In preparation for the rapidly approaching football season, Dear Sports Fan is publishing a series about the basics of football. Some previous posts answer the questions: Why Do People Like Football, How do I Begin to Enjoy Football, Why Are People Obsessing About Fantasy Football Now, and What’s a Down in Football. This post is one in a series that explores each position on a football team. So far we’ve covered What is a Running Back in Football, What is a Quarterback in Football, What is a Defensive Back in Football, What is a Wide Receiver in Football, What is a Defensive Lineman in Football, What is a Linebacker in Football, and What is an Offensive Lineman in Football. Today we cover the last remaining position in What is a Tight End in Football?

What is a Tight End in Football?

Watching a good tight end is one of the joys of football. To channel Groucho Marx as well as some of my straight female and gay male friends who watch football, watching good tight ends — also one of the joys of watching football. Phew. Now that we got that joke done with right at the top of the post we can proceed in answering the question about what the football position tight end is all about.

The tight end is a hybrid position somewhere between a wide receiver and an offensive lineman. The wide receiver’s main job is to run down the field and catch passes from the quarterback. The offensive lineman’s job is to protect the quarterback when he is passing and to block defensive players out of the way of the running back when the team decides to run.

Tight ends get their name from where they line up at the start of a play. They are the closest offensive player horizontally on the field to the offensive line. They are close (tight) to the end of that line, but how tightly they line up varies depending on the play. Much of the time tight ends are almost indistinguishable from the offensive line because they line up right at the end of the line and start with their hands on the ground, just like the linemen. In other plays the tight end will line up separated from the end of the offensive line and will be upright like a wide receiver would be. Teams usually play with one tight end on the field at a time although a few teams like the Patriots have been using more formations with two tight ends simultaneously in recent years. When two are on the field at once, one usually lines up on the line and another like a wide receiver.

As we’ve mentioned before during this series on positions, football has gradually become more focused on passing in the last thirty years. The tight end position has been affected by this evolution so much so that you could almost call it a revolution, as writer Bill Barnwell did in this Grantland.com piece. Although there are no commonly recognized positional distinctions among tight ends, there are more players in the position who specialize in catching passes in the NFL than ever before.

Receiving Tight Ends

Tight ends who are primarily on the field to catch passes can be referred to as receiving tight ends. They are likely to have slighter builds than their blocking brethren. Ever since two college basketball players, Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates^[1] revolutionized the position, a surprising number of receiving tight ends have been former basketball players. There are some common sense reasons for this. Tight ends, even the receiving ones, need to be big enough to stand up to strong defensive players when blocking. Tall basketball players, like power forwards, tend to have frames that can add muscle and weight. Tight ends also use their height to advantage when catching passes. Tight ends tend to run pass routes in the middle of the field where they are less likely to get open. More often they turn to face the quarterback and use their bodies keep the defensive player from getting to the ball before it’s safe in their hands. This mimics the body positioning a basketball player uses when he “boxes out” another player to try to get a rebound.

Blocking Tight Ends

Blocking tight ends are more like offensive linemen than wide receivers. They are big men, able to push a defensive end or linebacker off the line to make room for a running back or to protect a quarterback. Unlike offensive linemen who are by rule ineligible to run past the line of scrimmage and catch a pass, the blocking tight end can, when the defense least expects it, run out and get open to receive a pass. In this way, blocking tight ends are among the sneakiest football players. Tight ends will often block for a second or pretend to block before sprinting out into space. Defenses who get fooled by the tight end may not react quickly enough to stop the quarterback from throwing an easy pass to the wide-open tight end. It’s not unheard of for a team to use a predominantly blocking tight end by having him pretend to trip, lie on the ground for a second, and then run into the end zone to catch a touchdown.

Fantasy Football Implications

Tight ends are among the most stratified positions in fantasy football. There are so few great receiving tight ends (fantasy leagues have yet to figure out how to reward for blocking skill) and the few greats have such better statistics than the average, so having one of the best tight ends in the league on your fantasy team can be a big advantage. Right behind the top two or three tight end talents though, there’s not a ton of difference between number five or six and number eighteen, so fantasy owners who don’t get a top guy will often wait until the very end of their drafts to pick one.

