NFL Run Concepts Explained: Film Breakdown

in this video we're going to break down run Concepts that you'll see in college and in the NFL along with some of the most common variations and add-ons now if you look through an NFL Playbook teams are going to have 10 15 different ways of running outside zone for example so I'm not trying to drown you with information and break down every single play but these are the general concepts that make up 90 to 95 percent of run plays in football [Music] outside zone is a horizontal run concept where instead of trying to get vertical push and movement off the line of scrimmage you're putting lateral stress on the defense to flow with the run and protect the perimeter which can open up cutback Lanes if the linebacker is over pursue the key blocking techniques in outside zone are the reach block and overtake combo with a reach block you're trying to gain outside leverage on the defender by attaching your play side hand to the play side armpit and getting the helmet across the midline so if you split the defensive lineman down the middle the blocker's helmet should be on the outside half of his body on a successful reach block the back should be able to run through that Gap without the defender being able to disengage and make the tackle as with pretty much any block if you can create vertical displacement and put the defender on the ground then you won the rep but all you really need from a reach block is to seal off the play side shoulder so those are the single blocks in outside Zone the combo blocks I refer to as overtakes this starts out as a double team but the play side blocker is going to climb to the second level and the Blocker on the back side reaches the defensive lineman reach blocks are difficult because usually you're trying to cut off a Defender that has a leverage Advantage if it tackles reaching a three Tech on the back side and they both accelerate towards the play side when the ball is snapped the tackle would need a significant athletic advantage to cut him off so with an overtake the front side blocker occupies that Defender so the other blocker can secure his reach and then he climbs to the second level to block the linebacker an outside zone is basically a combination of reach blocks overtakes and climbs based on the alignment of the defensive front a lot of teams use the covered uncovered blocking rules where if alignment's covered meaning there's a defender in his play side Gap he's going to reach that Defender and if he's uncovered he climbs to the linebacker the running back's aiming point on outside zone is the butt or the outside foot of the tight end and then they're reading the first two Defenders which I'll call one and two and working front side to Backside if the play side tackle wins his reach block and establishes outside leverage he stretches the run to the edge but if the defender has outside Leverage The Backs eyes then go to number two and he makes the exact same read if the second Defenders reached he's gonna hit the B Gap and if not he cuts it back it's really really important here for the running back to press the outside even if it's unlikely for him to actually continue to run off tackle because you need to influence the linebackers to flow in that direction and set up easier angles for the blockers now the variation of outside Zone I've been discussing so far I call that stretch Zone where the back's first read is to hit the lane outside of the play side tackle and if you have a fast running back and an athletic tackle you can run stretch Zone and hit big plays off of that but in practice especially the NFL level that's a really difficult block to win because the in-man on the line of scrimmage is usually told his first priority is to not let the ball outside of him so most teams when they run outside Zone they're actually running a variation called wide zone or mid Zone which I use interchangeably and the difference here is the play side tackle instead of trying to reach the in-man and establish outside leverage he bases them out with inside leverage and now the running back's first read is the B Gap off the tackles inside shoulder so in summary and this is just how I frame it in my head outside zone is the broad category of horizontal Zone runs with reach blocks and overtakes stretch zone is when the play side tackles reaching the end man and the running backs first read is to the edge and wide zone or mid Zone they aren't trying to reach the defensive end and the backs first read is the B Gap inside Zone has similar blocking rules to outside Zone with the double teams and overtake combos but the priority here is getting vertical displacement the running back's aiming point is the play side guard and his first read is the play side a gap which is the bang greed and then he can either bounce it or cut it back outside instead of taking a flat lateral step to the play side like they would in outside Zone the offensive lineman step downhill at a 45 degree angle if their Gap is covered they're trying to drive the offensive lineman off the line of scrimmage and if they're uncovered they're gonna work the double team to the back side and then climb to the second level most of the variations of inside Zone depend on how the offense handles the backside defensive end inside zones most often run to the weak side of the formation so the tight end will have a one-on-one with a defensive end and teams will also run split Zone where they have the tight end come across the formation and block the defensive end on the back side this block from the tight end is called sift or a slice block and it's effective because it can serve a similar purpose as jet motion and cause the linebackers to hesitate and not flow as aggressively to the play side which creates more favorable blocking angles at the second level it's also good against five man fronts because it lets the offensive line basically ignore the backside end and treat it as a four-man front so they're still getting their double teams and then the sift block kicks out the end man and prevents them from impacting the play and this applies to outside Zone as well you'll see a lot of outside Zone with a sift block across the formation if you're enjoying the video make sure to subscribe and leave a like and also follow us on all of our social medias the links to those are in the description now we're moving into the Gap scheme runs and I'm going to start with Duo which is often referred to as power without the puller the key Point here is double teams along the defensive line to the back side of the play so if they're handing it off to the right you're going to see double teams washing out the d-line to the left the linebackers will get blocked as they trigger downhill and if they're blitzing the o-line will come off their double teams to prevent backfield penetration but the blockers aren't trying to quickly climb to the second level the priority is to sustain the double teams it's always run to the strong side so the side of the formation with the tight end and the running backs reading