It’s Just An Out Route… Good Luck Defense…

On most Thursdays FirstDown PlayBook brings you a special treat here on the Coaches Community website. We feature a breakdown of personnel and technique provided by our friends over at The Scouting Academy who are our go to experts in this field.

Yards after catch. It’s a critical part of the modern passing game, as most offenses today involve getting the ball to your best athletes in space. But then what? How does the player generate those yards once he’s gotten the ball in an advantageous position?

Let’s take a look at AJ Brown turning a short, 3-step route into an explosive play by generating YAC in a couple different ways.

First, let’s start with Brown’s mental processing. By understanding the presnap look and getting the full coverage picture as he attacks the first three steps of his route, Brown knows what is happening even after he turns back to look for the ball. He has a good idea of exactly where the defender is. With this information, he generates a plan in his mind for how to generate additional yardage.

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Note the subtle stop-and-start by Brown after the catch. This forces the defender to stop his feet, and he can’t get them restarted quickly enough to match Brown’s acceleration. Brown uses the new angles he’s created to beat the defender around the edge.

So that’s one defender taken care of, but now there’s another for Brown to contend with. In this case, Brown elects to run through the contact. To some, this might be as simple as “Big people run over little people,” but that’s a gross oversimplification.

There’s so much nuance to how Brown runs through this tackle. He doesn’t run right into the defender. Instead, he takes a good angle and then lowers his shoulder so that he gives the defender a smaller target. 44 cannot deliver a powerful blow here, and Brown is able to shake it off and keep moving.

And here comes the third defender! Brown’s awareness here helps too, as he’s ready to deal with this new threat as soon as he’s shaken off the tackle. He plants his foot and again wins by creating an angle that makes it tough for that defender to make the play. Brown also throws in a stiff arm for good measure, and side-steps away from continued pursuit to get up the sideline for even more yardage.

This is a great job by Brown of utilizing his athletic ability and strength to generate a big play on a short throw. But somewhere along the way, he learned how to set up these angles and maximize his physical skills to create big plays. Having these extra tools in your toolbox as a receiver (or a receivers coach!) can be what elevates your passing game from taking what’s there to creating explosives at any time.