No Skill, No Scheme – The Plight of New Era Defenses

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Nowadays, scheme is everything. We’re in an information era where playbooks, ideologies, and theories can be spread rather quickly. With this overload of information, it is very easy as coaches to get bogged down in schemes, checks, and the like. However, if we aren’t giving the players the tools to operate within the scheme, then your scheme is worthless.

The Quarters Coverage Trap

There are a ton of iterations of Quarters coverage sweeping across all levels of football. Quarters has turned into the Swiss Army knife of coverages for coordinators. There is this thought that no matter what the offense does, there is a tweak or a check out of quarters or match coverages to fix it. While I understand the level of comfort this might bring to the play caller, I am seeing something more troubling pop up amongst the players.

The Architect with a Pencil

More and more players are being asked to fully understand scheme. However, this is being done at the detriment of developing the tools to apply what they’ve learned. In essence, the players are being turned into architects while being asked to build the homes on site with their pencils.

The immediate reaction to breakdowns in coverage and structural failures is to double down on the checks and tweaks. What I’m observing on film is not necessarily a void in knowing where to be. It’s simply an inability to place themselves in the proper space because they lack the necessary movement skills.