In preparation for the rapidly approaching football season, Dear Sports Fan is publishing a series about the basics of football. Some previous posts answer the questions: Why Do People Like Football, How do I Begin to Enjoy Football, Why Are People Obsessing About Fantasy Football Now, and What’s a Down in Football. This post is one in a series that explores each position on a football team. So far we’ve covered What is a Running Back in Football, What is a Quarterback in Football, What is a Defensive Back in Football, What is a Wide Receiver in Football, What is a Defensive Lineman in Football, and What is a Linebacker in Football. Today we take on What is an Offensive Lineman in Football?

What is an Offensive Lineman in Football?

If football were a medieval battleground, the offensive linemen would be the castle walls and the battering rams. Offensive linemen are gigantic human beings. They are usually well over six feet tall and three hundred pounds heavy. Don’t let their size fool you, they are still faster and quicker than you are. They are also generally thought to be the smartest players on the football field. Their job is one of the most complicated and important. When their team calls a pass play, offensive linemen are tasked with preventing the defensive player across from them from getting past them and hitting the quarterback. This usually involves moving generally backwards with a bend but don’t break philosophy. When their team calls a run play the offensive linemen’s job is to create an open lane for the running back to run through by forcing defensive players to move in one direction or another. Success involves seamless coordination between five linemen and at least a few other players. Failure means that at best the offensive play falls apart. At worst failure can mean the quarterback gets seriously injured and your team’s chances for the year take a serious hit.

Offensive Linemen are my favorite players in football. If I could have had the size, strength, attitude, and talent to play in the NFL, I would have wanted to be on the Offensive Line. Part of that is that I’m just attracted generally to any position that requires size that I can’t even imagine having. Another part of it is the psychology of the position. Lineman is interesting because it encourages many common football traits like aggression, competitiveness, and willingness to subject oneself to the team but the position’s primary psychological feature is protectiveness. Although we recently wrote a post all about Michael Lewis’ book The Blind Side, I can’t resist sprinkling this post with stories from the book. Two come to mind that pertain to the psychology of Offensive Linemen. The first is about the subject of the book, Michael Oher. Still a high-school kid discovering his abilities as a football player, he was also learning how to drive. One day he and his adoptive little brother were in the car together when they got into a an accident. When the paramedics got to the scene they were shocked at how little damage the airbag had done to the little brother, much less than they would have expected given his age and size. It turns out that Oher had instinctively thrown his arm between the airbag and his brother, and though the airbag burned his arm, he managed to save his brother from harm while also exhibiting an extremely protective nature and preternatural physical abilities. Every Sunday in the NFL provides offensive linemen with a supreme challenge of protectiveness and the pressure to succeed is enormous. Lewis tells us that many linemen don’t sleep the night before games, so haunted are they by the fear of failing to protect their quarterback.

There are five players in the offensive line and they are divided into three positions, Center, Guard, and Tackle. Thirty plus years ago, these positions were more or less interchangeable but since then they have become specialized. It’s rare today to find players that can play all three positions.

Centers

As you would expect from the name of the position, the center is the player in the middle of the offensive line with two linemen on either side of him. He begins each play with the football and his action of snapping the football backwards is the official start of the play. This means he needs to be in completed sync with the quarterback (yes, when “under center” a quarterback’s hand rests right under the center’s general crotch/ass region, and often signals that he wants the ball by gently pushing his hand up…) and very closely coordinated with the rest of the team who cannot move until he snaps the ball. Teams have two main ways of achieving this. The first is an audible snap count. Used when a team can hear itself think (usually at home) the quarterback will signal the center and the team to start the play with some code, like the fourth time he says blue or the seventh time he says banana. A silent count is some physical signal — the quarterback will stomp his foot three times or slap his hip or something.

Once the play begins the center’s job is not so different from the rest of the linemen but he is at a physical disadvantage. Because he’s had to use his hands to snap the ball, he needs an extra second to get them into a good position to block his opposing defensive linemen. You don’t often see dominating blocking from a center because of this.

Centers are also often kind of coaches on the field for the rest of the offensive line. They are most likely to be the ones that look at the way the defense is lining up and make sure that each offensive lineman knows which person or area he’s responsible for blocking.

Guard

The guards are the two offensive linemen directly to the left and right of the center. They are the least glamorous of the linemen. They don’t have the responsibility of guarding the edges of the line versus pass rushers nor do they collaborate so closely with the quarterback. What they focus on is run blocking. Guards love when their team calls a run and they get to drive the lineman opposite them into the ground. A phrase you might hear is that someone is a “good pulling guard.” What this means is that player is good at quickly getting behind the center and “pulling” over to the other side of the line where, because he’s an extra big, strong body on that side of the line, he can usually create a nice road for his running back to run through, paving the way with the bodies of defensive players who make the mistake of getting in the way.