the play side linebacker so his initial track is going to be directly towards him and then he makes his decision based on how the linebacker plays it if he fits inside the running back bounces out to the C Gap and if he fits outside he bangs through the A or B Gap a lot of the big plays on Duo come when the defense clouds up the interior and the running back bounces outside because the unblocked Defender is going to be a cornerback or a nickel which is a favorable matchup a couple variations of this are Duo kick and Duo rap with the kick variation instead of having to tight end one-on-one with the play side defensive end he works downhill on a double team with a tackle and then they have another player come and kick out the defensive end this kick out block can be from a full back or a wide receiver and he's trying to widen the defender out and open up the C Gap if the running back bounces outside Duo rap looks a lot of times pretty similar to counter because the running back's taking a counter step away from the run and the offense is pulling someone from the back side this can be a receiver a tight end or an offensive lineman and the rap player is going to pick up the most dangerous secondary support player so normally you'd have the play side receiver blocking the safety and the corner would be unblocked but with Duo wrap the receiver blocks the corner and the rapper takes the box safety which gives you a hat for a hat on the play side meaning no one's left unblocked power is a gap concept where you're pulling alignment from the back side of the formation the front side tackle and guard double team and the tackle Works back to the will linebacker the center has the alignment to his backside on a down block meaning he's angle blocking away from the run and then you need to get two players on the move one player to kick out the play side end and another to lead block through the C Gap if you're running two back power it's usually going to be the full back in the guard you can either have the guard kick out the defensive end and the full back lead or the guard can rap and be the lead blocker with the fullback on the kick and then one back power will most often have the guard and tight end as the pullers and again they can fill either of the two rolls counter is almost identical to power the main difference is the running back's footwork with counter the running back takes a counter step away from the run to create misdirection for the linebackers and set up easier blocking angles in the NFL the most common version of counters with the guard and tight end as pullers but at the college and especially the high school level you'll see a lot more GT counter where the pullers are the backside guard and Tackle another variation is counter solid which gets two pullers without having to pull an offensive lineman this is usually done with two tight ends and it limits the potential for negative plays where you have the guard pulling and the defensive tackle rushes into the backfield through the vacated Gap trap and Wham are two very similar Concepts that take advantage of aggressive defensive linemen getting up field on both of these plays the offense is leaving one or two linemen unblocked and baiting them to run into the backfield a Wham block is from the tight end most often on a three technique and a trap block is from an offensive lineman usually a guard the two variations of trap are short trap and long trap short trap has the guard working two gaps over to the three Tech and on Long trap he's moving three gaps over to the defensive end like I said trapping am exploit aggressive defensive linemen by influencing them into the backfield and taking them out of the play leaving someone unblocked frees up an interior player to climb to the second level immediately and it also gets the linebackers to think the offense is running power counter and work over to the back side of the play so the running back can hit the a gap and the blockers can easily seal him off this isn't a very common run concept at least in the NFL so when teams do run it it's a really effective change up they can catch defenses off guard pin pull is a perimeter run concept that gets blockers on the Move in space and it's a great way to attack the edge of a defense normally the blocking rules are if you have someone in your backside Gap you down block or pin them in the opposite direction of the run and if not you're going to pull to the front side the first tight end off the tackle has a crack block on the mic linebacker where he's coming from outside leverage blocking the play side shoulder and preventing him from working over the top and the play side defensive end is either going to be left unblocked initially and then kicked out by the first puller or you can have multiple tight ends on the front side to pin them down and let both of your dollars get downfield crack toss is similar to pin pull except the front side tackle is almost always one of the pullers instead of handing it off the quarterback tosses it to the running back to help him get to the edge more quickly and then depending on the front you're going to have a crack block on the defensive end both of these concepts are a good way to take the fight somewhere else if a team's struggling to block on the interior so if you're trying to run outside Zone and Aaron Donald's blowing up every reach block you can run pin pull or crack toss where he has less of a chance to impact the play and the final concept we're going to discuss is the draw which is meant to take advantage of linebackers over committing to pass coverage this is an inside run where the quarterback gets into his drop and influences the linebackers to spread out the tackles are going to pass that usually they'll under set and try to force the edge rushers up field and the guards set and then climb to the linebackers who ideally have gotten a lot of depth in their Zone drops teams run this most often on obvious pass situations and a lot of times fans view this as a surrender play call but if it's third and 10 and the defense is selling out to protect the sticks you can sometimes convert on a draw play more easy than just throwing up a prayer into double coverage thanks for watching if you have any suggestions for other explainer videos like this let me know in the comments they take a lot longer to do than player breakdown so it's not something I can pump out every week but I'm definitely planning on getting through as many of these topics as possible [Music] [Music] thank you

Channel: A to Z Sports Film Room

Views: 25,780

Keywords: NFL, NFL Updates, NFL Offseason, NFL Football, Film Breakdown, Film Room, NFL Film, Film Study, Film Analysis, run concepts football, power football, counter football, outside zone, inside zone, duo football, pin and pull, crack toss, football explained, football rules 101, what is outside zone, football rules for beginners, football rules and regulations, football rules you didn't know

Id: Fh44FxCRRFo

Length: 10min 52sec (652 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 27 2023