The NFL’s Latest Evolution

NFL defenses prepare to get dizzy in a sport built around creating confusion understanding how to operate and see through the deception is key a common way to do so is through motion that's having a player moving at the snap imparting momentum Intel and deception to counter the defense motion has always existed in the NFL to some extent but this year the Miami Dolphins are taking it to an absolutely absurd level look only as far as the 2017 season where only 4% of snaps League wide contain motion compared to this season where the Dolphins are at a ridiculous rate of 59% while no other team has reached the levels of the High Flyers down in South Beach a deeper dive into the data shows a strong correlation between motion and scoring for the League's top offenses so let's dive into how Miami and other offenses around the league are using motion and why it's just so damn effective let's start with some definitions as there are two ways for an offense to move pre- snap emotion is when a player is moving laterally or backwards to the line of scrimmage as the ball is snapped only one player may do this at a time and it must be a player designated as off the line of scrimmage a shift is where the offense changes its formation by moving as many players as they choose pre- snap however they must all get set for a full second before the ball is snapped by adding movement to your offense you're forcing the defense to show its hand and when a quarterback can identify man or Zone pre- snap he's going to win while we'll focus on the former the shift is the OG cousin of the motion and can be just as useful in deciphering a defense here the 49ers start out in the eye formation but with a very versatile set of skill players shift into a five wide look with yuse Che and Mitchell now operating on the boundary the Giants are forced to show their hand and with linebackers following them pie can be clear he's seeing man coverage Elijah Mitchell's goal will clear out the sideline space for KD to run his out into and perie has an easy throw for a big chunk pickup the main focus of this video is motion though and it's just as big a killer of man coverage the same Theory applies a Man in Motion is going to be followed if the defense is in man coverage lined up in a tight bunch here Ross dwell will come in motion and is tracked by minka's RC the whole way showing a clear man coverage the ners have an easyto read slant flat combo with momentum to out leverage to the flat and perie makes the right decision hitting iuk on the slant against the soft coverage now defenses have specific rules to pass off coverages and a common call is banro that helps Defenders swap assignments based on Route Direction but clever coordinators know this and use motion to force matchups here on the goal line Miami know that that New England are going to pass off the coverage between Hill and SMI if they run any sort of pick play so 81 will motion outside Hill and run quick to the flat threatening to outflank the defense and dragging Christian Gonzalez wide to cover him leaving Tyreek Hill on safety Kyle Dugger now Dugger is a great player but he ain't keeping up with Tyreek on this quick out come on now and here the Chiefs just have the Bears all sorts of tangle Sky Moore is in motion being tracked by Elijah Hicks and and he forms a stack behind Rashid rice Bears originally had a banjo call here between Terrell Smith and jquan brisker covering any pck play between rice and McKinnon but with Sky Moore now the whitest man hickon Smith will call banro on the stack and brisker calls out that he has McKinnon Mo complicates things by coming back across on the return motion and the chief snap the ball just as he does this hies has time to call out to Edmonds to take Sky Moore to the flat and he replaces his lurker role but Burker and Smith get no chance to call banro and the pick play has McKinnon open to the flat for the easy score using motion against man coverage not only deciphers the defensive call but can be used to open space to attack facing the blitz fanatic Brian Flores Kell Moore was one step ahead of his counterpart the Chargers have running back Josh Kelly stacked behind Gerald ever and will bring him on the orbit motion around Herbert in the pistol to set up a screen the receiver behind Herbert will swing the same selling the screen and with 44 in the defense stepping this way Herbert has one of the cleanest throwing Windows you'll see in the NFL and here's that same idea used by Miami against the Chargers the Dolphins have got a wide receiver and Eric ezukanma behind Tua and will bring Moler in motion again creating a one-on-one opportunity and Hill will burn Michael Davis on the baby fade so that's man coverage but that's only part of the story if nobody tracks you well you're like seeing Zone and now you've built up momentum to attack static Defenders inside their own 10 the Dolphins give themselves breathing space with their favorite wheel seam flat play the motion comes from the HB back running the wheel and with no one widening with him he has the Pats outflanked creating an easy early throw for Tua this time from a Trip's formation Miami will bring Julian Hill inside on the short motion and the static from Denver's defense easily shows two of the cover three with