Tackle

The tackles are the two offensive linemen on the edges of the five man line. Their primary responsibility is pass blocking and they face the biggest challenge because they only have a fellow lineman helping them on their inside side. Often they will get a little help on their outside, either from a tight-end or a running back, but these are generally smaller players who can’t block as well as linemen. A tackle who can successfully and reliably protect the quarterback without needing help from a running back or tight-end is extremely valuable because it gives the team the flexibility to use those players in other ways. It’s almost like having an extra player on the field.

On teams with right-handed quarterbacks, the left tackle is more important than the right because when the quarterback drops back to throw, he stands with his back to the left side of the field. The left tackle is said to be protecting the quarterback’s blind side. With a left-handed quarterback, this is reversed.

Fantasy Football Implications

Alas no one has figured out how to generate enough measurable statistics from offensive linemen so that they can be used in fantasy football. That doesn’t mean you should ignore them though. Research into which teams have strong or weak offensive lines (and things that might make them stronger or weaker like new players, injuries, new coaches, etc.) can tell you a lot about how successful the teams’ quarterbacks, running backs, and receivers are likely to be.

 

 

In preparation for the rapidly approaching football season, Dear Sports Fan is publishing a series about the basics of football. Some previous posts answer the questions: Why Do People Like Football, How do I Begin to Enjoy Football, Why Are People Obsessing About Fantasy Football Now, and What’s a Down in Football. This post is one in a series that explores each position on a football team. So far we’ve covered What is a Running Back in Football, What is a Quarterback in Football, What is a Defensive Back in Football, What is a Wide Receiver in Football, and What is a Defensive Lineman in Football. Today we finish up the defensive side of the ball with What is a Linebacker in Football?

What is a Linebacker in Football?

Linebackers are the meanest, toughest football players on the field. At least, they look it. Unlike linemen, who have a little extra meat on their bones to help them move the player across from them, linebackers are usually sculpted like extras in 300. They’re stronger than defensive backs and faster and more agile than defensive linemen. They line up a few yards behind the line of scrimmage and are responsible both for crashing the line of scrimmage to stop a running back or sack the quarterback and for covering tight ends or wide receivers, generally when those offensive players are sent running to catch a pass on shorter (“underneath”) routes.

The greatest linebackers are those that can play “sideline to sideline” – they can cover huge amounts of ground and are fast enough, for example, to keep up with a running back who is trying to get around the defense. They are also equally skilled at stopping the run and covering receivers, which means they don’t have to come off the field in situations when the defense thinks the opposing offense is more likely to pass or run.

When the ball is snapped linebackers may have any number of responsibilities: if it’s a running play they may attack the line of scrimmage aggressively, trying to get through to get the ball carrier in the backfield; or, they may slide side to side, mirroring the running back’s movements and containing him by plugging the holes the offensive linemen are trying to create.

If it’s a pass play, the linebacker may cover a tight end in man to man coverage, or be responsible for covering whoever crosses into a specific zone of the field; or, they may be assigned to blitz, ignoring everything else for a chance to hit the quarterback in the backfield before he can release the ball.

There can be anywhere from one to four linebackers on the field in any given situation. Although we covered the two most common defensive formations in the defensive lineman post, it’s worth repeating:

A total of seven defensive players play near the offensive line in both of these formations. Players who usually start a play in a sprinter’s stance right on the line of scrimmage are defensive linemen, and players who start standing up (usually a few feet to a few yards back from the line of scrimmage) are called linebackers. A 4-3 defense plays with four linemen and three linebackers. A 3-4 defense plays with three linemen and four linebackers.

Unlike defensive linemen, linebacker positions and responsibilities between 3-4 and 4-3 formations are not so incredibly different. The key difference is between middle and outside linebackers.

Middle or inside Linebackers

The middle or inside linebackers are the quarterbacks of the defense. Particularly in a 4-3 defense when there is only one of them (as opposed to 3-4 when there are two,) they are expected to be the leader of the defense. In our quarterback post we mentioned that the quarterback is the one player on the offense who has a ear-piece in his helmet that allows him to hear his coach between plays. On defense the ear-piece can be in any player’s helmet but it is most frequently in a middle linebacker’s helmet. You can tell who has the ear-piece because they have a little green dot on the outside of their helmet.

