August 31, 2021 • 36 mins
What exactly happens before and after the snap from the pocket for an NFL quarterback? Listen to Christensen talk you through it, as well as the importance of his individual drills to improve technique and what quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Tom Brady have in common.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So you think you know football, come find out straight
from the source in the Booth Review podcast, where we
take you inside the offices of the Bucks assistant coaches
to talk some football fundamentals. Get your white boards ready,
here's Buccaneers staff writer Carmen Vitality. Welcome back in for
another episode of the Booth Review. I am Karmen by Tally,
(00:22):
and I am so very excited to be joined by
Bucks quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen. Clyde, thank you so much
for stopping buying talking to us today really a pleasure.
I'm looking forward to it. I am so so excited
to pick your brain a little bit because you are
a guy who has coached perhaps some of the most
prolific quarterbacks in NFL history, um and one of which
you just got to watch get inducted into the Pro
(00:44):
Football Hall of Fame. How was that? It was special?
Really really special to be uh, to be able to
witness a good chunk a decade of his career and
watch him work and nobody put into it, and then
see him honored at the Hall of Fame. Was was spectacular.
It was a you know, I've had moist eyes. I
promised you added that just a great memories and uh,
(01:05):
and to watch what he put into the game and
what he how much he loved football and respected the
sport and the game, you know, and to see him honored,
and uh, it was it was spectacular. We're talking, of
course about Peyton Manning and you were seated next to
your current quarterback with Tom Brady. That has to be
really funny to witness just kind of the dynamic between
(01:25):
those two, and especially from your vantage point of getting
to have coached both, really fun I I, you know,
who whoever thought that I'd be taking Tom Brady to
an Indianapolis colts party, you know, Peyton Manning's colts party.
So uh, I kind of likened it to taking one
of the Bloods to a Crypts function, you know, like
it was. But we got out there with no violence
(01:46):
and no ill words. So it was it was successful.
But it was They both have such a respect for
each other, and I was touched that Tom made the
effort to go up and and honor and show his
respect for Peyton, and that was really a neat thing.
And I think he'd us have an unbelievable respect for Peyton.
Peyton was a little bit ahead of him. And so
I think everyone who played quarterback looked at Peyton and
(02:07):
how he kind of managed the game and how he
was the field general and in a way that probably
no one had ever done at that point. And uh
and I think that that most younger quarterbacks like Tom,
you know, just just grew up, you know, admiring him
and uh and I wanted to be like him in
some ways. So that was that was really really cool.
(02:27):
Tom seemed to have had the respect he has a
respect for Peyton Manning. But I don't know that cold
fans had the respect for Tom because I thought he
got booed. Uh were they were they that loud to
booth but the booze were pretty loud and uh it
But I think it was more and more in fun,
more in sport. It was. It wasn't hostile, It was it.
People were great to him, and uh, you know, and
(02:48):
I always I always tease him. You know that I
got I still got some scar tissue. I gotta work
through of some some all those years as a cult
and and playing him and being beat by him a
quite a few times in my day. And I always
I always tail them, and you know it's coming I'm
starting to really kind of like him. He's growing on me.
But uh, it's not. It's not an overnight thing for
(03:09):
a Colts fan. I love Tom Brady. I don't think
you're alone even on this staff in some battle scars
from Tom Brady himself. Um, but you know, you talk
about these guys that you have have coached and the
guy that you are now coaching under. Bruce arians published
a book called The Quarterback Whisperer, and I want to say,
if he's the quarterback whisper, you might be the quarterback
Yeller because one of my favorite things of practice are
(03:31):
your quarterback drills and the way that you demand the
ball every single time. I can't even impersonate you when
you do it, but it's awesome. And you can hear
from two fields over when you want them to release
the ball, and you're going through all these fun little drills.
I think it's even Clyde Christensen's fun house over there
with all of the green ball drills and all that
kind of stuff. Where'd all this come from? You know what?
(03:53):
Just through the years. I think they've just kind of
accumulated through the years. And I'm probably a glorified parks
and Recreation director. I gotta you know, get you know,
as long as long as everyone's moving around and uh
having a good time when their parents pick them up,
then you did a good job. So if we can
leave Individual and we can have our done our work
and had a little bit fun and kept it interesting
and uh in some mix of those. You know, it's
(04:14):
it's a long haul for you know, to think about
Tom twenty second year, you know, going to Individual and uh,
but gosh, he attacks it. I love what I do.
I love my job. I love I love everything about it,
and I love I've always believed in fundamentals and techniques
and uh, and so I think it's extremely important. So
I always tease you can, you can do a lot
of things, you can burn down, but don't mess with Individual.
(04:37):
Don't don't cut the time, don't you know, Let's make
sure this thing is set up right, and we're gonna
we're gonna go hard for a good twenty minutes right
there before we go into practice. And uh, that's kind
of sacred time for me. It's also a time where
you're not worried about plays. You're just worried about you know,
footwork and technique and getting better. And there's something for
a coach that that there's a love of that that
I don't have to worry about execution of a certain player,
(04:59):
what the house cowboys are doing on it's just just us,
just let's us get better. And uh so those those
twenty minutes are extremely important to me there all through
the year there. If you know, last year to Super
Bowl on Friday afternoon, we were still doing individual and
you know, it gave Tom a green light to skip
him if he wanted. He said, why would I do that?
Is you know, I'm getting better and and uh and
(05:22):
and so I think that I really do think that
they've bought into it, and and uh and I've been
around guys who really do want to hone their skills.
The great ones want to work, the great ones want
to be coached. The great ones want to I want
to do that stuff. It's the it's the mediocre guys
who ah, this is stupid or you know, I'm too tired,
or you know all those things. I'll give you A
(05:42):
great example would be, you know, Tom, we come back
and we probably got in from the Hall of Fame
ceremony and probably got in it landed at two and
got to bed by two thirty and came in for
an eight o'clock eight thirty individual practice and I said, hey,
just just to ease your way, and he jumped right,
he goes, No, I ready to go, let's go. And uh,
I had one of his best practices. He's he's ever
(06:04):
that he's had this year. And uh and so I
think they look forward to it. I try and make,
you know, make an effort to make it interesting and
fun and change it up enough that it doesn't get monotonous.
And uh and and so I think the ones who
are really special love that. They see the value in it.
They can feel the value in it. And and the
(06:25):
ones who are mediocre, don't you know, they say, heck,
you know, I've been playing ten years in this league.
Why do I need to work on my cadence for
my snap? And Peyton was that way. Peyton, Peyton in
his last year down at the after all those m
v p s and stuff, still worked on a snap count,
still worked on center quarterback exchange, still worked on his drop,
(06:46):
still worked on his throw in motion. You know like
that that that's what makes it makes those guys different.
I believe and uh and so yeah, that is that
that's a fun time for me. I love that time.
I really really enjoy it. And uh and that and
I also think it's it's the nuts and bolts of sports,
is fundamentals and techniques, no whetter what sport it is, sir,
And that's part of That's exactly why I wanted to
(07:08):
bring you here and have you speak on this topic
because I want to get a little bit more in
depth in those fundamentals. And when you're watching these quarterbacks,
say on on a TV broadcast as a fan, you're
sitting on the couch and you're watching what these guys
are doing, I want them to understand. I want people
to understand a little bit more about what the quarterbacks
are doing in the however many seconds it takes to
snap the ball and for a play to run. So,
(07:30):
if you will indulge me a little bit, starting pretty basic,
I want to talk about the kind of basic quarterback
alignment because we even talked to Kyle Trask today and
he said, hey, listen at Florida, I wasn't understand our
a whole lot. Well, what does under center mean? Why
is that different? Why doesn't that exist? In college um
versus shotgun, which has become so much more prevalent. So
just take me through what under center means, what shotgun means,
(07:52):
and maybe you know kind of the pros and cons
of each or or why you see more of one
than the other. Especially nowadays. Yeah, things have kind of
evolve that it used to be that a lot of
teams wouldn't even get in the shotgun because everything was
so rhythmic. You want to be under center, with your
hands under the center, under the center's tail there and
taking the ball directly from him, and then then you
could teach all your routes off of that that your
(08:13):
three step, five step, seven step play action, whatever it was,
and everything timed up from under center. I think Bill
Walsh was forever would not get in the shotgun and
uh and be because the defeat and the timing of
it was so tied to your steps coming out from
underneath center, and it was hard to simulate in the shotgun.