the certainty that this is Zone and with a player of Tyreek speed Tua can simply throw this up knowing he can cut into the space before any Defender can react defenses aren't all this static though and many times will shift over with the motion to try and negate The Leverage and momentum Advantage here against the Seahawks it's Tut two Atwell in motion and watch as the backer level shifts over with the motion to protect their new run fit and Tariq willing the corner will widen as to not give away outside Leverage however the motion has helped reveal the seahawks' zone and the Rams have the perfect play to beat it using two clear out routes to remove the safeties and a deep dig to attack over the dropping lower level a ridiculously good ball from Stafford the Rams have a huge chunk pickup and this time against the Broncos they'll react hard to the motion fearing being outflanked but the Dolphins hit them with the Uno reverse with some beautiful play design Craycraft will come in motion from the near side and Tua will fake the ball to the running back as if they're setting a sweep out left but this is all misdirection to get the Broncos flowing the wrong way as the Dolphins r a flood concept to the wide side of the field the added genius in design is bringing the under route in the flood from Tyreek Hill usually you'd have the tight end off the line run this for spacing purposes but Hill is so fast he can get to the flat in an instant and with the under coming from the X receiver no hanging end or outside backer will be keying on him leaving them late to react and an easy pitch and catch motion can not only show you that it's a Zone but Force the defense to show you which zone here Noah gray will short motion to an h-back position and is now part of The Blocking count forcing safety jquan brisker to rotate down to make sure he can protect his run fit showing a clear cover three for momes to attack the Chiefs have got some play action window dressing to hold the backers but momes knew exactly where he was going with this one before the snap sniping Sky Moore right in the heart of the coverage with so many modern defenses focus on Counting the offensive splits and distributing receivers based on release motion is an easy way to cause confusion as teams need to be drilled in how they label these scenarios most teams will give a push call to slide a linebacker or Corner into the flat to negate the speed and leverage but everyone must be on the same page or you end up in scenarios like this this is great design by Andy Reid using the rocket motion from the back to to cause the push call then layering hitch up routes in behind a clear out the Lions aren't going to get outflanked but rookie Brian Branch pushes too and this leaves a wide openen man for momes to find here's Miami's will seam flat play and once more New England get caught in a bind Marcus Jones widens and takes the wheel judon widens to Hill but stays aggressive to cut off the flat but Dugger can't get over to his new number two responsibility and Hill just drifts into the space for the easy catch and run when receivers are running full speed and you have a million other tiny details to think about it's really easy to miscalculate the number or be on a different page from your teammate leaving open throws for QBs and this is one of the major reasons people should be using more motion it creates such easy throws and reads for your quarterback this one's straight out of Kell Mo's old Saturday Playbook bringing the rookie Quinton Johnson on the orbit motion and setting up an RP po depending on the numbers count Herbert can either hand the ball off inside or throw the swing screen the bolts have a three on two Advantage outside and it's an easy first down a Shanahan special of this is the boot action game first here shifting Debo Samuel to a condensed right look then bringing yuse Che across on the motion as if he's a lead blocker from maccaffrey on a wide toss only to boot out of this and hit KD running a drag the entire defense is flooding for the toss play and and Pie has plenty of time to set his feet and find his tight end in stride and when you run enough of these swing screen actions well you can catch the defense with the double pass watch the subtle change in motion angle as Keenan Allen makes sure to keep gaining depth to create space and an aggressive Vikings defense will bite it up leaving 13 just a rainbow to hit and it's an easy six for as effective as motion is in the passing game it may may be even more beneficial when it comes to running the rock motion adds a cloak of distraction while offering added momentum to attack a hesitant defense and this is what caused Denver so many troubles on Sunday you back off to protect the pass the misdirection causes the Defenders to be in the wrong Gap and you're getting run over all day long McVey has been running this one for years starting in a tight right Bunch tutu will fly motion across the play as the Rams run a crack toss the other way the defense takes a step with the motion to make sure they have the numbers this way but the toss is going back outright creating a harder Pursuit angle but Fred Warner is a beast the design worked though with rookie puka akua laying a great down block allowing numbers to the edge it's the Lion's turn to run