A middle linebacker who leads the defense this way gives the rest of the defensive players their assignments, checks out the offensive formation and makes any last-second adjustments before the ball is snapped.

Since they’re positioned in the middle of the field they usually are responsible for covering more ground so they have to be fast. Since they’re positioned in the middle of the field they are also usually involved in more plays… which means more collisions so they have to be strong. Since on top of all of this they also have to be leaders, they tend to be loud, brash, spilling over with charisma.  

Outside LINEBACKERS

Outside linebackers, by contrast, may be limited to covering their half of the field. For example, if a running back takes a hand-off and runs to the defense’s left, the middle and left outside linebackers’ jobs will likely be to fly to the ball and try to bring the ball carrier down. The right outside linebacker’s job, on the other hand, may be to stay on his side of the field, lagging a little behind the play, to make sure the running back can’t reverse direction and get around the defense.

Outside linebackers are also well-positioned to blitz the quarterback, since it’s frequently easier to penetrate the outside of the offensive line than it is to get through the middle. Outside linebackers tend to be slightly smaller and quicker than inside linebackers just like defensive ends are smaller and quicker than defensive tackles and for pretty much the same reason. In both common formations but particularly in a 4-3 defense, the outside linebackers are among the players with the best chance to tackle the quarterback before he can throw the ball to a receiver.

Although they are all linebackers, outside linebackers vary from their inside cousins when it comes to personality. Outside linebackers, because they usually don’t bear the burden of leading the defensive team, and because they have rare talent and can specialize in making explosive plays, tend to be a little more eccentric, sometimes to the point of erraticism. Lawrence Taylor is an extreme example of this. In the 1980s Taylor revolutionized the way outside linebackers played by being faster, stronger, more aggressive, and less predictable than anyone had ever been. He kept quarterbacks and offensive linemen from sleeping the night before they had to face him. He was also a bit crazy. On his Wikipedia page there is a section titled “Drugs and Extreme Measures” and it includes the words crazy, wild, reckless, abandon, aberrant, and controversy.

In preparation for the rapidly approaching football season, Dear Sports Fan is publishing a series about the basics of football. Some previous posts answer the questions: Why Do People Like Football, How do I Begin to Enjoy Football, Why Are People Obsessing About Fantasy Football Now, and What’s a Down in Football. This post is one in a series that explores each position on a football team. So far we’ve covered What is a Running Back in Football, What is a Quarterback in Football, What is a Defensive Back in Football, and What is a Wide Receiver in Football. Today we give the big guys some with What is a Defensive Lineman in Football?

What is a Defensive Lineman in Football?

A defensive lineman is about as close to the common stereotype of a football player as a slavering bloodthirsty ogre as you will find anywhere on a football field. Defensive linemen are strong and relentlessly aggressive. Although defensive linemen in the NFL average between 260 and 310 pounds, they start each play in a sprinter’s stance. As soon as the play starts, they burst off the line and… most of the time, smash directly into the offensive lineman opposite them. Their goal? Get around the offensive lineman and hit the quarterback. If they can’t get around (or just for the joy of it) they will try to knock the person blocking them down to the ground and run over him to hit the quarterback. If they don’t run the guy over, driving the him backwards into the quarterback works just as well.

It’s not all seek and destroy for a defensive lineman though. When the opposing offense calls a run play, the tables can turn on a defensive lineman pretty quickly. During a run play, offensive lineman smash into the defensive linemen^[1] to make space for their running back. On these plays, the defensive lineman has to do his best to hold his ground and deny the running back any room to run.

There are two positions in the defensive lineman category: end and tackle. The responsibilities of these two positions vary significantly based on which of the two basic defensive formations a team plays, which are known as the 4-3 and the 3-4. We will probably do separate posts on common formations sometime, but here’s a four sentence explanation to help with understanding defensive linemen.

A total of seven defensive players play near the offensive line in both of these formations. Players who usually start a play in a sprinter’s stance right on the line of scrimmage are defensive linemen, and players who start standing up (usually a few feet to a few yards back from the line of scrimmage) are called linebackers. A 4-3 defense plays with four linemen and three linebackers. A 3-4 defense plays with three linemen and four linebackers.