Now football, especially in college, it's hard to find a
(08:36):
quarterback who's called to play in a huddle or taking
a snap from a center. And uh, and that's that's
kind of fundamental to this thing. And it's kind of
it's kind of fallen by the wayside. I don't know
if it's better or worse. But the shotgun is a
way that now we can we're back, we we can
see the defense a little bit better. There's an advantage
to it. We we probably are under center as much
(08:56):
as anyone in the NFL here with the bucks and
you know, for the run game and the two back
run game and the one back run game and just
you know, to be under center and still now your
play action and stuff, and you're still have it in
the shotgun. But all of a sudden, the shotgun, the
threat of the run is less, you know, it's just
become more of a spread offense sport, especially in college
(09:17):
and even in the NFL now and uh so there's
less and less people under center. But the shotguns advantages
are that now you don't have to take that drop,
that you can get that ball in your hands and
get your eyes down field and you've already got your
depth in the pocket. So h but I think it
is hard work to you know, and everyone's a little
bit different that, you know, some people want to be
on a step count. Some people like Peyton could just
(09:38):
run in place and look around and find to go
through his reads. Uh. Tom has a phenomenal sense of
just being able to take the steps and end up
at the right time, at the right place. And some
guys never get it. You know, some guys just you know,
they get restless back there. It's hard to teach a
rhythm that like kind of reading a reading a defense
and reading a progression of receivers is a is it?
(10:00):
It's a progression. It's time that Hey, I'm on one,
I've got to be there now, and then two, I'm
coming two, and then three. And you know, I think
that probably we've lost a little bit of just the
precision of hey, one and then two comes open at
the right time, and three comes open at the right time.
And the quarterbacks pizza have two feet have to mirror
that timing of when things are coming open. And uh.
(10:20):
And so the shotgun, while it gives you some advantages,
it's a challenge to time up the feet. And Uh.
The other thing that happens is we'll talk a lot
about the pocket. You know that how deep you want
to be If you tell the lineman you're taking a
three step drop and then you stand. You know, they
think the ball is coming out quick, you know, so
they can block a little more aggressive because they know
that the ball is going to come out a little
(10:41):
bit quicker. I don't have to hold onto my guy
quite as long, you know, but seventh step drop, they know, hey,
the quarterback is gonna be around nine and a half
ten yards back. I got a little more give, but
I also got to hold onto my people block my
man longer because it's a deeper drop, and uh, you know.
But but people depend on you being at the right place.
(11:02):
So the timing of the routes and then also where
you are in the pocket's really really important. Sometimes from
the shotgun, you'll see a quarterback get eleven yards deep
while those tackles, you know, you're trying to block, you know,
shock and he's trying to turn the corner, and all
of a sudden, you know you're back there twelve yards deep.
That throws the tackle off because he expects you to
be at nine yards deep, and uh, and it makes
(11:23):
it tougher because he can turn the corner easier, and
so it's all tied together. And then then you mix
in some pistol, which is now where you're kind of
in the shotgun, but the quarterback stays behind you. Now
you can keep some of your running game the same,
you know, where that running back and get the ball
deep he can read. And uh. And now we'll move
the quarterback up maybe a half a yard yard half
(11:45):
a yard to a yard and the running back and
we're trying to keep him in the same home position.
So that's kind of a effort to effort to mesh
the two, kind of an in between that you can
keep your under center running game but have your quarterback
in the shotguns. So I think people are extremely creative
and and uh and so there's there's, there's there's each
(12:07):
of them give you different things. All of a sudden
you're in the pistol, and it's harder for if the
linebacker walks up and blitz is, well, that backs long
ways back to he has to get back to the
quarterback and go block his man. Well, you know, if
you're under center, he's a couple of yards closer and
he can get there a little easier and quicker, you know.
So there's a trade off to all of it. And
you know, I think the good offenses, the offenses that
(12:28):
are are coordinated, well, that's all tied together. How do
we want to run the ball? You know, what's the
play action that's tied to? What's our passing game? Where's
the quarterback going to be? How do we time up
our routes? So all those things. You know, it's not
just as easy as just say they were a three
step quick game. We want to get the ball out quick.
But you know, and then some offenses aren't very well
(12:50):
coordinated and uh and so I think time on tasks.
That's why I think coach Arean's coach left, which you know,
do do such a good job. This offense has been
the same for a long long time. I'm and they're
creative within it, but the fundamentals of of how they
want to use under center, shotgun, pistol, cetera. Are tied
together and and kind of vetted, if you will, vetted
(13:12):
and work through some of the kinks in it well.
And one of the things again that we we talked
about earlier was that, you know, the college game kind
of feeds up into the NFL game because those are
the guys that you're getting in the draft and stuff
like that. So inevitably the schemes in college will then
make their way up this way, Um, when you're trying
to kind of get someone used to now in an
(13:34):
NFL offense, where you could be under center, you could
be in thistle, you could be in shotgun. Like, say,
Kyle Trash, what are you trying to teach him? Like,
is there i mean right down to Is there like
a set amount of yards that when you say you're
in shotgun? Are you a set amount of yards back
from the ball every single time? Is there like a
standard alignment or does that vary by team? How do
you go about teaching someone that's never done the under
(13:56):
center thing? Okay, you're you're in shotgun, you're this far hind.
Now let's let's progress that to get under center. Yeah. No,
we and we would probably start the opposite, we'd start
under center. But Kyle Trast hadn't been under center. One
of the things that was attractive to him about him
was that he was more in a pro style. He
had thrown the ball up field. It wasn't just kind
of a spread offense. It was a little more of
(14:17):
a pro passing game. But yeah, it's real precise. We
wanted their toe, we want their heels at five and
the shotgun and pistol. We want to move them up
to four and a half and and so all those
things are kind of timed up. And you know, for Kyle,
he hadn't been under center enough and we've had to
work extremely hard and just get him reps, get time
on task, and drop out from underneath the you know,
getting the snap, getting out from under the center. You know,
(14:40):
what do you do at the top or you at
full speed running back there and all of a sudden
you know that you have to put a foot in
the ground and plant at five you know, or you know,
the timing of the steps. It's it's more more of
a dance, a ballet, if you will, of you know
of when when you are running hard, when you are gathering,
when you are planning, you know. So so we've had
(15:01):
to work extremely hard on Kyle with Kyle on that
and uh and because it's a whole different game, it's
a whole different it's a whole different deal. And you
you know, you don't get back to five yards until
you've taken a couple of three steps or so. So
you used to catching the ball and he's at five
yards deep already. So the visual looking up field is different.
(15:21):
And uh so, yeah, I think we we've had to
work hard with Kyle on false steps and getting out
from underneath the center. You're kind of stuck underneath there,
you know, you're until you get confident, you know, it's
hard to you kind of get the snap then you
go where we wanted to be kind of simultaneous that
I'm receiving a snap as I'm leaving center, and so
that takes it. That takes a lot of work. And
(15:42):
uh and um so we we're we we still work
on it hard with Kyle regularly every day and we're
in training camp now and luckily he you know, hopefully
won't have to play for you know, at an early
point like some of these rookies, but uh, you know
that we'll have time to just continue to work on
those things. Well yeah, I mean that's something that you know,
(16:03):
you talk about this jump from college to the pro
for these quarterbacks and a lot of these guys that
are thrown into it their first round picks and they're
expected to be the starter, but they're having to a
lot of times overcome stuff like this and and get
up to speed very quickly. But it also, I mean,
it all works together with the offense, and I want
to talk about these three step five step drops and
how that affects the receivers then, because then I mean,
(16:24):
this is all the timing. Like you said, it's a dance,
it's a ballet, and the receivers are the other parts
of that because they have their own steps, they have
their own routes. And I mean, is it fair to
say then, I mean, if you are taking a three
step drop, those are usually the shorter routes just because
you're not giving receivers as much time to get downfield.
Whereas if you're going to take five taking taking seven
steps in the pocket, you're sitting back there, the line
(16:45):
is holding longer. You're then letting your receivers get down field.
So talk to me about some of those situations and
how that all marries up together. Yeah, so three step
would have some characteristics. That is going to be quicker.
So all the routes are gonna tend to be quicker,
and you want you those receivers have to understand the
urgency and the landmarks that we got to have them
too quick because that ball has to come out quick.
(17:06):
Quarterback has to in three step. No, Hey, that I
don't have all day that that line is gonna push
back in my face. And then they're gonna be aggressive
up there, and they're gonna lose their guy a little
bit earlier because there's going to be more aggressive. So
so the quarterback's gotta understand, Hey, that ball has to
come out. You know, I can't I may not get
to my third receiver because I'm not far enough behind
there that that I'm not gonna have enough time to
(17:27):
get to my third receiver. That ball has got to
come out. One to three ball, you know, and and
uh and so for receivers, it's the same thing that
they don't have all day to get open. You know
that it's a different timing than five step or seven
step than all of a sudden you've got press coverage.
You may not have as much time to get a guy,
you know, mov in one direction to go the other.
