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 no where close to being the player you can be. That response from my players when I asked the 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, Michael Jordan, Shaq, 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, you 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 what is. 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 that 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.
Chad Wilson is the owner of All Eyes DB Camp and author of "101 DB Tips". He played college football at the University of Miami and briefly in the NFL for the Seattle Seahawks. Over his 15 year high school football coaching career, he tutored over a dozen Division I defensive backs and as a trainer has worked with NFL All Pros, first round draft picks, college football All Americans and Top 10 ranked high school football prospects.
