers and issuing them the poorest production games of the season.  For the casual fan,  it was not easy to see this kind of career coming for Revis as he exited the college game. There was little flashy about Revis’ game.  He was not flamboyant like Prime Time,  he did not pile up stats like Ed Reed and he did not play both ways like Charles Woodson.  However,  Revis was solid as a rock at what cornerbacks were being asked to do in his era and that was keep wide receivers away from the football.

In his college days at Pitt,  Revis,  who made an immediate impact was adept at tight coverage and the all important passes broken up.  Despite only eight interceptions in three years at Pitt,  Revis was a Thorpe Award and Bednarik Award candidate in his final season at Pitt.  Having accomplished quite a bit in a short amount of time,  Revis passed on his senior season at Pitt to enter the 2006 NFL draft.

With an impressive pre-draft process that saw him run a 4.38 forty at his pro day,  Revis was the first cornerback taken in the draft at number 14 overall.  The other cornerbacks taken in the first round that year (Leon Hall – Michigan and Aaron Ross – Texas) did not enjoy nearly the amount of success that Revis did.

Revis became a starter from game one with the Jets and proved his mettle early and often.  Soon opposing teams and quarterbacks recognized that throwing at Revis was a waste of time.  He racked up double digit PBUs in his first two seasons before piling up a ridiculous 31 of them in his 2009 season.  It was in that year that the term Revis Island was born.  He would go on to enjoy an 11 year career with five teams including two different stints with the Jets.

Along with a reputation for locking down receivers and batting down passes,  Revis developed a reputation for earning money.  Upon his retirement,  Revis is the highest paid defensive back of all time,  bringing in just over $124 million over his career.  This was due in large part to him willing to bet on himself with high one year guaranteed contracts and of course his ability to live up to the longer contracts he received.

If you are into stats then Revis was not your guy.  His 29 interceptions rank 225th all time with a ton of unmemorable names above him.  However,  in the era that he played in,  few if any covered receivers and took them out of the game like he did.  Now the debate begins as to whether or not he’s a first ballot hall of famer.  There is no doubt though that Darrelle Revis is one of the best cornerbacks to ever lace em up in the National Football League.

3 Things Every DB Should Have in Their Toolbox

3 Things Every DB Should Have in Their Toolbox
By: Chad Wilson – Owner – All Eyes DB Camp
Instagram: @alleyesdbcamp

I often get asked for tips on playing defensive back and often find myself at a loss for what to say.  There is no tip I can give someone in passing that will instantly take your game to the next stratosphere. This is not shooting baskets or pool nor is it throwing horseshoes.  However,  here are three things I think every defensive back should have in their toolbox if they want to excel.

1.  A Short Memory

I don’t care who you are,  you will get beat playing defensive back.  Just as sure as the sun rises, so too will a defensive back find himself behind a WR who will catch a ball for a touchdown.  What’s important is how you handle yourself after you get beat.  A defensive back with a short memory is most likely to be in the right frame of mind the next time the ball comes his way and will be able to make a play.

Some defensive backs have a hard time letting go of a situation in which they got beat.  This position requires a great deal of confidence.  It’s one of those positions in the game where your mistakes are magnified because they are out in the open for everyone to see.  Having the ability to shrug off the jeering crowd, the celebrating receiver and block out the thoughts of what Twitter will have to say on the situation are only to your benefit.  Figure this, most of the people being negative to you after you get beat have no idea what it is like to be in your shoes.  The moment the bad play is over, act like it never happened and move on to the next play.  The one positive to getting beat is that it makes the offense come your way again because they think they can have success.  Seize that opportunity and change the outcome.

2. A Competitive Spirit

As I said,  this position thrives on confidence.  Confidence and competitive are brothers and they hang out a lot.  Defensive back,  specifically cornerback is one of the most competitive positions in sports.  Down after down it’s you and the wide receiver going at it to see who’s the best. If you don’t truly love to compete then you will lose the battles more times than not and it will cost your team plus you a starting spot.

Being competitive is not a sometimes thing either. Competitive people want to win at everything.  So this goes to the classroom, board games, pool, checkers, everything.  Season your competitive spirit by adopting a winning attitude anytime their is a score being kept.