You know, you know that you're on there's a clock.
(17:47):
There's a clock that's on the lineman, there's a clock
that's on the quarterback, there's a clock that's on the
receivers that that it's a three step timing for everybody,
and uh and so that's that's uh. You know, so
that so it would be extreme extreme everything would happen
just a little bit quicker in three step and and
uh and you're gonna have more of a one to mentality.
(18:08):
It's hard to get to three and you're sitting there
at five yards deep and the defensive linement in this
league are so darn good that you you know you
you you're gonna end up on your back. Well, and
that that brings me then to the progressions. Then once
you do have these receivers out and on their different routes, Um,
you're you're talking to me about how three step drop,
you're probably only getting the first couple of reads uh
in through your progression because you're just not gonna have
(18:30):
enough time whereas you can get to depending on how
many receivers you have on the field. Obviously, does every
play kind of have its own progression or does it
depend on the quarterback? And like do they always scan
left to right? Do they always? Is is it topped
about them? Like talk to me about how they see
progressions and how those developed would be all the above
some things. When we talk about a progression, read that
(18:53):
no matter what the coverage is, you would go from
one to two to three. It's probably the most basic,
easiest way to teach because you're not you don't have
to be as coverage is coverage savvy to do it,
because you're just hey, if one's open, throw it to him.
If if one's not open, go to two, two's not open,
go to three. So that's what we when when someone
uses a term of progression, read that's what that would be.
(19:16):
And then progression might be top down, you know, maybe
you may look deep to intermediate to short, you know,
but but it's going to be a progression read okay.
And and now if it's a full field, you'll hear
the term full field for our people. Maybe you know,
understanding a full field means that, hey, now I'm gonna
have to read the coverage, and I've got I've got
(19:37):
people spread over the whole field. Um so now I
may read too high. I'm going to read the right
side of the field one high. I made to read
the left side cover man coverage. I may read the
middle of the field zone coverage, and maybe you're reading
the sideline. So so you kind of have all the
above there, but we kind of group them into kind
(19:57):
of a progression read a full feel old read and
then you'll tend to stick an alert like say that, yeah,
you know that it's a it's a blitz alert route
that Hey, I'm gonna work the right side of the
field in a progression one to two to three, but
I'm gonna have an X. I'm gonna have Mike Evans
over there on an alert that if it is pressure,
(20:17):
he's on something I know I can bail out to
and get the ball out quick before the pressure gets
to me. So you might have combinations with a progression
and an alert. You know it, maybe a full field
that turns into a progression. Hey, if it's too high,
I'm gonna go down the middle of the too deep
to the intermediate guy coming across to here comes my
back underneath as a checkdown. So you tend to have
(20:38):
your receivers in those areas that kind of you know.
The other thing you'll hear a lot is is it
a vertical stretch or is it a horizontal stretch? Is
it is it across the field from sideline to sideline
And you're trying to take a zone defense and spread
them out and get into those empty spots, those areas
they can't be those those those seams that people you know,
(20:59):
it's you can't cover. You got four under and they
got to cover fifty three yards, which is how wide
the field is. And you want everyone sitting down in
little open areas and you're gonna do your progression that
way to be a horizontal read. A vertical read would
be something that would tend to start top down, and
I'm gonna try and throw the ball up field. Now, hey,
I may have someone go into the goal post, and
I'll have someone sitting between the hashes at fifteen yards deep.
(21:22):
And then I may have the back sitting right there
in front of the center five yards deep. So that
might be a full field reads too high, but then
it turns to a vertical read and I'm reading deep
to shallow and uh So I think there's a combination
of all those things, but it gives you a couple
of your terminologies. You know, horizontal vertical would be. You
(21:42):
know that we're stretching the field. We might have a
you hear him say, a three way stretch on the sideline.
You may have a guy running a corner and out
and a flat well. All three people are gonna be
on the sideline. That would be but for us, a
three level sideline read top down, you know, so that
that would be a way that you know, and then
you may have a man Sometimes you'll have a zone
(22:03):
and a man beat her side. That Hey, it's a
three level on the sideline on the right, we're going
top down of a zone. We're gonna try and throw
the takeoff. If not, here comes the corner underneath. If
the flat defenders song and say he gets behind that,
then we'll check it down to the back on the sideline.
If it's man, let's get back over on the back side,
and we got Mike Evans on a nice man beater,
you know, with the back on the linebacker underneath and
(22:24):
Mike on the corner. You know, so you may do
it that way. So sometimes you mix the two. It's
a man beat, or it's a zone beat, or there's
a man side, there's a zone side, there's you know,
there's a pressure alert, there's you know, all kinds of
different things. So the good passing games are set up
with combinations of different things like that. Sometimes it's a
man game, you know, and you want to run away
(22:46):
from man. That the rule of thumbe would be sit
down versus zones, find open areas and run away versus man.
If I'm being covered man, we're gonna try and get
you on to move where you have a chance to
beat your man and then run away from your man.
And uh at doesn't always work out for you, but
it's always you know that we try to and that
that's you know, if you're covering someone man, you don't
want to run just something where I sit down and
(23:07):
my man's draped all over me. And so we want
to give guys a chance to run away from man covered.
So it kind of gives you some of the ingredients
of it and then you can piece it together a
lot of different ways in your passing games and u
and get to all those things. But they'll all fall
into some of those categories, right, are the horizontal or
vertical or the man beater? Zone beaters? Are they you know?
(23:29):
Are they quick game? Are they seven step dropped? It's
going to develop up the field, you know as it
hied a low bottom down? Is it a progression read?
Is it straight progression? And uh so all those all
those come into play and uh and it's kind of
fun to package them up where you're trying, you know,
try and be as versatile. You want to call good
plays you want you don't you don't want to call
(23:49):
played as kind of dead and you you know, you
call a you call a bunch of picks and rubs
and you're trying to rub people off and it's just
own defense, you know. And now now you you know
in the same way, you don't want to call something
where everyone's just sitting down and it's man coverage and
the defenders sitting down with you. So that's where you
see people kind of signal or check plays, change plays,
(24:11):
you know, develop your offense that you know that it's
zone if it's to the right, man if it's the left,
or zone on the left, man on the right. You know,
so you always want to give your quarterback a place
to go. It's not it's a bad feeling to be
a quarterback in the pocket and no one's open and uh,
you know you had a man beat her up in
its zone coverage. That's that's a bad feeling. And you
just try and get out of your hand and get
(24:32):
a completion. So, um, I think the other thing that
will go into it is you know that then you
mix in tendencies of the defense. Is it a man down,
is a zone down? Is it a blitz down? And
you know, now you call your plays a good play.
Callers try and get you in situations where you match
it up. And that's the chess piece chess part of
this thing. Yeah, I really I love that analogy, if
(24:53):
of all just being a giant chess game, because yeah,
you also have to have all those plays available when
it comes to an opponents. That's where the film study,
I imagine, comes in. That's where the tendencies of the
defense will come in, because you need to have those
plays installed for that week to have them available to
even call in those different situations. But just hearing all
(25:13):
of that, I mean, the amount of processing that quarterbacks
have to do in such a short amount of time,
I just I want to I think the last thing
that I really want to go through with you is
I want you to put this all together for me
and tell me, all right, I'm a quarterback. What what
are the things that I'm doing as soon as I
get to the line I'm lining up for the play?
What are the things? Just take me through that entire
(25:35):
process and what happens in the span of that play. Clock. Great,
I'll do that. Let me have one thing to what
I just said, and that's that in different quarterbacks are
good at different things, right right, Some guys are can't
read full field, you know, just that's not the way
their brain seas. And now you you gotta put get
heavy on your progression. So a lot of this thing.
You can drop the best plays ever and if the
(25:57):
quarterback doesn't get it, then you know it it's null
and void. It's not worth a darn. And so finding
the good coaches, the good coordinators, good offenses, find what
does our quarterback do well? Some guys, you know, some
guys are big and kind of slower twitch, and you
you've gotta be a little deeper drop and give him
a little chance to you know, some guys are really
(26:17):
quick twitch, and you can be extremely timed on your
passing games. Some you know, so some guys can't check
plays at the line of scrimps. Some guys don't want
to check plays at the linus scrimps. Some guys want
Peyton wants the whole thing, you know, Give me five
plays and let me choose one of them once I
get up there and see what they're in. So so
a lot of this thing is less about us developing
(26:37):
good plays as well as finding what does our quarterback
feel comfortable with, what does he do well? Last year,
Tom Brady was a rookie or was our first year here.
Not a rookie, but a rookie for us and Uh
and have been in the same offense, but it was
his first time in any offense other than New England,
you know, so it was like having a first year player.
