Coach ,

One of the most exciting teams to watch right now is the Cleveland Browns. 

They’ve faced a ton of adversity this season, as many teams have, but they’ve forged ahead and won the first playoff game for the franchise since 1994. A big part of their success is built around what they are doing on the offensive line.

Pro Football Focus rated the Browns line as #1 in their blocking grades for both run and pass.

Unfortunately, both Browns offensive line coaches were out against the Steelers because of COVID, but they’ve done an outstanding job of training their guys in 2020.

Much of the technique used by the Browns offensive line and coach Bill Callahan was developed in conjunction with his assistant, Scott Peters.  

Peters’ story is an interesting one. In rehabbing from what he felt was an NFL career ending injury, he began studying and practicing Brazilian Jujitsu. This is where he learned much about leverage and harnessing the strength of the body, especially the hips. 

That developed into a system of techniques for blocking and defeating blocks which led to consultation with top teams from the FBS and NFL and eventually to his current position with the Cleveland Browns. 

In this short video, Peters shares five tips for developing contact skills. These are ideas you can implement with your team right now.

Mike Pollak, former NFL offensive lineman and an associate of Scott Peters shared some of the basics of teaching blocking this way. In this video he talks about a core fundamental which Peters has called “Force Deflection.”

The technique is probably different from a lot of what you have previously been taught, but it’s very effective as evidenced by the Browns blocking grade. In this video, the base block technique is explained:

Yes, I know, “but these are NFL guys who work with NFL players.” That’s true, but this also has been implemented successfully at the college, high school, and youth levels. Pollak highlights a youth football player using these techniques successfully in this video.

So long story short, it can work at whatever level you coach.  

“Force Deflection Base Blocks on the LOS- Mike Pollak” is a great starting point to learn more about improving the performance of your team in 2021.  

Always be growing,

Coach Grabowski

P.S. Peters shared more about how this developed on The Coach and Coordinator Podcast.