4-3 Defensive Ends

These are the stars of the defensive lineman firmament. The defensive end always lines up on the outside of the defensive line. In a 4-3 defense the two defensive linemen are usually the two defensive players closest to the edge of the offensive line. On most plays this means they have the best shot of anyone to get around the offensive line and sack the quarterback. A common strategy for 4-3 defensive ends is to use speed or trickery to get around their opponent to the outside so 4-3 defensive ends tend to be the fastest and lightest of all defensive linemen.

4-3 Defensive Tackles

Defensive tackles are the linemen on the interior of the defensive line.^[2] In a 4-3 formation there are two of them between the two defensive ends. Bigger and slower than 4-3 defensive ends, these guys still have a reasonable chance to get to a quarterback because of the focus the offensive line has to pay to the threatening defensive ends. That said, the main job of the 4-3 defensive tackle is to be good at burrowing through their counterparts on the offensive line to disrupt the flow of running plays that rely on open lanes for the running back.

3-4 Defensive ends

3-4 defensive ends are usually somewhere between 4-3 ends and 4-3 tackles in responsibility, physicality, and talent. In the 3-4 formation, the two outside linebackers are the closest of the seven defenders to the edge of the offensive line and therefore they are the ones who have the best shot at hitting the quarterback. One responsibility that 3-4 defensive ends have that is almost completely unique to them among defensive linemen is to cover an offensive player who is trying to catch a pass. Plays that call for this are called “zone blitzes” and their purpose is to confuse the offensive line by reversing the usual roles of defensive linemen and linebackers. Linebackers rush at the quarterback like banshees while 3-4 defensive ends take a short hiatus from smashing into the offensive line and nimbly step back to prevent a pass getting to its intended target.

Last year, one 3-4 defensive end, J. J. Watt of the Houston Texans, was so incredibly good at hitting the quarterback that he made the impact of a 4-3 defensive end while allowing his team to only play three defensive linemen. When he was on it was almost like his team had an extra defensive player on the field. He is pretty unique.

3-4 Defensive Tackles or Nose Tackles

3-4 defensive tackles are mountains disguised as men. These guys average 300 pounds. Called “nose tackles” because they are the odd center of a three man defensive line, their main responsibility is to stay in place while two or three offensive linemen try to push them backwards. This is called “occupying blockers” and it allows the defenders around them better odds at creating a positive play for the defense. Aside from being physically crazy, nose tackles have got to be really interesting people psychologically — willing to fight against two or three people over and over again with a draw being the most fantastically positive outcome they can expect.

 

In preparation for the rapidly approaching football season, Dear Sports Fan is publishing a series about the basics of football. Some previous posts answer the questions: Why Do People Like Football, How do I Begin to Enjoy Football, Why Are People Obsessing About Fantasy Football Now, and What’s a Down in Football? This post is one in a series that explores each position on a football team. So far we’ve covered What is a Running Back in Football, What is a Quarterback in Football, and What is a Defensive Back in Football?. Today we move back to the offense to cover the Wide Receiver position.

What is a Wide Receiver in Football?

Wide receivers are among the most talented athletes in the world. They generally have world-class speed and quickness, strong hands, freakish reflexes and hand-eye coordination and NBA-quality leaping ability. Wide receivers line up on either side of the Offensive Line. There can be as many as five of them on a field for a given play – or there can be none. Their job is to run at a flat out sprint to catch a ball that can be thrown as hard as forty miles per hour and is frequently too high or too low, too far in front or too far behind. Even more than most other positions, wide receivers have to accomplish all this while eleven other physical freaks try to knock their head off.

When their team calls a passing play, the wide receivers run predetermined routes to get open so the quarterback can pass to them. There are several types of routes. Among the most common are the slant (basically run one yard up the field, then cut violently towards the middle at a 45 degree angle), the post (similar to a slant, except you run further up the field before cutting into the middle) and the fly (JUST RUN!!). If their team calls a running play, the wide receiver’s job is to block the player across from them. For most receivers, it’s not their favorite part of the game so you’ll see a lot of half-hearted attempts to pretend to be blocking…

While an offense may run anywhere between sixty and seventy plays in an average football game, most receivers will not touch the ball more than a few times. They are entirely dependent on the quarterback getting them the ball. A running play will always result in the running back getting the ball; a pass play, even if it is designed to get the ball to a single receiver, gives a quarterback multiple options. 

Wide receivers have a reputation for being divas in and out of the locker room. They tend to be the ones with out-sized personalities, the ones with well-publicized emotional outbursts, and the ones with reality shows. We think this might have something to do with how dependent they are. The receiver only ever gets to do his thing if a lot of other things have happened first:  the coach has  to call a play with them as an option, the offensive line has to protect the quarterback, the quarterback has to decide to throw to them and then has to execute the throw well enough to give the receiver a shot at the ball.