We didn't have an offseason because of COVID and and know,
(27:00):
it took us a long time to just kind of
merge two different families of thinking, you know, and and
UH find out what he likes, what he does well,
what he you know, he can do everything well, but
what comes natural to him and how he sees things,
sees things in the and I think it's been a
lot easier the second year with him. Yeah. Um, the
(27:20):
whole thing the timing of you know, you get the
clock running the you know, the the clock, so we
come out of the huddle. We gotta get that play
called us. So everything is on a time schedule, so
we gotta from from the huddle. All of a sudden,
through his headset comes a long play. It may have
a big string of twenty three syllables, you know, and
(27:40):
it comes through and then he relays it to the huddle.
They break the huddle. Now, the first thing is he
gets up there, he's usually gonna check the clock. We're
gonna always take a peek at the clock and see
how much time we have at the line of scrimmage.
We have time to check do we not have time
to check our we running behind because the quarterback got
to play in late. We're running behind because we complete
a forty yard path us and that clock started early.
(28:02):
So he has to know how much time do I
have at the line of scrimmage. So he's gonna take
a peek at that clock. He's gonna make sure everyone's
in the formation, and he's gonna usually send his motion.
He's gonna shift or send his motion and end up
get people to their ending position. A lot of times
there's a shift or motion or both and and uh
so he's got to get those guys lined up into
(28:22):
the right spots. Okay, then he's gonna now try and
switch it that. He's going to see both the front,
you know, what kind of front they're in, and then
what kind of coverage there in and you know, defensive disguise,
and they're shifting around and stuff, so you know, hey,
is it is it based people in the game? Is
it nickel? Is it dime? You know, and and so
each thing will trigger kind of a train of thought, Hey,
(28:43):
it's base people. So I know in base there tend
to be a zone team, middle of the fields closed,
that safety is way back there. He's not going anywhere. Hey,
now it's one or three. So he's going to go
through those kind of evaluations on the front. If it's
a run play, he may have to check it off
of Hey, where's the nose. I want to run this
away from the nose. I want to run this play
goes to the nose. But if it goes to the
(29:06):
nose but the safety is down to that side, now
I know I gotta go away from it. So he's
going to get a configuration and an assessment of what
is the configuration? Is it four down? Is it three down?
He's gonna usually hear the center tell who the MIC
is and the mic linebacker the middle linebacker. And if
he wants to switch then and say no, let's make
(29:26):
this guy the MIC, he'll he'll override the center. So
there's a lot going on at the line of scrimmage
there before that ball gets snapped, and a lot of
assessment has to be made quick and then a lot
of times he has to get us into the right play.
There's very few plays that he doesn't have to make
some form of an assessment of the front and the
coverage before that ball gets snapped. Now, add in that,
(29:46):
you know, people are moving every which way, and they're
disguising and and uh, you know, so you just try
and get some keys through the week. You know, Uh,
the Nickels backing up expect some kind of zone Doug
when this guy press is and it's this one of
these three coverages. So as best you can, you try
and you try and give them some keys without paralyzing them.
You can give them too much information nowadays, and and
(30:09):
and there's and again you have to assess who's my quarterback.
The Kyle Trust can't process the same as Tom Brady.
Tom Brady's been around, been around the league, seeing all
the pictures and knows their pitches, and uh, Kyle Trusts
going through and seeing guys for the first time, and
he's figuring out what pitches they got. What you know,
what the how they do it? So so you're gonna
(30:30):
call game completely different for Kyle Trust than you would
Tom Brady and uh and uh. But but again, you
just get familiar. You get familiar, you start getting in
each week you look for keys, little tips that would
tip off as its owner man. You'll see a lot
of times some of the motions will be to see, hey,
does someone running across with him? Hey, there's man coverage.
(30:51):
But then all of a sudden, you'll play someone and
you run across and they run across with you and
play zone. Is this a team that runs with motion
and still play zone and it's not in a necessarily
man or? Is this a team that they run with
them that's always gonna be man. You'll see a lot
of times people line up there running back out and
shifting back in the back. So that's usually to get
a man or zone indicator, you know, because you're trying
(31:12):
to determine as a man or zone. So you'll stick
for net outside of Mike Evans. Does a linebacker go
outside of Mike Evans with them? Now you probably have
some form of man coverage. There's a corner out there
on for NET. You probably say it's probably zone because
they're not gonna waste a corner covering the running back.
So so all that's happening before that ball is snapped
and you still got that clock ticking down on you.
(31:34):
And then once you snap it, now you've got to
kind of confirm was I right, was I wrong? Is
it going to something different? And uh, and then make
your reads. Um, there's not anything really like it. Like
I look every always looking for ways, different ways to
teach it and the and the only thing I found
that was close was I went out to the the
weapons school in Las Vegas. I think it's three million,
(31:54):
three million acres or two million acres or something, and
where they train our fighter pilots, and a fighter pilot's
probably the only job to me that I found that's
kind of similar. That things are happening so fast that
you know you are flying a plane, you know, at
a thousand miles an hour, and you don't know and
then you have to make your determinations on weapons. Who
(32:16):
are they shooting at me from the ground as someone
coming from above. Is it a two on one dog fight?
Is it a one on one on three dog fight?
And like all that's happening, and it's fluid, and it's
happening fast, and by the way, you still have to
fly the plane while you're doing it. That's the closest
thing to me that h for a quarterback, that he's
all these things are going on, and that's I've always
(32:37):
said Peyton. Peyton had a penny and processor that hadn't
been invented yet, like no one else had that he
could process so much information so fast. And there's other
people who can memorize it, and there's some people who
are just see to the pants and can make stuff,
but he could process an amazing amount of information unbelievably
(32:57):
fast and store it and bring it out five weeks later,
you know. But the fighter pilot is kind of the
only thing I found that happened as fast as quarter
And by the way, someone's trying to shoot you down.
Someone's trying to knock you on your rear in the
pocket if you're an NFL and if you're a quarterback
at any level. So while all this is going on,
guess what if you if you are slow reacting, you
get shot down or you get sacked and uh embodies
(33:21):
slam there and it's not fun. So um, you know
so that that's so. Again, it all goes in too.
What kind of places do you have? Are they simple enough?
Can you you can the guy understand them? Can we
execute them fast enough? Can we you know, can we
get a man's own read on them? And you know,
so all those things go in in some years you
are get more complicated than others because you can or
(33:43):
you have a mature team, and some years you really
have to remediate it where you can where you were
because of your playing with a rookie quarterback, or you're
playing with a lot of young people around. So that's
a it's it's a that's kind of the fun part
of coaching. You know that everyone runs the same place,
but you know how you time them up, when you
use them, how you teach them, how what's the volume
(34:04):
you're going of your offense? All those things are the
ones things that make the special coaches special. They can
they can they can figure out for each year what
it looks like and the and the and then next
year you may have to change it. Next year. Next year,
you know, it may be a different set of problems.
And uh, some years you have great receivers, some years
(34:24):
you have great running back some years. Your line is
really young, so so all those things go into it. Hey,
maybe we can't protect seven step drop because we've got
three rookie started on the offensive line, you know, So
all those things go into this thing. And so it's
a it's a fun deal, but it is a chess
match and it and and it and it happens really
really really fast. So yeah, I think that's the teaching
(34:45):
of it. Yeah, well, we are certainly glad that it's
you and it's b A and it's firing leftways at
the home because you guys are definitely those one of
the three of those special coaches that you were just
talking about. And I really really appreciate you taking the
time and breaking all this down for us. Mean, that
was so much good information. I really hope people take
away from this that listen of all that stuff that
you're watching while you're watching a game, this is what
(35:07):
a quarterback is doing in that pocket in the however
many seconds it takes, you know, from when he gets
to play into uh tow when the ball has to
be snapped. So thank you again. Well, if you're if
your listeners get all that in this in this podcast,
there ahead of Trask already. So if they if they
comprehend everything I said right there, then then that puts
him ahead of Trask for right now. So we're gonna
catch him up and he's gonna get it. And it's
(35:29):
a there is a learning cycle to it. But it's
always been fun and uh, it's always fun to talk football.
And I really do think that these are the basics.
These are the more than the plays. It is the
philosophy of all this stuff that tying this stuff together
is is where the where the good good offenses become
great and in the average offenses get worse because it's
(35:51):
not timed up and it's not syncd up correctly, and uh,
where they're doing something their quarterback can't do, you know,
and great plays but the quarterback can do lichal it
doesn't work well. We've heard Bruce talk about it too.
How about how you just you want to put in
plays at your quarterback wants to run. It's not that
it's not the hard. You know, they're gonna want to
run plays that they like, so make sure that they
like all the plays. And you guys certainly do a
(36:12):
great job of that. So thank you so much. Again,
this has been the Booth Review Podcast with Clyde Christensen.
I'm Karmen Vitally and I will talk to you next time.
So you think you know football, come find out straight
from the source in the Booth Review podcast, where we
take you inside the offices of the Bucks assistant coaches
to talk some football fundamentals. Get your white boards ready,
here's Buccaneers staff writer Carmen Vitality. Welcome back in for
another episode of the Booth Review. I am Karmen by Tally,
(00:22):
and I am so very excited to be joined by
Bucks quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen. Clyde, thank you so much
for stopping buying talking to us today really a pleasure.
I'm looking forward to it. I am so so excited
to pick your brain a little bit because you are
a guy who has coached perhaps some of the most
prolific quarterbacks in NFL history, um and one of which
you just got to watch get inducted into the Pro
(00:44):
Football Hall of Fame. How was that? It was special?
Really really special to be uh, to be able to
witness a good chunk a decade of his career and
watch him work and nobody put into it, and then
see him honored at the Hall of Fame. Was was spectacular.
It was a you know, I've had moist eyes. I
promised you added that just a great memories and uh,
(01:05):
and to watch what he put into the game and
what he how much he loved football and respected the
sport and the game, you know, and to see him honored,
and uh, it was it was spectacular. We're talking, of
course about Peyton Manning and you were seated next to
your current quarterback with Tom Brady. That has to be
really funny to witness just kind of the dynamic between
(01:25):
those two, and especially from your vantage point of getting
to have coached both, really fun I I, you know,
who whoever thought that I'd be taking Tom Brady to
an Indianapolis colts party, you know, Peyton Manning's colts party.
So uh, I kind of likened it to taking one
of the Bloods to a Crypts function, you know, like
it was. But we got out there with no violence
(01:46):
and no ill words. So it was it was successful.
But it was They both have such a respect for
each other, and I was touched that Tom made the
effort to go up and and honor and show his
respect for Peyton, and that was really a neat thing.
And I think he'd us have an unbelievable respect for Peyton.
Peyton was a little bit ahead of him. And so
I think everyone who played quarterback looked at Peyton and
(02:07):
how he kind of managed the game and how he
was the field general and in a way that probably
no one had ever done at that point. And uh
and I think that that most younger quarterbacks like Tom,
you know, just just grew up, you know, admiring him
and uh and I wanted to be like him in
some ways. So that was that was really really cool.
(02:27):
Tom seemed to have had the respect he has a
respect for Peyton Manning. But I don't know that cold
fans had the respect for Tom because I thought he
got booed. Uh were they were they that loud to
booth but the booze were pretty loud and uh it
But I think it was more and more in fun,
more in sport. It was. It wasn't hostile, It was it.
People were great to him, and uh, you know, and
(02:48):
I always I always tease him. You know that I
got I still got some scar tissue. I gotta work
through of some some all those years as a cult
and and playing him and being beat by him a
quite a few times in my day. And I always
I always tail them, and you know it's coming I'm
starting to really kind of like him. He's growing on me.
But uh, it's not. It's not an overnight thing for
(03:09):
a Colts fan. I love Tom Brady. I don't think
you're alone even on this staff in some battle scars
from Tom Brady himself. Um, but you know, you talk
about these guys that you have have coached and the
guy that you are now coaching under. Bruce arians published
a book called The Quarterback Whisperer, and I want to say,
if he's the quarterback whisper, you might be the quarterback
Yeller because one of my favorite things of practice are
(03:31):
your quarterback drills and the way that you demand the
ball every single time. I can't even impersonate you when
you do it, but it's awesome. And you can hear
from two fields over when you want them to release
the ball, and you're going through all these fun little drills.
I think it's even Clyde Christensen's fun house over there
with all of the green ball drills and all that
kind of stuff. Where'd all this come from? You know what?
(03:53):
Just through the years. I think they've just kind of
accumulated through the years. And I'm probably a glorified parks
and Recreation director. I gotta you know, get you know,
as long as long as everyone's moving around and uh
having a good time when their parents pick them up,
then you did a good job. So if we can
leave Individual and we can have our done our work
and had a little bit fun and kept it interesting
and uh in some mix of those. You know, it's
(04:14):
it's a long haul for you know, to think about
Tom twenty second year, you know, going to Individual and uh,
but gosh, he attacks it. I love what I do.
I love my job. I love I love everything about it,
and I love I've always believed in fundamentals and techniques
and uh, and so I think it's extremely important. So
I always tease you can, you can do a lot
of things, you can burn down, but don't mess with Individual.
(04:37):
Don't don't cut the time, don't you know, Let's make
sure this thing is set up right, and we're gonna
we're gonna go hard for a good twenty minutes right
there before we go into practice. And uh, that's kind
of sacred time for me. It's also a time where
you're not worried about plays. You're just worried about you know,
footwork and technique and getting better. And there's something for
a coach that that there's a love of that that
I don't have to worry about execution of a certain player,
(04:59):
what the house cowboys are doing on it's just just us,
just let's us get better. And uh so those those
twenty minutes are extremely important to me there all through
the year there. If you know, last year to Super
Bowl on Friday afternoon, we were still doing individual and
you know, it gave Tom a green light to skip
him if he wanted. He said, why would I do that?
Is you know, I'm getting better and and uh and
(05:22):
and so I think that I really do think that
they've bought into it, and and uh and I've been
around guys who really do want to hone their skills.
The great ones want to work, the great ones want
to be coached. The great ones want to I want
to do that stuff. It's the it's the mediocre guys
who ah, this is stupid or you know, I'm too tired,
or you know all those things. I'll give you A
(05:42):
great example would be, you know, Tom, we come back
and we probably got in from the Hall of Fame
ceremony and probably got in it landed at two and
got to bed by two thirty and came in for
an eight o'clock eight thirty individual practice and I said, hey,
just just to ease your way, and he jumped right,
he goes, No, I ready to go, let's go. And uh,
I had one of his best practices. He's he's ever
(06:04):
that he's had this year. And uh and so I
think they look forward to it. I try and make,
you know, make an effort to make it interesting and
fun and change it up enough that it doesn't get monotonous.
And uh and and so I think the ones who
are really special love that. They see the value in it.
They can feel the value in it. And and the
(06:25):
ones who are mediocre, don't you know, they say, heck,
you know, I've been playing ten years in this league.
Why do I need to work on my cadence for
my snap? And Peyton was that way. Peyton, Peyton in
his last year down at the after all those m
v p s and stuff, still worked on a snap count,
still worked on center quarterback exchange, still worked on his drop,
(06:46):
still worked on his throw in motion. You know like
that that that's what makes it makes those guys different.
I believe and uh and so yeah, that is that
that's a fun time for me. I love that time.
I really really enjoy it. And uh and that and
I also think it's it's the nuts and bolts of sports,
is fundamentals and techniques, no whetter what sport it is, sir,
And that's part of That's exactly why I wanted to
(07:08):
bring you here and have you speak on this topic
because I want to get a little bit more in
depth in those fundamentals. And when you're watching these quarterbacks,
say on on a TV broadcast as a fan, you're
sitting on the couch and you're watching what these guys
are doing, I want them to understand. I want people
to understand a little bit more about what the quarterbacks
are doing in the however many seconds it takes to
snap the ball and for a play to run. So,
(07:30):
if you will indulge me a little bit, starting pretty basic,
I want to talk about the kind of basic quarterback
alignment because we even talked to Kyle Trask today and
he said, hey, listen at Florida, I wasn't understand our
a whole lot. Well, what does under center mean? Why
is that different? Why doesn't that exist? In college um
versus shotgun, which has become so much more prevalent. So
just take me through what under center means, what shotgun means,
(07:52):
and maybe you know kind of the pros and cons
of each or or why you see more of one
than the other. Especially nowadays. Yeah, things have kind of
evolve that it used to be that a lot of
teams wouldn't even get in the shotgun because everything was
so rhythmic. You want to be under center, with your
hands under the center, under the center's tail there and
taking the ball directly from him, and then then you
could teach all your routes off of that that your
(08:13):
three step, five step, seven step play action, whatever it was,
and everything timed up from under center. I think Bill
Walsh was forever would not get in the shotgun and
uh and be because the defeat and the timing of
it was so tied to your steps coming out from
underneath center, and it was hard to simulate in the shotgun.