their variant and this time they're in shotgun with Khalif Raymond in motion Chief's defense are communicating and sliding with it but the Lions are Going Back Against the Grain with a power sweep pulling the guard and center from for rookie jir Gibbs to run behind this is one of the best lines in the league we're going to cover them real soon trust me and turning the window dressing up to 11 here's Miami's orbit GH counter spinner play against the Broncos Speedster back Devon achain will orbit motion from the stack and Miami will snap the ball in time for Tua to fake the hand off to him before pivoting on the spot and handing it off to their other Speedster back Raheem moer on the counter and that's the key element of this design most start's counter steps has him looking as if he's heading out as a Chain's lead Blocker on the end round only for Tua to hit them with a beautiful play action handing it off to moster with two pulling blockers to clear it away masterful design and a easy walk-in score misdirection is just one way in which motion benefits the Run there's also the added momentum one way to take advantage of this is by putting the lead Blocker in motion and here they'll run a toss left with that HB exit motion they love so much breaking their Tendencies and making me look foolish for saying they were unlikely to run out of this just two weeks ago Hill's the widest man on the field immediately and thanks to a badly aligned even front Denver played with all game Miami can easily get the pin down on the end and the line can then release to the backer level with Hill and inold acting as the pullers to the edge mostard is out into open grass untouched until he passes the sticks now Ben Johnson the Lions offensive coordin Ator is also a fan of this and will impart momentum on his quick swing screen by bringing am man RA in motion this might be recorded statistically as a pass but this is a run by any other name and here's Miami turning that dial all the way up again with more beautiful play design this time baros is the motion man and as he gets close to Tua they snap the ball there's no fake this time to the orbit and Tua will instead play action with mostard before spinning on the spot and flicking the ball to a chain who's coming on the end around this makes baros the lead blocker and with some creative pulls inside to sell the handoff to mostard and then more good work by the center to pull late achain has got a wall of blockers out in front the turf monster gets the center but blazing speed and Sharp Cuts have orange crush covering the grass as 28 brings it all the way to the five and this is all before we've given the ball to the motion man here's a variation of That Swing screen play we showed the lions running but instead of having a lead Back In Motion Debo will be the man carrying momentum as he gets to swing and uses his Jets to get to the edge another variant is him getting the ball straight off the orbit motion with the handoff perie will fake it to mcaffrey who will cut down the end and allow his line to stretch right as Debo gets the ball in the end round TJ watt knives the Gap but Debo's builtup momentum leaves him taking a bad angle and 19 is able to get the space created by his offensive line and when teams do start camping on the wide run you can always run the push pass back the other way as creative as all this is and as much as I see this as the future of football these teams are definitely pushing the line of what counts as a legal motion and in some instances the refs are missing what should be some clear flags on the play a play had noticed on tape that looks like Forward Motion but actually isn't is this Rams play the tight end will actually stab his foot in the ground directly on St 's Cadence and immediately cut up field although sometimes that's still too early that's not to say I'm defending the Rams though because both they and the Dolphins are the ones really pushing this Rule and the refs have to do a better job of catching this or they're giving the offense way too big of an advantage so that's why motion is so effective both in the run and passing game and why we're only going to keep seeing this increase as time goes on it'll likely take at least an offseason for teams to run anywhere near the amount Miami are motioning simply due to verbiage and offensive installing but with motion correlating to a top offense look for these plays to steadily increase across the season the NFL has always been a copycat league and teams are definitely coming for the Dolphins homework thanks for watching if you enjoyed this why not check out our video on Modern defenses in the NFL or more on this year's Miami Dolphins offense take care

Channel: Thinking Football

Views: 305,918

Keywords: NFL, NFL Highlights, all 22, Film Study, NFL breakdown, Thinking Football, Coaches Film, Scouting Report, NFL Draft, Film Breakdown, College football, Motion, orbit motion, tyreek hill, tua, jaylen waddle, mike mcdaniel, chargers, dolphins, miami dolphins, justin herbert, matthew stafford, kyle shanahan, deebo samuel, Amon ra st brown, Lions, dan campbell, bears, justin fields, patrick mahomes, andy reid, offensive scheme, nfl, dolphins giants

Id: LGu9He7AsYo

Length: 15min 29sec (929 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 01 2023