Some receivers are very outspoken about needing the ball — this attitude might be epitomized by the receiver Keyshawn Johnson who wrote a book called “Just Give Me the Damn Ball” in 1997. As is frequently the case among highly skilled performers, some of them can be a bit…quirky. Receiver Chad Johnson changed his name in 2006 to “Chad Ocho Cinco” which was a poor transliteration of his jersey number 85. His “projects outside of football” section on wikipedia includes “Smartphone apps, Dancing with the Stars, Versus, The Ultimate Catch, WWE, Major League Soccer, Professional Bull Riders event, Acting, and Other pursuits.”

Still, the reputation of wide receivers as high-maintenance divas seems to have been tempered in recent years by the emergence of lower-key superstars like two unrelated Johnsons (Andre from the Houston Texans and Calvin from the Detroit Lions).

While there’s some overlap, receivers generally play two slightly different positions: slot and not slot (this is the default for wide receivers and therefore both has too many names and no name) with two general styles: possession receivers and deep threats. The great receivers are usually a combination of all of them or are so incredibly skilled that they transcend a single category.

Slot Receivers

When there are more than two wide receivers on the field, they can’t all be the farthest away from the center of the field. Any receiver that lines up between the widest wide receiver and the offensive line is said to be in the “slot.” Players who more often than not line up there are slot receivers. The slot receiver deals with a more chaotic universe of overlapping routes, charging linebackers, and more complicated blocking assignments. Because it is harder for a receiver who lines up in the middle of the field to get wide open deep down the field, slot receivers often play with a possession style than a deep threat style.

Possession Receivers

Possession receivers are generally smaller, quicker and have more reliable hands. They’re the type of player likely to be described as “shifty,” as opposed to the type who relies on flat out speed. They run shorter routes that result in easier and safer throws and catches. Their goal is not to gain huge chunks of yards at once or score in a single play – instead, they run routes that get them the ball between 5-15 yards of the line of scrimmage. These plays are successful more consistently than those that involve throwing the ball farther down the field so receivers that specialize in them help their  team move the chains (get first downs) and keep the ball for longer offensive possessions.

Great possession receivers, however, can turn small gains into large gains by avoiding tackles after they’ve caught the ball. A receiver’s Yards After Catch is a statistical measurement of this ability.

Example: Wes Welker (Denver Broncos, formerly of the New England Patriots) is the most talked about modern example.

Deep Threats

These receivers are fast. As in, “they probably ran track in college and are just a hair slower than Olympic sprinters” fast. Sometimes the defensive backs covering them will have a ten yard head start, will know the guy is going to try and run past him…and will still not be able to keep up. There’s not much else to say about them: they line up, they run as fast as they can and they try to get behind the defense. Sometimes these receivers leave a bit to be desired in the hands (catching ability) department because teams place such a premium on speed.

Deep threats catch fewer passes because throwing the ball 30-40 yards is a lower-percentage proposition than throwing it 5-10 yards. But each catch is usually spectacular and can have a huge impact on the game.

Examples: Mike Wallace, Desean Jackson

In preparation for the rapidly approaching football season, Dear Sports Fan is publishing a series about the basics of football. Some previous posts answer the questions: Why Do People Like Football, How do I Begin to Enjoy Football, Why Are People Obsessing About Fantasy Football Now, and What’s a Down in Football? This post is one in a series that explores each position on a football team. So far we’ve covered What is a Running Back in Football and What is a Quarterback in Football. We move to the defensive side today to cover the Defensive Backs.

What is a Defensive Back in Football?

Defensive backs are the smaller, quicker, and faster defensive players who frequently serve as a defense’s backstop – the last, best hope at stopping an offensive player who’s gotten loose. They’re the players you’ll see lined up across from wide receivers or otherwise spread out, usually 10 or so yards behind the line of scrimmage – though some of them may play closer to the line of scrimmage and even blitz (a berserker-like attempt to hit the quarterback before he can throw the ball) occasionally.

Defensive backs have a wide array of assignments and physical skills. They have to be strong enough to tackle a running back who is running at full speed and skilled and crafty enough to closely follow the path of a wide receiver doing his best to get open for a pass from his quarterback. The defensive back spends a lot of his time running backwards at full speed. They have to be quick enough to follow the moves of the wide receiver. It’s like following in a couples dance with an insanely athletic partner who not only won’t tell you what the moves are but is actively trying to trick you.