3. Great Instincts

Being able to make plays often requires anticipation.  Anticipation comes from having an idea of what might be coming.  Consistently being able to anticipate what a team or opponent will do next is what is called instincts in this game.

How do you get instincts?  You have to study history to understand what might come next. In football, history is film of previous games.  Study your opponent.  Find their tendencies and they ways that they give away their plays.  Study long enough and often enough and you will soon find yourself being a ball magnet.  When you study enough,  you move on the football field with a greater ease and often times in ways you probably really can’t explain.  You will start to see plays happening before they happen.  That will be a result of you being able to connect what’s happening in front of you to what you have seen on film many times and move to where you know the play and the players will end up.  Once that starts happening you will constantly be in on pass breakups, big hits and INTs.

So that’s it,  there is no magic potion to being a great DB.  It is a result of acquiring knowledge,  working hard and consistently doing the right things to develop your game.

The All Eyes DB Camp member’s area has a nice array of videos on drills and film breakdown to give you the instincts and competitive spirit you need to excel and playing defensive back. That will certainly satisfy the acquiring knowledge part of being successful as a DB.  If you want to be known as one of the bests at the position then access to the videos and tips is just the thing you need.

Feel free to share this video on your social media accounts. It may be of use to someone in your audience. Feel free to send any questions you may have to cwilson@alleyesdbcamp.com.

When Your Coach Is Talking, Look at Him

When Your Coach Is Talking, Look at Him

By: Chad Wilson
IG: @AllEyesDBCamp

Coaches talk,  that’s what they do.  Coaches are teachers and like teachers there is an overwhelming need to speak as that is the major way to communicate information to both those who seek and need it.  In order to get that information,  you,  the student, needs to listen and one of the best ways to do that is not just with your ears but with your eyes.

Your coach is communicating to you with his mouth via speaking.  What you didn’t know is that he needs you to communicate too and the way you do that is with your eyes.  Here’s what your eyes are saying while the coach is speaking.  If your eyes are looking down at the ground they are saying “what you are talking about coach is really not that important to me and I don’t need to listen to it.”  If your eyes are looking at the coach then it is saying “coach what you are saying is important and I need to know it.”  If your eyes are looking off into the distance at something else that is going on then you are saying “coach please hurry up and finish talking, I really don’t want to be hearing this and by the way,  don’t trust me on game day because the same way I am not paying attention now is the way I will not pay attention in the game and cause us to lose it.”  I bet you didn’t know your eyes said all of that.  However,  your coach can hear it loud and clear.

Coaches play who they trust.  Plain and simple.  When you are in high school and there isn’t a ton of talent on the roster then the coach has to trust his talented players the most.  If you are on a high school team that has talent then your coach has options and WILL ALWAYS play who he trusts the most which means it might be a guy who is a little less talented but is trustworthy. If you are into looking elsewhere when your coach is talking, I can guarantee you that you aren’t the one he trusts.

When you reach the college and pro ranks there are a lot of talented players and now it’s just not about talent.  It starts to become about who the coach can trust. Your coach has a job to do and it depends a lot on who he puts in the game. You are responsible for the big salary he is earning.  He is not going to put the house he’s living in,  the school his children are going to and the cars he’s driving on a player he can’t trust.  A coach can’t trust a guy who won’t look at him when he’s talking.  He has no idea if you heard what he said and God forbid if you don’t know what you need to know in a crucial moment in the game.

So the next time you think you are the most talented guy but coach is not playing you,  ask yourself,  where are your eyes?

Know Your DB History: Aenas Wiliams

KNOW Your DB History: Aeneas Williams

There are DBs that got a lot of attention during their NFL careers and there are other great ones that seemed to get very little. Former Cardinal’s cornerback / free safety,  Aeneas Williams would fall into the latter category.

Williams was not a college football star at a top program who had a history of being in the spotlight before entering the NFL.  However, one thing Williams did have was a great knowledge of the game and a knack for knowing what the other team was going to do.

Williams took a non-traditional route to the league.  Williams entered popular historical black college Southern University based on his academic achievement in high school.  At Southern,  Williams focused on his studies and only took up football after he graduated his junior year.  As a graduate, Williams played his first ever football season.  In that, his first season,  Williams tied NCAA division I for the most interceptions. Williams put together such an impressive mini college football career that the then Phoenix Cardinals took a chance on him in the 3rd round of the 1991 NFL draft. The gamble certainly paid off.