Now football, especially in college, it's hard to find a
(08:36):
quarterback who's called to play in a huddle or taking
a snap from a center. And uh, and that's that's
kind of fundamental to this thing. And it's kind of
it's kind of fallen by the wayside. I don't know
if it's better or worse. But the shotgun is a
way that now we can we're back, we we can
see the defense a little bit better. There's an advantage
to it. We we probably are under center as much
(08:56):
as anyone in the NFL here with the bucks and
you know, for the run game and the two back
run game and the one back run game and just
you know, to be under center and still now your
play action and stuff, and you're still have it in
the shotgun. But all of a sudden, the shotgun, the
threat of the run is less, you know, it's just
become more of a spread offense sport, especially in college
(09:17):
and even in the NFL now and uh so there's
less and less people under center. But the shotguns advantages
are that now you don't have to take that drop,
that you can get that ball in your hands and
get your eyes down field and you've already got your
depth in the pocket. So h but I think it
is hard work to you know, and everyone's a little
bit different that, you know, some people want to be
on a step count. Some people like Peyton could just
(09:38):
run in place and look around and find to go
through his reads. Uh. Tom has a phenomenal sense of
just being able to take the steps and end up
at the right time, at the right place. And some
guys never get it. You know, some guys just you know,
they get restless back there. It's hard to teach a
rhythm that like kind of reading a reading a defense
and reading a progression of receivers is a is it?
(10:00):
It's a progression. It's time that Hey, I'm on one,
I've got to be there now, and then two, I'm
coming two, and then three. And you know, I think
that probably we've lost a little bit of just the
precision of hey, one and then two comes open at
the right time, and three comes open at the right time.
And the quarterbacks pizza have two feet have to mirror
that timing of when things are coming open. And uh.
(10:20):
And so the shotgun, while it gives you some advantages,
it's a challenge to time up the feet. And Uh.
The other thing that happens is we'll talk a lot
about the pocket. You know that how deep you want
to be If you tell the lineman you're taking a
three step drop and then you stand. You know, they
think the ball is coming out quick, you know, so
they can block a little more aggressive because they know
that the ball is going to come out a little
(10:41):
bit quicker. I don't have to hold onto my guy
quite as long, you know, but seventh step drop, they know, hey,
the quarterback is gonna be around nine and a half
ten yards back. I got a little more give, but
I also got to hold onto my people block my
man longer because it's a deeper drop, and uh, you know.
But but people depend on you being at the right place.
(11:02):
So the timing of the routes and then also where
you are in the pocket's really really important. Sometimes from
the shotgun, you'll see a quarterback get eleven yards deep
while those tackles, you know, you're trying to block, you know,
shock and he's trying to turn the corner, and all
of a sudden, you know you're back there twelve yards deep.
That throws the tackle off because he expects you to
be at nine yards deep, and uh, and it makes
(11:23):
it tougher because he can turn the corner easier, and
so it's all tied together. And then then you mix
in some pistol, which is now where you're kind of
in the shotgun, but the quarterback stays behind you. Now
you can keep some of your running game the same,
you know, where that running back and get the ball
deep he can read. And uh. And now we'll move
the quarterback up maybe a half a yard yard half
(11:45):
a yard to a yard and the running back and
we're trying to keep him in the same home position.
So that's kind of a effort to effort to mesh
the two, kind of an in between that you can
keep your under center running game but have your quarterback
in the shotguns. So I think people are extremely creative
and and uh and so there's there's, there's there's each
(12:07):
of them give you different things. All of a sudden
you're in the pistol, and it's harder for if the
linebacker walks up and blitz is, well, that backs long
ways back to he has to get back to the
quarterback and go block his man. Well, you know, if
you're under center, he's a couple of yards closer and
he can get there a little easier and quicker, you know.
So there's a trade off to all of it. And
you know, I think the good offenses, the offenses that
(12:28):
are are coordinated, well, that's all tied together. How do
we want to run the ball? You know, what's the
play action that's tied to? What's our passing game? Where's
the quarterback going to be? How do we time up
our routes? So all those things. You know, it's not
just as easy as just say they were a three
step quick game. We want to get the ball out quick.
But you know, and then some offenses aren't very well
(12:50):
coordinated and uh and so I think time on tasks.
That's why I think coach Arean's coach left, which you know,
do do such a good job. This offense has been
the same for a long long time. I'm and they're
creative within it, but the fundamentals of of how they
want to use under center, shotgun, pistol, cetera. Are tied
together and and kind of vetted, if you will, vetted
(13:12):
and work through some of the kinks in it well.
And one of the things again that we we talked
about earlier was that, you know, the college game kind
of feeds up into the NFL game because those are
the guys that you're getting in the draft and stuff
like that. So inevitably the schemes in college will then
make their way up this way, Um, when you're trying
to kind of get someone used to now in an
(13:34):
NFL offense, where you could be under center, you could
be in thistle, you could be in shotgun. Like, say,
Kyle Trash, what are you trying to teach him? Like,
is there i mean right down to Is there like
a set amount of yards that when you say you're
in shotgun? Are you a set amount of yards back
from the ball every single time? Is there like a
standard alignment or does that vary by team? How do
you go about teaching someone that's never done the under
(13:56):
center thing? Okay, you're you're in shotgun, you're this far hind.
Now let's let's progress that to get under center. Yeah. No,
we and we would probably start the opposite, we'd start
under center. But Kyle Trast hadn't been under center. One
of the things that was attractive to him about him
was that he was more in a pro style. He
had thrown the ball up field. It wasn't just kind
of a spread offense. It was a little more of
(14:17):
a pro passing game. But yeah, it's real precise. We
wanted their toe, we want their heels at five and
the shotgun and pistol. We want to move them up
to four and a half and and so all those
things are kind of timed up. And you know, for Kyle,
he hadn't been under center enough and we've had to
work extremely hard and just get him reps, get time
on task, and drop out from underneath the you know,
getting the snap, getting out from under the center. You know,
(14:40):
what do you do at the top or you at
full speed running back there and all of a sudden
you know that you have to put a foot in
the ground and plant at five you know, or you know,
the timing of the steps. It's it's more more of
a dance, a ballet, if you will, of you know
of when when you are running hard, when you are gathering,
when you are planning, you know. So so we've had
(15:01):
to work extremely hard on Kyle with Kyle on that
and uh and because it's a whole different game, it's
a whole different it's a whole different deal. And you
you know, you don't get back to five yards until
you've taken a couple of three steps or so. So
you used to catching the ball and he's at five
yards deep already. So the visual looking up field is different.
(15:21):
And uh so, yeah, I think we we've had to
work hard with Kyle on false steps and getting out
from underneath the center. You're kind of stuck underneath there,
you know, you're until you get confident, you know, it's
hard to you kind of get the snap then you
go where we wanted to be kind of simultaneous that
I'm receiving a snap as I'm leaving center, and so
that takes it. That takes a lot of work. And
(15:42):
uh and um so we we're we we still work
on it hard with Kyle regularly every day and we're
in training camp now and luckily he you know, hopefully
won't have to play for you know, at an early
point like some of these rookies, but uh, you know
that we'll have time to just continue to work on
those things. Well yeah, I mean that's something that you know,
(16:03):
you talk about this jump from college to the pro
for these quarterbacks and a lot of these guys that
are thrown into it their first round picks and they're
expected to be the starter, but they're having to a
lot of times overcome stuff like this and and get
up to speed very quickly. But it also, I mean,
it all works together with the offense, and I want
to talk about these three step five step drops and
how that affects the receivers then, because then I mean,
(16:24):
this is all the timing. Like you said, it's a dance,
it's a ballet, and the receivers are the other parts
of that because they have their own steps, they have
their own routes. And I mean, is it fair to
say then, I mean, if you are taking a three
step drop, those are usually the shorter routes just because
you're not giving receivers as much time to get downfield.
Whereas if you're going to take five taking taking seven
steps in the pocket, you're sitting back there, the line
(16:45):
is holding longer. You're then letting your receivers get down field.
So talk to me about some of those situations and
how that all marries up together. Yeah, so three step
would have some characteristics. That is going to be quicker.
So all the routes are gonna tend to be quicker,
and you want you those receivers have to understand the
urgency and the landmarks that we got to have them
too quick because that ball has to come out quick.
(17:06):
Quarterback has to in three step. No, Hey, that I
don't have all day that that line is gonna push
back in my face. And then they're gonna be aggressive
up there, and they're gonna lose their guy a little
bit earlier because there's going to be more aggressive. So
so the quarterback's gotta understand, Hey, that ball has to
come out. You know, I can't I may not get
to my third receiver because I'm not far enough behind
there that that I'm not gonna have enough time to
(17:27):
get to my third receiver. That ball has got to
come out. One to three ball, you know, and and
uh and so for receivers, it's the same thing that
they don't have all day to get open. You know
that it's a different timing than five step or seven
step than all of a sudden you've got press coverage.
You may not have as much time to get a guy,
you know, mov in one direction to go the other.
You know, you know that you're on there's a clock.
