Cross Training Your Position Players For Depth
When you start talking about creating depth for your position players, most people assume you are talking about training your number two and three at the position. Yes, that is incredibly important. You don’t have to look any further than week one in the NFL to see that.
Three NFL teams started their first game or finished their first game with a Quarterback other than who they started or planned to start.
The Seattle Seahawks saw their starting Quarterback, Sam Darnold limp off of the field after just five snaps in their opener against New England.
Yesterday the Minnesota Vikings starting Quarterback Kyler Murray is laying on the ground unconscious eleven plays into their regular season.
The Atlanta Falcons are thinking starting their backup in the opener is not optimal but manageable right up until he gets hurt and now they are forced to start their number three.
As challenging as all three of these situations are, they are not as hard as the scenario I am going to present to you today. Especially if you are good at what you do as a position coach.
A much harder injury situation presents itself to position coaches when that injury occurs within position groups like the offensive line or the defensive backfield.
Your Job As A Coach Is To Get Your Best Players On The Field. Most Of The Time That Means Regardless Of Position.
Why? Because let’s face it. As important as the Quarterback position is there is one depth chart to consider. When someone gets hurt the solution is pretty obvious. Bring in the player who has trained at the Quarterback position as the backup.
If you coach the Offensive Line that is not necessarily the case. In many cases your best substitution will be the best lineman available to play whatever position needs help.
I noticed this Saturday night in the Ohio State vs Texas game. At a critical time in the fourth quarter the Buckeyes Right Tackle went down. Instead of replacing that position they moved the starting Right Guard to his spot and bought in a backup at the Guard position.
Please understand that this was the plan before the game ever started. Instead of bringing in an inexperienced position player to play the critical Right Tackle spot, they chose to play their starting Guard at that spot.
The sixth best Offensive Linemen came in at the vacated Guard spot. The Ohio State staff put their faith in their starting Guard to play Tackle instead of an inexperienced player.
This does not just happen. When an Offensive Line coach or Offensive Coordinator make this decision it means that they have cross trained some of the players.
You Should Be Training Your 6th Best Lineman To Play Multiple Places. Same Thing With Your 5th Best Defensive Back.
The starting Right Guard had taken some practice reps at the Right Tackle position as well. This was their way of creating depth but also getting the best five players on the field.
The same thing can apply to your Defensive Backfield. Just because one of your Safeties goes down does not mean that the substitute is automatically going to be a Safety. It might be a Corner or an undersized Linebacker if you have taken the time to cross train them.
As the saying goes “Injuries are part of the game”. As you approach practice this week consider how to get the best players on the field. You never want to play a less talented player over another just because that was your depth chart or only because that’s who got the practice reps.
Take a look at this video that explains how to train your position players a little more.