In Williams’ rookie season he tied for the NFL lead in interceptions. Over the next 10 seasons for the Cardinals,  Williams would make it to six Pro Bowls from 1994-1999.  Williams would eventually end up playing for the St. Louis Rams where he would pick up two more pro bowl trips.

Over his career,  Williams would make eight pro bowls and amass 55 interceptions.  He would also score nine defensive touchdowns and be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2014.  Williams is not often talked about because he was not flashy but his intelligence and football IQ was second to none during his era.

Know Your DB History: Dick “Night Train” Lane

Yes swag-less you would say. Black high top cleats, no face mask and he played DB wearing #81. Be that as it may, Dick “Night Train” Lane is still the NFL record holder for INTs in a season with 14.
Some of you may or may not have known that Lane held the record and while 14 INTs is an amazing number it’s not the most amazing thing about Lane. That he even played professional football is an achievement in and of itself. Lane went to junior college out of high school for one year and then quit to join the service. After serving in the military, Lane was working at an aircraft factory and decided to try out for the LA Rams. He made the team but was quickly switched from WR to DB. In his rookie season in 1952, Lane set the NFL record with 14 INTs. What’s amazing is that not only did this come in his rookie season but in 1952, the NFL season was only 12 games long.

The original big corner at 6’1″ 195 lbs. the Texas native was not only a ball hawk but a big hitter. He ended his NFL career in 1965 with the Detroit Lions with 68 career INTs. Lane earned his nickname “night train” because his fear of flying led to him taking night trains to away games.

In 1974 he was enshrined into the NFL Hall of Fame. Not bad for a guy who never played college football and was a converted WR playing DB. Despite NFL game schedules being expanded to 16-20 possible games, Lane’s record of 14 INTs in a season still stands. Sometimes the path to success is not a straight line but with a vision and perseverance you will find the way.

Know Your DB History: Darrell Green

CB Darrell Green: Green was a severely undersized 5’8″ 140 LB. athlete in high school that didn’t make his school’s varsity football team until his senior year. Blessed with outstanding speed, Green became an all city player but received zero scholarship offers. He walked on at Texas A&I University and enjoyed a very successful career.

In 1983, the Washington Redskins made Green their first round pick. For the next 20 seasons, Green would become one of the best defensive backs in Pro Football history. He would make the Pro Bowl 7 times, win 2 Super Bowls and be named first team All Pro 4 times. Green would play cornerback until age 42 for the Redskins and finish his career with 54 interceptions.

Many consider Green to be the fastest player to ever play in the NFL. On several occasions he ran down players with elite speed to prevent touchdowns. RBs like Tony Dorsett and Eric Dickerson were victims of a Darrell Green run down. Green won the NFL Fastest man competition four times and never lost the competition. Green ran a sub 4.2 forty yard dash. He had official times of 10.08 in the 100 meters, 20.48 in the 200 meters and 45.90 in the 400. Green defeated Olympic legend Carl Lewis in the 100m in college.

In 2008, Green was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. From diminutive high school player to college football walk-on to Pro Football Hall of Famer. Darrell Green was a great one!

Know Your DB History: Kenny Easley

Know Your DB History: Kenny Easley

I know what you youngsters are thinking. You see this man wearing #45 and think “how good could he have been?” Long before there was a Seahawk named Kam Chancellor, there was one named Kenny Easley. The 6’3″ 206 lb. Virginia native hailed from Oscar Smith HS. He became the first Virginia HS football player to rush for and pass for 1,000 yards in a season.

Some 300+ schools recruited Easley and he ended up at UCLA in 1977 and became a starter his freshman year. At UCLA, Easley became the first player in history to make All Conference four consecutive years. Easley holds the UCLA career record for INTs with 19.

In 1981, the Seahawks chose Easley 4th overall. He became an immediate starter and went on to play seven seasons, all with Seattle. Easley was a 5 time Pro Bowler including NFL defensive player of the year in 1984 when he nabbed 10 INTs. Easley was a ferocious hitter but also ended his NFL career with 32 INTs.

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