Defenses use their own brand of trickery to try to regain the initiative the offensive side has. Defensive players engage in a dizzying array of schemes to cover receivers. Diagrams of these schemes are as complicated as a molecular model but for our purposes there are three overarching coverage concepts: man to man coverage, where each defensive player is assigned to cover a specific offensive player, no matter what happens; zone coverage, where each defensive player has responsibility for a specific area of the field and covers any player who comes through; or, a combination, where, for example, two defensive backs may cover one talented receiver while the other defensive backs play zone on the rest of the field.

There are a lot of other terms associated with coverage schemes – “jamming” a receiver, for example, basically means grabbing him and keeping him from leaving the line of scrimmage. The “bump and run” is a type of coverage where defensive backs jam the receiver for a second just to throw the play’s timing off, then turn and run with him. There are many more, but the general concepts outlined above should give you a good foundation.

You’ll occasionally hear commentators say that an offensive player made it to the second or third “level” of the defense, which refers to how far down the field he was tackled. The first level means the player was stopped by the defensive linemen, usually for a short gain;  second means he was stopped by a linebacker for a medium gain (3-6 yards) and the third meaning he made it into the defensive backfield and was tackled, after a longer gain, by a….well…defensive back.

What Kinds of Defensive Backs are There?

Cornerbacks

Cornerbacks have a single job: they cover the opposing teams’ wide receivers, running as close as possible to them to prevent the quarterback from completing a pass. Oh sure, they’ll tackle a running back if he happens to come their way and no one stops him first – but they’re not known for their tackling prowess and it’s sometimes amusing to watch them avoid tackling someone.

Not surprisingly, cornerbacks are the players you see lined up directly across from the receivers. They’re selected based on their speed and “ball skills” – a fancy term for the ability to intercept or knock down a pass. One of the cynical running jokes in football is that if cornerbacks could actually catch, they’d be wide receivers – but since they can’t, they do the job where it’s simply knocking the ball down is considered a success.

In reality, nowadays NFL teams put a premium on pass defense for the simple reason that the league features more prolific passing offenses. As a result, cornerbacks are frequently just as athletic as the receivers they cover. They’re just as likely, if not more likely, to return punts and kickoffs in addition to their primary responsibilities, specifically because they’re so fast and athletic (and, the cynic would say, because returning kicks is dangerous enough that the league has talked about removing them from the game, teams use defensive backs for this job because they’re less valuable than wide receivers.)

A lockdown corner – a cornerback who effectively renders one of the elite receivers in the league ineffective all game without help from his teammates – is one of the most valuable commodities in the league.

Example: Darrell Revis

Safeties

Safeties are cornerbacks who hit. They’re bigger, meaner, tougher and have to be strong tacklers because, in addition to covering receivers, they are tasked with stopping the bigger, stronger tight ends and running backs. All the best safeties are known for being able to “read” what an offense is about to do and get to where the ball is going to be almost as if they had been told before-hand what the play was. A safety who uses his instinct and intellect to “read” an offense like this better be right, because they – as their name implies – are the last line of defense. If an offensive player gets by the safety, there’s a pretty good chance he’s going to score.

There are two types of safeties: the strong safety and the free safety. The distinction is fairly technical and has to do with where they line up on the field and what their responsibilities are once the play starts.

Examples: Troy Polumalu (Strong Safety), Ed Reed (Free Safety)

What are the Fantasy Football Implications of Defensive Backs?

In 95% of all fantasy football leagues, a fantasy team consists of individual offensive players while defensive players get lumped in together as a unit. In this majority of leagues, the impact of defensive players in general is limited. A few leagues play with both individual offensive and defensive players and there are even a small number of leagues that only care about defensive players. In leagues that play with individual defensive players (called IDP leagues) the big plays that defensive backs make, like interceptions (catching a pass by the opposing team’s quarterback,) forcing a fumble, or getting a sack (tackling the opposing team’s quarterback when he has the ball behind the line of scrimmage) give a fantasy team lots of points. These plays are very hard to predict though, so most teams will opt to use players who may get a big play once in a while but will definitely provide a steady stream of points by tackling offensive players. When it comes to defensive backs, these players are usually safeties and sometimes really back cornerbacks that struggle to prevent opposing wide receivers from catching the ball.