Tools of the Trade: DE Read & React Drills

We are looking at defense on this post!

 (Sorry, offensive guys, but I have been just as much a defensive guy as I have been an offensive guy over my 10 years...but if I had to choose, I would go offense  ;)  ).

The last couple of years I have helped call and develop a 4-man front defense, either based out of Quarters coverage or Cover 3 (changed based on personnel). I also was in charge of coaching up the defensive ends, which had a wide range of responsibilities to take care within the defensive scheme. We also played in a league that had a wide variety of offensive styles, with spread being the most prevalent (even though they varied among each other as well).

When I take over a position, offensively or defensively, I always look at what the top responsibilities of the positions and the skills needed for that position. For our DEs, you had to pass rush, smash down a tackle or TE, take on pulling guards, and play the option a certain way depending on what side of the formation you were on. I then develop drills based on those skills that need to be developed.

I do not like to do a million drills and try to get through them at warp speed. I like to create an all-encompassing drill that works multiple skills at a time and gives real-game feel/look. So to follow that blue print, the first drill I came up with was what I called R&R...READ & REACT. It is a simple drill where I have an end play as an OT and he will randomly pick one of five different blocks to execute. The goal is for the DE lined up opposite of the OT is the READ the block and REACT properly to that type of block. You first have to walk them through what the blocks are and the proper reactions to those blocks, but the kids picked up fast.Also, I would have the OT go on his movement and the DE had to get off the movement of the OT and R&R.

Here is what the different blocks looked like and the reactions for each block:

The blocks are the following(from left to right on diagram): Pass Pro, Counter pull, Reach, Base/Turnout, and Down block. Obviously, with a pass pro step, the DE just went into pass rush mode. With the counter pull, the end would chase the OT down the line, unless we had game planned him to sit on it because of option. For the reach block, he is looking to fight across and always stay outside of the OT. The base/turnout block requires the DE to smash the OT back  and pinch down the B gap for plays like Iso/Belly. Finally, the down block required our DE to smash down the OT and try to prevent the OT from getting to LBs. He also had to be ready to wrong arm a pulling guard (I will talk more about this later).

Once we had go through multiple reps and worked both sides of the OT, we then had the DEs run the R&R drill versus a TE. In our defense, we played a DE heads up on a TE with his responsibility being the C gap inside. We had four blocks we would work here: Down block, Arc Block/Pass Release, Reach, and Seal Block. With the down block, we are doing what we did with an OT: smash down inside and prevent TE from getting to LBs. The arc release is a tough one for them to R&R, which required them to ride the TE a little to make sure it is not a reach block, then close it back down for a pulling guard or to get a pass rush. The reach block is a little different versus a TE because we are responsible for the C gap inside. So we taught them to take on the reach block with your outside arm, keep inside arm free while staying square, and don't wrap around backside of block until the ball has gone outside of your gap. Finally, if the TE tried to seal us from the inside, we would smash them down like we did with the OT's base/turnout block. 

Here is what the TE R&R looked like:

So when you look at the R&R drill in its' entirety, it covers about 90% of the skills needed by the DEs. This was vital because if I only had 15 minutes of indy, I could do this for 10 minutes and get a lot of reps in, covering 90% of the skills needed. The other 5 minutes I could cover any weekly adjustments or taking on a pulling guard. 

Speaking of taking on pulling guards, I have a great thing for you try to invest in. We had purchased the one year a huge, orange impact ball. It was the big ball that we would roll at players and they could work on wrong arming a pulling guard. We would either set up a simple drill, where an OT would down block, we would smash them down and wrong arm the ball. Great tool and allows for full contact on taking on a pulling lineman.

We took that drill to the extreme against one team that we faced last year. The team was a spread team that had to main run plays that gave people fits because they both involve a guard pulling, but resulted in two, widely different, attacks. They would run a trap play where the guard would pull and kick out the end, with the back hitting it up inside. The other play was what I called the power option, which involves the line blocking like power (OG pulling up through for LB) and the TB and QB sliding to the same side of the play. The QB would read the DE play side and either hand off to the TB on the DE closing down or keep the ball if DE widened to take the TB.

So with that in mind, I came up with the following drill. We had an OT, a OG (who would roll the impact ball at the DE at the snap of the ball), a TB, and me playing the QB. The DE would get into a 5 tech and at the snap at the ball would R&R first the OT, then look at the backfield to get clues on what to do. If he saw the QB turn his shoulders away from him, he would close down and wrong arm the impact ball. If he saw the QB shuffling with the TB, he would attack the mesh point square on and muddy the read. 

Here is the setup for both reads:

It worked beautifully!

In the game, we ready handle the two different plays and made them abandon using the one because we nearly nailed both the QB and TB on the power option read. Our DEs had a good game, with even one of our backups having to play most of the game.

When you are making a drill for a position (Offensively or Defensively), you have to keep a few things in mind:

1. Is this a needed skill that will be used in a game?
2. Am I addressing multiple skills at a time, so I can save time?
3. Will I be able to get maximum reps, or will a bunch of guys being standing around?
4. Am I giving them a realistic, game-like experience with this drill?
5. Is it easy enough to teach to them in the off season and they can run it on their own when you cannot coach them directly in larger groups?

Hope this helps and thank you to all of you that have been checking out my posts! I am over 300 page views in only about a week and a half...a great start and I plan to continue to provide great information and theoretical ideas that you could possibly try with your program. Please feel free to leave me feedback, good or bad, about the blog or the information being presented on the blog.