(17:47):
There's a clock that's on the lineman, there's a clock
that's on the quarterback, there's a clock that's on the
receivers that that it's a three step timing for everybody,
and uh and so that's that's uh. You know, so
that so it would be extreme extreme everything would happen
just a little bit quicker in three step and and
uh and you're gonna have more of a one to mentality.
(18:08):
It's hard to get to three and you're sitting there
at five yards deep and the defensive linement in this
league are so darn good that you you know you
you you're gonna end up on your back. Well, and
that that brings me then to the progressions. Then once
you do have these receivers out and on their different routes, Um,
you're you're talking to me about how three step drop,
you're probably only getting the first couple of reads uh
in through your progression because you're just not gonna have
(18:30):
enough time whereas you can get to depending on how
many receivers you have on the field. Obviously, does every
play kind of have its own progression or does it
depend on the quarterback? And like do they always scan
left to right? Do they always? Is is it topped
about them? Like talk to me about how they see
progressions and how those developed would be all the above
some things. When we talk about a progression, read that
(18:53):
no matter what the coverage is, you would go from
one to two to three. It's probably the most basic,
easiest way to teach because you're not you don't have
to be as coverage is coverage savvy to do it,
because you're just hey, if one's open, throw it to him.
If if one's not open, go to two, two's not open,
go to three. So that's what we when when someone
uses a term of progression, read that's what that would be.
(19:16):
And then progression might be top down, you know, maybe
you may look deep to intermediate to short, you know,
but but it's going to be a progression read okay.
And and now if it's a full field, you'll hear
the term full field for our people. Maybe you know,
understanding a full field means that, hey, now I'm gonna
have to read the coverage, and I've got I've got
(19:37):
people spread over the whole field. Um so now I
may read too high. I'm going to read the right
side of the field one high. I made to read
the left side cover man coverage. I may read the
middle of the field zone coverage, and maybe you're reading
the sideline. So so you kind of have all the
above there, but we kind of group them into kind
(19:57):
of a progression read a full feel old read and
then you'll tend to stick an alert like say that, yeah,
you know that it's a it's a blitz alert route
that Hey, I'm gonna work the right side of the
field in a progression one to two to three, but
I'm gonna have an X. I'm gonna have Mike Evans
over there on an alert that if it is pressure,
(20:17):
he's on something I know I can bail out to
and get the ball out quick before the pressure gets
to me. So you might have combinations with a progression
and an alert. You know it, maybe a full field
that turns into a progression. Hey, if it's too high,
I'm gonna go down the middle of the too deep
to the intermediate guy coming across to here comes my
back underneath as a checkdown. So you tend to have
(20:38):
your receivers in those areas that kind of you know.
The other thing you'll hear a lot is is it
a vertical stretch or is it a horizontal stretch? Is
it is it across the field from sideline to sideline
And you're trying to take a zone defense and spread
them out and get into those empty spots, those areas
they can't be those those those seams that people you know,
(20:59):
it's you can't cover. You got four under and they
got to cover fifty three yards, which is how wide
the field is. And you want everyone sitting down in
little open areas and you're gonna do your progression that
way to be a horizontal read. A vertical read would
be something that would tend to start top down, and
I'm gonna try and throw the ball up field. Now, hey,
I may have someone go into the goal post, and
I'll have someone sitting between the hashes at fifteen yards deep.
(21:22):
And then I may have the back sitting right there
in front of the center five yards deep. So that
might be a full field reads too high, but then
it turns to a vertical read and I'm reading deep
to shallow and uh So I think there's a combination
of all those things, but it gives you a couple
of your terminologies. You know, horizontal vertical would be. You
(21:42):
know that we're stretching the field. We might have a
you hear him say, a three way stretch on the sideline.
You may have a guy running a corner and out
and a flat well. All three people are gonna be
on the sideline. That would be but for us, a
three level sideline read top down, you know, so that
that would be a way that you know, and then
you may have a man Sometimes you'll have a zone
(22:03):
and a man beat her side. That Hey, it's a
three level on the sideline on the right, we're going
top down of a zone. We're gonna try and throw
the takeoff. If not, here comes the corner underneath. If
the flat defenders song and say he gets behind that,
then we'll check it down to the back on the sideline.
If it's man, let's get back over on the back side,
and we got Mike Evans on a nice man beater,
you know, with the back on the linebacker underneath and
(22:24):
Mike on the corner. You know, so you may do
it that way. So sometimes you mix the two. It's
a man beat, or it's a zone beat, or there's
a man side, there's a zone side, there's you know,
there's a pressure alert, there's you know, all kinds of
different things. So the good passing games are set up
with combinations of different things like that. Sometimes it's a
man game, you know, and you want to run away
(22:46):
from man. That the rule of thumbe would be sit
down versus zones, find open areas and run away versus man.
If I'm being covered man, we're gonna try and get
you on to move where you have a chance to
beat your man and then run away from your man.
And uh at doesn't always work out for you, but
it's always you know that we try to and that
that's you know, if you're covering someone man, you don't
want to run just something where I sit down and
(23:07):
my man's draped all over me. And so we want
to give guys a chance to run away from man covered.
So it kind of gives you some of the ingredients
of it and then you can piece it together a
lot of different ways in your passing games and u
and get to all those things. But they'll all fall
into some of those categories, right, are the horizontal or
vertical or the man beater? Zone beaters? Are they you know?
(23:29):
Are they quick game? Are they seven step dropped? It's
going to develop up the field, you know as it
hied a low bottom down? Is it a progression read?
Is it straight progression? And uh so all those all
those come into play and uh and it's kind of
fun to package them up where you're trying, you know,
try and be as versatile. You want to call good
plays you want you don't you don't want to call
(23:49):
played as kind of dead and you you know, you
call a you call a bunch of picks and rubs
and you're trying to rub people off and it's just
own defense, you know. And now now you you know
in the same way, you don't want to call something
where everyone's just sitting down and it's man coverage and
the defenders sitting down with you. So that's where you
see people kind of signal or check plays, change plays,
(24:11):
you know, develop your offense that you know that it's
zone if it's to the right, man if it's the left,
or zone on the left, man on the right. You know,
so you always want to give your quarterback a place
to go. It's not it's a bad feeling to be
a quarterback in the pocket and no one's open and uh,
you know you had a man beat her up in
its zone coverage. That's that's a bad feeling. And you
just try and get out of your hand and get
(24:32):
a completion. So, um, I think the other thing that
will go into it is you know that then you
mix in tendencies of the defense. Is it a man down,
is a zone down? Is it a blitz down? And
you know, now you call your plays a good play.
Callers try and get you in situations where you match
it up. And that's the chess piece chess part of
this thing. Yeah, I really I love that analogy, if
(24:53):
of all just being a giant chess game, because yeah,
you also have to have all those plays available when
it comes to an opponents. That's where the film study,
I imagine, comes in. That's where the tendencies of the
defense will come in, because you need to have those
plays installed for that week to have them available to
even call in those different situations. But just hearing all
(25:13):
of that, I mean, the amount of processing that quarterbacks
have to do in such a short amount of time,
I just I want to I think the last thing
that I really want to go through with you is
I want you to put this all together for me
and tell me, all right, I'm a quarterback. What what
are the things that I'm doing as soon as I
get to the line I'm lining up for the play?
What are the things? Just take me through that entire
(25:35):
process and what happens in the span of that play. Clock. Great,
I'll do that. Let me have one thing to what
I just said, and that's that in different quarterbacks are
good at different things, right right, Some guys are can't
read full field, you know, just that's not the way
their brain seas. And now you you gotta put get
heavy on your progression. So a lot of this thing.
You can drop the best plays ever and if the
(25:57):
quarterback doesn't get it, then you know it it's null
and void. It's not worth a darn. And so finding
the good coaches, the good coordinators, good offenses, find what
does our quarterback do well? Some guys, you know, some
guys are big and kind of slower twitch, and you
you've gotta be a little deeper drop and give him
a little chance to you know, some guys are really
(26:17):
quick twitch, and you can be extremely timed on your
passing games. Some you know, so some guys can't check
plays at the line of scrimps. Some guys don't want
to check plays at the linus scrimps. Some guys want
Peyton wants the whole thing, you know, Give me five
plays and let me choose one of them once I
get up there and see what they're in. So so
a lot of this thing is less about us developing
(26:37):
good plays as well as finding what does our quarterback
feel comfortable with, what does he do well? Last year,
Tom Brady was a rookie or was our first year here.
Not a rookie, but a rookie for us and Uh
and have been in the same offense, but it was
his first time in any offense other than New England,
you know, so it was like having a first year player.
