Gameplan

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Here’s our gameplan for today:

• Cover 1

  • Foundations of Football: Setting A Strength

• Quick Game

Cover 1

Foundations of Football: Setting A Strength

Last week, we dove into one of the foundational blocks of offense, Mike identification. Allow me to leave you in awe: in the same vein, defenses have their own pre-snap ritual. While you may not get the same verbal and audio cues as an offense, defenders go through a process of identification that is integral to establishing their alignment and assignment. Coaches refer to it as “Setting a Strength.”

Our primary goals today are establishing why defenses set a strength and how they do it.

“Ok, so hit me. Why?”

Setting a strength is typically a much simpler process for defenses than identifying a Mike for offenses. It can be as simple as calling out “left” or “right.” However, the terminology will change based on what the defensive coordinator calls or a scheme’s rules. Furthermore, making this pre-snap callout helps the defense align and identify their assignments on a given play. You’ve likely seen this in action on Saturdays when an offense breaks the huddle or rushes to the line after a play, and the defenders are running to get themselves set before the ball is snapped.

“I think I’m picking up what you’re putting down. Can you show me how?”

The three most common ways for defenses to set the strength are:
1) To the Field
2) To the Passing Strength
3) To a Specific Player

Setting the strength to the field (the wide side of the field) is more commonplace at the high school and college levels than at the NFL because of the stark differences in hashmarks.

As you can see in the image above, college football fields have wider hashmarks. Thus, some defensive coordinators use the open side as the offensive strength and the foundational rule of their scheme.

Using the picture above, we have an offense lined up in one of the most common formations in modern football and a defense that has set the strength to the field. In this scenario, the open side of the field is to the right. When setting the strength to the field, players make a simple right or left call, so here, they would yell, “Right! Right! Right!” The inverse would be true if the ball were placed on the opposite hash. Players would yell, “Left! Left! Left!” In this example, the Sam (strong-side linebacker) and Strong Safety line up towards the strength. Meanwhile, the Will (weak-side linebacker) and Weak Safety are away from the strength. Occasionally, defensive coordinators implement Field and Boundary Corners, where the Field Corner lines up toward the strength.

“Wait, what if the ball was in the middle of the field?”

I’m glad you asked. In some situations, the defense may not care much and make an arbitrary choice. Their main goal is to line up and play. However, some schemes might call for setting the strength toward the “passing strength” of the offense.

“What is the ‘passing strength’ of an offense?”

The passing strength refers to the side of the offense that the defense perceives as a greater threat in a passing play. The simplest way to identify the passing strength is if three players, none of whom are in the backfield with the quarterback, line up on one side. Unfortunately, we can’t rely on the most straightforward variation occurring every time.

The depicted offense is in a 2×2 formation without any players attached to the offensive line. Additionally, a Nickel (a fifth defensive back) has replaced the Sam. The defense set the strength to right, currently perceived as the passing strength. The rationale behind the decision comes down to the personnel on the field: the left side of the offense has a receiver (Z) and a tight end (Y), but the right side has two receivers (H & X). Historically, two receivers represent a more significant threat over one receiver and one tight end (unless someone like Brock Bowers is on the field).

The last common practice of setting a strength is setting it to a specific player. Traditionally, this is done by setting the strength to the tight end, but a running back or receiver can be the indicator. The decision of who to set the strength to is made by the call/scheme or specific gameplan for an opponent.

If we set the strength to the tight end in the image above, the defensive players would yell, “Tight right! Tight right!” We are no longer concerned with the passing strength or the open side of the field. The defense’s alignment is entirely predicated on where the tight end is.

I want to share a real-life example using the most recent image to provide additional context.

The defensive coordinator I played for and started my coaching career working for preferred to set the strength to the tight end when our base defense (4-3 or 3-4) was on the field. I drew up the alignment for his favorite 1st down call: Over 3 (Over Front, Cover 3). So, in this situation, as the offense broke the huddle, we would yell, “Rita Sky! Rita Sky!” That terminology communicated that the strength was set to the right, the strong safety was rolling down to the right, we were running Cover 3, and the backers needed to bump over to the left.

As the 2024 season approaches, you can continue to count on the Monday edition of The Call Sheet for foundations of football. One step closer to becoming an expert in the game.

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