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A Look at the Blue Bombers Defensive Line


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Another great read. JBR, can you please explain what a "three-technique" means? You refer to that term a few times, in different contexts, in your blog.

Are there others, for example, a two or four technique?

 

Simply put a "three technique" defensive lineman is one who typically lines up on the outside shoulder of the guard ..

 

Yes .. there are others .. think of it like this:

 

Starting at the C - a zero (0) technique would be head up on the center with a 1 being on either outside shoulder.

At G you have 2i, 2, 3 (2i being inside shoulder, 2 head up and 3 outside shoulder)

At T you have 4i, 4, 5 (4i being inside shoulder, 4 head up and 5 outside shoulder)

 

In formations where a TE may be present you have a 6, 7, 8 and 9 technique .. and this breaks from the convention established but 6 is with a lineman lined up head up with the TE, 7 inside shoulder, 9 outside shoulder.  An 8 technique is used to describe a wide defensive end alignment (wider than the 9).

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Another great read. JBR, can you please explain what a "three-technique" means? You refer to that term a few times, in different contexts, in your blog.

Are there others, for example, a two or four technique?

 

Simply put a "three technique" defensive lineman is one who typically lines up on the outside shoulder of the guard ..

 

Yes .. there are others .. think of it like this:

 

Starting at the C - a zero (0) technique would be head up on the center with a 1 being on either outside shoulder.

At G you have 2i, 2, 3 (2i being inside shoulder, 2 head up and 3 outside shoulder)

At T you have 4i, 4, 5 (4i being inside shoulder, 4 head up and 5 outside shoulder)

 

In formations where a TE may be present you have a 6, 7, 8 and 9 technique .. and this breaks from the convention established but 6 is with a lineman lined up head up with the TE, 7 inside shoulder, 9 outside shoulder.  An 8 technique is used to describe a wide defensive end alignment (wider than the 9).

 

 

Yep, the gaps for the DL are all odd numbers for the most part.  You'll rarely see anyone line up head to head with a OL, and if they do 99% of the time it's on top of the centre.

 

When a DL lines up, you split the OL into inside and outside halves as you line up to understand where the gaps are.  After you've played DL for a couple years, you don't really think of it like that, but that's how you teach a grade 9 or 10 kid playing on the line for the first time.

 

There's also a lettering system that is used more generally for the entire defence.  A gaps are between centre and guard, B gaps between guard and tackle, C gap is off tackle.  In a gap control defense, a DL or LB will be accountable for each of those 6 gaps.

 

So a one-technique is on the inside half/shoulder of the guard, essentially the gap between the guard and centre.

 

Three-technique is outside half/shoulder of the guard, gap between guard and tackle.

 

Five-technique is outside half/shoulder of the tackle, gap outside tackle/between tackle and tight end (if one is in the formation).

 

Outside of that, every team has different terminology, some teams call their rush end a "seven" or a "wide-seven" meaning that they line him up basically one gap wider than the five-technique would line up in against a 5 man line.  It gets somewhat complicated because a lot of fronts widen out depending on the gaps created by the number of blockers the offence puts in the box, a five-technique might become a seven if the offence uses a tight end.  This is done mostly to combat the off tackle run, force everything inside, contain runs from getting outside.  The defensive gaps always change based on the offensive formation.

 

Those three are the basic categories that DL are divided into.  You'll hear it a lot during the NFL Draft stuff, "he'd be a first-round pick but teams don't think he's strong enough to play a one-technique in the NFL, and he's too slow to play three-technique in the NFL like he did in college."  Stuff like that.

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