We didn't have an offseason because of COVID and and know,
(27:00):
it took us a long time to just kind of
merge two different families of thinking, you know, and and
UH find out what he likes, what he does well,
what he you know, he can do everything well, but
what comes natural to him and how he sees things,
sees things in the and I think it's been a
lot easier the second year with him. Yeah. Um, the
(27:20):
whole thing the timing of you know, you get the
clock running the you know, the the clock, so we
come out of the huddle. We gotta get that play
called us. So everything is on a time schedule, so
we gotta from from the huddle. All of a sudden,
through his headset comes a long play. It may have
a big string of twenty three syllables, you know, and
(27:40):
it comes through and then he relays it to the huddle.
They break the huddle. Now, the first thing is he
gets up there, he's usually gonna check the clock. We're
gonna always take a peek at the clock and see
how much time we have at the line of scrimmage.
We have time to check do we not have time
to check our we running behind because the quarterback got
to play in late. We're running behind because we complete
a forty yard path us and that clock started early.
(28:02):
So he has to know how much time do I
have at the line of scrimmage. So he's gonna take
a peek at that clock. He's gonna make sure everyone's
in the formation, and he's gonna usually send his motion.
He's gonna shift or send his motion and end up
get people to their ending position. A lot of times
there's a shift or motion or both and and uh
so he's got to get those guys lined up into
(28:22):
the right spots. Okay, then he's gonna now try and
switch it that. He's going to see both the front,
you know, what kind of front they're in, and then
what kind of coverage there in and you know, defensive disguise,
and they're shifting around and stuff, so you know, hey,
is it is it based people in the game? Is
it nickel? Is it dime? You know, and and so
each thing will trigger kind of a train of thought, Hey,
(28:43):
it's base people. So I know in base there tend
to be a zone team, middle of the fields closed,
that safety is way back there. He's not going anywhere. Hey,
now it's one or three. So he's going to go
through those kind of evaluations on the front. If it's
a run play, he may have to check it off
of Hey, where's the nose. I want to run this
away from the nose. I want to run this play
goes to the nose. But if it goes to the
(29:06):
nose but the safety is down to that side, now
I know I gotta go away from it. So he's
going to get a configuration and an assessment of what
is the configuration? Is it four down? Is it three down?
He's gonna usually hear the center tell who the MIC
is and the mic linebacker the middle linebacker. And if
he wants to switch then and say no, let's make
(29:26):
this guy the MIC, he'll he'll override the center. So
there's a lot going on at the line of scrimmage
there before that ball gets snapped, and a lot of
assessment has to be made quick and then a lot
of times he has to get us into the right play.
There's very few plays that he doesn't have to make
some form of an assessment of the front and the
coverage before that ball gets snapped. Now, add in that,
(29:46):
you know, people are moving every which way, and they're
disguising and and uh, you know, so you just try
and get some keys through the week. You know, Uh,
the Nickels backing up expect some kind of zone Doug
when this guy press is and it's this one of
these three coverages. So as best you can, you try
and you try and give them some keys without paralyzing them.
You can give them too much information nowadays, and and
(30:09):
and there's and again you have to assess who's my quarterback.
The Kyle Trust can't process the same as Tom Brady.
Tom Brady's been around, been around the league, seeing all
the pictures and knows their pitches, and uh, Kyle Trusts
going through and seeing guys for the first time, and
he's figuring out what pitches they got. What you know,
what the how they do it? So so you're gonna
(30:30):
call game completely different for Kyle Trust than you would
Tom Brady and uh and uh. But but again, you
just get familiar. You get familiar, you start getting in
each week you look for keys, little tips that would
tip off as its owner man. You'll see a lot
of times some of the motions will be to see, hey,
does someone running across with him? Hey, there's man coverage.
(30:51):
But then all of a sudden, you'll play someone and
you run across and they run across with you and
play zone. Is this a team that runs with motion
and still play zone and it's not in a necessarily
man or? Is this a team that they run with
them that's always gonna be man. You'll see a lot
of times people line up there running back out and
shifting back in the back. So that's usually to get
a man or zone indicator, you know, because you're trying
(31:12):
to determine as a man or zone. So you'll stick
for net outside of Mike Evans. Does a linebacker go
outside of Mike Evans with them? Now you probably have
some form of man coverage. There's a corner out there
on for NET. You probably say it's probably zone because
they're not gonna waste a corner covering the running back.
So so all that's happening before that ball is snapped
and you still got that clock ticking down on you.
(31:34):
And then once you snap it, now you've got to
kind of confirm was I right, was I wrong? Is
it going to something different? And uh, and then make
your reads. Um, there's not anything really like it. Like
I look every always looking for ways, different ways to
teach it and the and the only thing I found
that was close was I went out to the the
weapons school in Las Vegas. I think it's three million,
(31:54):
three million acres or two million acres or something, and
where they train our fighter pilots, and a fighter pilot's
probably the only job to me that I found that's
kind of similar. That things are happening so fast that
you know you are flying a plane, you know, at
a thousand miles an hour, and you don't know and
then you have to make your determinations on weapons. Who
(32:16):
are they shooting at me from the ground as someone
coming from above. Is it a two on one dog fight?
Is it a one on one on three dog fight?
And like all that's happening, and it's fluid, and it's
happening fast, and by the way, you still have to
fly the plane while you're doing it. That's the closest
thing to me that h for a quarterback, that he's
all these things are going on, and that's I've always
(32:37):
said Peyton. Peyton had a penny and processor that hadn't
been invented yet, like no one else had that he
could process so much information so fast. And there's other
people who can memorize it, and there's some people who
are just see to the pants and can make stuff,
but he could process an amazing amount of information unbelievably
(32:57):
fast and store it and bring it out five weeks later,
you know. But the fighter pilot is kind of the
only thing I found that happened as fast as quarter
And by the way, someone's trying to shoot you down.
Someone's trying to knock you on your rear in the
pocket if you're an NFL and if you're a quarterback
at any level. So while all this is going on,
guess what if you if you are slow reacting, you
get shot down or you get sacked and uh embodies
(33:21):
slam there and it's not fun. So um, you know
so that that's so. Again, it all goes in too.
What kind of places do you have? Are they simple enough?
Can you you can the guy understand them? Can we
execute them fast enough? Can we you know, can we
get a man's own read on them? And you know,
so all those things go in in some years you
are get more complicated than others because you can or
(33:43):
you have a mature team, and some years you really
have to remediate it where you can where you were
because of your playing with a rookie quarterback, or you're
playing with a lot of young people around. So that's
a it's it's a that's kind of the fun part
of coaching. You know that everyone runs the same place,
but you know how you time them up, when you
use them, how you teach them, how what's the volume
(34:04):
you're going of your offense? All those things are the
ones things that make the special coaches special. They can
they can they can figure out for each year what
it looks like and the and the and then next
year you may have to change it. Next year. Next year,
you know, it may be a different set of problems.
And uh, some years you have great receivers, some years
(34:24):
you have great running back some years. Your line is
really young, so so all those things go into it. Hey,
maybe we can't protect seven step drop because we've got
three rookie started on the offensive line, you know, So
all those things go into this thing. And so it's
a it's a fun deal, but it is a chess
match and it and and it and it happens really
really really fast. So yeah, I think that's the teaching
(34:45):
of it. Yeah, well, we are certainly glad that it's
you and it's b A and it's firing leftways at
the home because you guys are definitely those one of
the three of those special coaches that you were just
talking about. And I really really appreciate you taking the
time and breaking all this down for us. Mean, that
was so much good information. I really hope people take
away from this that listen of all that stuff that
you're watching while you're watching a game, this is what
(35:07):
a quarterback is doing in that pocket in the however
many seconds it takes, you know, from when he gets
to play into uh tow when the ball has to
be snapped. So thank you again. Well, if you're if
your listeners get all that in this in this podcast,
there ahead of Trask already. So if they if they
comprehend everything I said right there, then then that puts
him ahead of Trask for right now. So we're gonna
catch him up and he's gonna get it. And it's
(35:29):
a there is a learning cycle to it. But it's
always been fun and uh, it's always fun to talk football.
And I really do think that these are the basics.
These are the more than the plays. It is the
philosophy of all this stuff that tying this stuff together
is is where the where the good good offenses become
great and in the average offenses get worse because it's
(35:51):
not timed up and it's not syncd up correctly, and uh,
where they're doing something their quarterback can't do, you know,
and great plays but the quarterback can do lichal it
doesn't work well. We've heard Bruce talk about it too.
How about how you just you want to put in
plays at your quarterback wants to run. It's not that
it's not the hard. You know, they're gonna want to
run plays that they like, so make sure that they
like all the plays. And you guys certainly do a
(36:12):
great job of that. So thank you so much. Again,
this has been the Booth Review Podcast with Clyde Christensen.
I'm Karmen Vitally and I will talk to you next time.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
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The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
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The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.