June 9-15, 2024 Weekly Roundup
All the happenings this past week.
Welcome to this week’s roundup. Every Sunday moving forward I will share an article, video, book recommendation and a link to all posts from the past week.
Enjoy.
Article of the Week:
Lamar Jackson is coming off his second MVP season, but there is still room to grow. Particularly in his pre-snap operations and responsibilities. An article came out this week from The Athletic about the emphasis Baltimore is putting on Jackson to get the offense in the right play versus the defensive look they’re getting.
Here’s a snippet:
At Wednesday’s minicamp practice, Jackson was challenged throughout by an aggressive defense to change routes, run schemes and protections at the line of scrimmage. Martin [Baltimore’s QB Coach] liked what he saw as the offense had one of its sharper practices since the offseason workouts began.
The next step in this MVP’s progression is evidently to take the Peyton Manning field general route of directing the troops and getting them in the right play all the time. This is a tough task for any QB, but it’s ultimately the best way to play football. While the coaches design the offense and build the game plans, the players are the ones who actually play the game. When the QB is tasked with making these decisions and has a strong say in how the offense operates, not just the execution, the offense becomes more deadly. This can’t do anything but help Jackson as he learns more about the game and how to attack defenses.
I really appreciated when Jackson’s QB coach Tee Martin said this too:
Sometimes as coaches, you can’t be scared when they make mistakes, and you can’t allow the mistakes that they make to put fear in your heart for not calling that play the next time. Because without that, there is no growth.
Here’s the full article:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5560129/2024/06/13/baltimore-ravens-minicamp-lamar-jackson/
Video of the Week:
Coach Chip is a recently retired Georgia high school football coach of over 40 years. He’s been making some excellent videos on his YouTube channel and I highly recommend.
Most recently, he made a video going over backside routes. Seeing how offenses are get away from mirrored routes is always interesting because when you’re able to pull that off, your offense can become more dynamic since you’re giving your QB the ability to attack multiple areas on the field no matter the defensive look.
Take a watch here:
Book Recommendation
The Bunch Attack is about as good of a manual on using bunch routes that I’ve ever seen. Not only does it cover 10 different bunch concepts in full detail (routes, reads, variations, and how they play out against different coverage structures), there is an excellent introduction that goes over how they call their plays from formations to motions to pass protection.
This book has a ton of detail in it and I’ve read it through twice and still need to go back because I can’t remember everything I’ve learned from it. It’s the type of book you could study for years on end and still learn every time you open it.
Highly recommend reading it even if you’re perfectly happy with your own bunch attack. You’ll learn much more than that.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Bunch-Attack-Compressed-Clustered-Formations/dp/1571670440
Posts from This Week:
Are You Passionate?
Are you passionate? Passion is contagious, and in my opinion, an essential trait for the QB who wishes to play at the highest level. Having conviction is another trait that goes hand in hand with passion. A QB who plays with hesitancy is going to have a hard time finding success.
This Shouldn't Work
When we see a low safety and a cornerback to a solo receiver running a slant we would 90% of the time think that's not a good pre-snap look. So when I see this exact situation come up in the wild — successfully — it's worth looking at why it worked.
RPO in Texas vs. Baylor 2013
The Baylor Bears ran this RPO 9 times by my count during the de facto Big 12 Championship versus Texas in 2013. What's interesting, however, is that they only threw the ball off it one time — the first time. Here are the results: Pass (1 Attempt): 8 yards
Are You a Tempo Team?
Are you even a tempo team if opposing defenses don't look like before the snap? There is beauty in the people who commit to something and do it will full conviction. The picture above, in my (correct) opinion, is beautiful. Not because I love offense and seeing the defense on their toes. But because the Bears believed in tempo with all their heart and com…
Do You Believe in Bubbles?
I ask you because the quick WR Screen as an extension of the run game is critical to the success of the "spread" offense. WR screens are the simplest way to "spread" the defense. But what makes them successful. Here are 3 things I consider essential to making them work (the fundamentals of the WR screen, if you will):
QB Reads Overview
How you teach the QB to read through a pass play is fascinating because it's like the language you speak — it shapes the way you think about football just like a language shapes how you think about the world. Different reads are like different subject-verb-object constructions.
Winning a Go Route with an Inside Release
Once again, we’re looking at something that “probably” shouldn’t work. There is nothing more simple in the passing game than the go route. It’s a beautiful and aggressive attack on the defense. However, not all go balls are the same. The traditional go ball is the one that has lots of air and has the WR taking an outside release and beating the cornerba…
Until tomorrow,
Emory Wilhite