Coach ,

In developing players to play to their full potential, everything starts with the job of the coach.  Matt Edwards is the Pass Rush Specialist for the Las Vegas Raiders, but he points out that title aside, his number one job is to teach.

That is true for all of us as coaches. As he says, “It just happens that our subject matter is football.” It starts with “football 101” and builds from the ground up with a progression.

His goal is to build a more competitive, consistent and complete rusher.  He wants to inspire his players to be the best, and it is distinctly different from motivation.  The difference is that inspiration is something that lasts, and that important when working to develop and get the best out of you players.

He explains that in this video from the 3rd Annual Lauren’s first and goal held earlier this month (click on image for video):

Video: My Job

After establishing his responsibility as a teacher of the game, Coach Edwards went into the specifics of how he develops a pass game plan.

It starts with the individual.  The NFL is a player development league.  That is true of any level of the game.  We are here to develop people.

He builds each player’s plan off of their best move.  Then he looks to teach a counter off of that so that the moves pair up naturally.  In the NFL he wants develop all of his rushers to be able to go from speed to power.

The next phase is to know the opponent and their strengths and weaknesses.  He can then help each player develop their weekly plan to attack and defeat him.  That plan includes understanding the protection schemes being used as well as the QB set up and movement patterns.  

Finally he points out that “practice is for practice.” It’s a place for your players to be allowed to make mistakes and discover what works best for them and to build and refine their moves so they can play with confidence (click on image for video):

Video: Pass Rush Game Plan

Many of the resources on pass rush focus on the edges.  It is a good place to invest both placement of your best rusher as well as time developing a plan because it’s where a big mismatch can be created. Of course, the offense knows that, so more and more help is directed there in protection schemes.

In addition, quarterbacks today are becoming so good at climbing the pocket into clear lanes where they can throw the ball, so no matter what level of the game it is, the interior rush is becoming more and more important. 

For the interior linemen Coach Edwards uses an approach in which he utilizes a grid to help his linemen understand where they must “take a box”  He calls it the square principle which gives the objective of teaching the lineman to take a square and attack the linemen, reacting to his set and taking the next adjacent square, stackig him  and going to the quarterback.

This is a very useful visual in teching interior linemen to develop their plan. He explains it in this video:

Video: Interior Rush Principles

Coach Edwars covers the edge rushers and the principle and potential rush plans for them as well illustrating all of it with NFL game film.

This is a tremendous resource for defensive line coaches regardless of the type of defense being run.  Thank you to Coach Edwards for sharing this information for a great cause.

Lauren’s First and Goal Premium and Staff Passes allow 365 days of access this and the other 129 talks given at this years clinic as well as 10 additional courses each month from past clinics.  Thats is 250 courses over the year to help you develop your football knowledge.

The clock is ticking though on the availability of these passes.  You can find them here: 

https://lfgf2023.coachesclinic.com/

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski