Welcome to this week’s roundup. Every Sunday moving forward I will share an article, video, book recommendation and a link to all posts from the past week.
Enjoy.
Article of the Week:
Lamar Jackson is coming off his second MVP season, but there is still room to grow. Particularly in his pre-snap operations and responsibilities. An article came out this week from The Athletic about the emphasis Baltimore is putting on Jackson to get the offense in the right play versus the defensive look they’re getting.
Here’s a snippet:
At Wednesday’s minicamp practice, Jackson was challenged throughout by an aggressive defense to change routes, run schemes and protections at the line of scrimmage. Martin [Baltimore’s QB Coach] liked what he saw as the offense had one of its sharper practices since the offseason workouts began.
The next step in this MVP’s progression is evidently to take the Peyton Manning field general route of directing the troops and getting them in the right play all the time. This is a tough task for any QB, but it’s ultimately the best way to play football. While the coaches design the offense and build the game plans, the players are the ones who actually play the game. When the QB is tasked with making these decisions and has a strong say in how the offense operates, not just the execution, the offense becomes more deadly. This can’t do anything but help Jackson as he learns more about the game and how to attack defenses.
I really appreciated when Jackson’s QB coach Tee Martin said this too:
Sometimes as coaches, you can’t be scared when they make mistakes, and you can’t allow the mistakes that they make to put fear in your heart for not calling that play the next time. Because without that, there is no growth.
Here’s the full article:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5560129/2024/06/13/baltimore-ravens-minicamp-lamar-jackson/
Video of the Week:
Coach Chip is a recently retired Georgia high school football coach of over 40 years. He’s been making some excellent videos on his YouTube channel and I highly recommend.
Most recently, he made a video going over backside routes. Seeing how offenses are get away from mirrored routes is always interesting because when you’re able to pull that off, your offense can become more dynamic since you’re giving your QB the ability to attack multiple areas on the field no matter the defensive look.
Take a watch here:
Book Recommendation
The Bunch Attack is about as good of a manual on using bunch routes that I’ve ever seen. Not only does it cover 10 different bunch concepts in full detail (routes, reads, variations, and how they play out against different coverage structures), there is an excellent introduction that goes over how they call their plays from formations to motions to pass protection.
This book has a ton of detail in it and I’ve read it through twice and still need to go back because I can’t remember everything I’ve learned from it. It’s the type of book you could study for years on end and still learn every time you open it.
Highly recommend reading it even if you’re perfectly happy with your own bunch attack. You’ll learn much more than that.
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Bunch-Attack-Compressed-Clustered-Formations/dp/1571670440
Posts from This Week:
Until tomorrow,
Emory Wilhite