FREE SAFETY-QB OF THE DEFENSE!!

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Blitz
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THE FREE SAFETY POSITION

For this thread I thought I’d return to my roots and talk ‘defense’ and especially about the position on defense that I probably know best….the free safety position...often considered the 'quarterback' of a defense.

POSITIONING

In the CFL the free safety is most often positioned 10 to 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage, depending on the safety's speed, the defense's position, the offensive formation, and the tendencies of the opposition offence. For instance, if the defense is expecting a pass, the free safety will often line up deeper. However, if the defense is expecting a run, the safety may be brought closer to the line of scrimmage to assist in run support. Against some offensive formations the free safety is not assigned coverage.

If the free safety has coverage responsibilities he will be put into a pass zone and he can"t double-team, key a runner or show a safety blitz.. If he does not have coverage responsibilities the free safety can be moved to any area on the field. The free safety can be moved into the flat/look-in pass zones, or even be placed on the line of scrimmage or be left free to determine where he thinks it's best to go.

I always enjoyed playing the safety position in the middle of a five defensive back formation in Canadian football rather than one of the two safety positions in American football. In college, in the U.S., I most often played the free safety position rather than the strong safety position but sometimes they were considered interchangeable. At other times I played roverback, where I was moved around all over the place as a hybrid defensive back/linebacker.

In American football there are usually two safeties on defense, and are often placed on opposite ends of a formation in a Cover 2 (two deep zone) defensive formation. Sometimes the free safety position is in the middle of the field in a Cover 1 positon. I’ve discussed Cover 1, Cover 2, Cover 3, and a variety of other defensive man and zone coverages in a previous thread on the Annus Stukus Forum so won’t go into them again.

FREE SAFETY POSITION UNDERGOES MAJOR TRANSFORMATION

In Canadian football, the free safety traditionally played the deep middle but with six, seven, eight, nine, and even the rare situation of ten players dropping back into pass coverage, the position of safety is going through a major transformation. If the offensive formation, or the defensive pass coverage, calls for the free safety to cover a specific receiver, it's important that the free safety adjusts his stance to the one used by a cornerback or halfback. The free safety always needs to practice for man coverage, which requires a different teqhnique.

There is a big difference between playing other defensive back positions than the free safety position. While it’s done, it’s very difficult to make a transition from corner or halfback to free safety in the CFL. A lot of times, even though they are all considered defensive backs, they are distinctively different positions and the techniques and fundamentals of the position, although there’s a lot of carry over, are also distinctively different. The free safety position is the most distinctive of the defensive back positions.

FREE SAFETY RESPONSIBILITIES

The free safety is most responsible for making pass coverage calls or audibles, reading the offensive play, and covering deep passes. Depending on the defensive call, the safety can also be required to provide run support, blitz, double cover a specific receiver, or man cover. The free safety has an enormous amount of territory to cover on a CFL field.. If two players simultaneously threaten his zone, the safety must decide which one to cover. The QB will attempt to read the safety’s reaction and throw to the defender that he doesn't decide to cover in attempting a big pass gain.

Speed is important because a safety needs to be able to cover a lot of territory. Free safeties need to be good tacklers to be able to come up and tackle a shifty running back who has broken free of the first two levels of the defense. However, more important is the free safety is a very smart player who is a leader. The free safety is responsible for strongside calls, down and distance, and making sure the coverage is the right one for the offensive set.

A free safety, more than any other player on the defense, needs the ability to be able to analyze a play, to be able to perceive an offensive play's flow quickly, to have great anticipation skills, and to be mentally tough. Free safeties also need to be players that are willing to put a lot of time into studying film, to learn the tendancies of the opposition offense, and the plays they like to run. We have a great free safety in Barrin Miles who fulfills all these attributes.


FREE SAFETY TECHNIQUE

The free safety can assume a much more upright stance than other defensive backs. The shoulders and feet will usually be parallel to the line of scrimmage, spread no wider than the width of the shoulders. When you’re looking at the safety position in training camp watch that the safety has a slight bend in his knees, and that his head and shoulders are slightly ahead of his hips. His arms should hang down from his shoulders in a relaxed manner, and watch that he looks comfortable as possible in his stance. He should always be on the balls of his feet.

It’s important that the safety look at both the quarterback and the offensive tackle in the first moment of the offence play. The offensive tackle is a key in terms of quickly reading whether it’s going to be a running play or passing play. If it’s a passing play the tackle will need to make a very quick drop step to protect against a rush end getting to the quarterback.

In terms of backpedaling the safety really needs to backpedal with his feet always remaining close to the ground. Safeties that backpedal with feet coming too high off the ground will sometimes get caught needing to react in the middle of their backpedal. It takes longer to wait for the foot, if in mid-air to come down and hit the ground than using a backpedal technique that slide the feet as close to the ground as possible. Quick reaction is critical to the position.

If the offensive formation, or the defensive pass coverage, calls for the free safety to cover a specific receiver, it's important that the free safety adjusts his stance to the one used by a cornerback or halfback. The free safety always needs to practice for man coverage, which requires a different teqhnique. The safety also needs to give the quarterback false reads in this position, similar to other defensive backs. He needs to be able to show press coverage and drop off, play off and then be able to quickly press just prior to the snap of the football, and to be able to give a zone look while actually playing man and vice-versa!

Good quarterbacks are trained to look off the free safety in order not to tip off where his primary look is. Safeties always need to recognize this fact but there are also quarterbacks who don't look off the safety and the free safety can take advantage of this. Quarterbacks will also try to read the free safety by positioning and the early moment of his drop to determine after snap coverage. Free safeties like Barrin Miles of our Leos are outstanding at both giving the quarterback disguised pre-snap reads and also post-snap reads by giving the quarterback a false first step to disguise pass coverage.

THE SAFETY BLITZ

A safety blitz call from the sidelines is one that most safeties love to see or hear. It brings a change of responsibility and with good timing allows the safety to hit a gap in the offensive line and bring down a quarterback for a sack. However, it can also be a dangerous play for the defense and the safety personally. For the defense, prior to zone blitzes, it meant that every pass defender was in man coverage. Man coverage is still used at times but the popularity of the zone blitz has allowed defenses to blitz while doing a better job of not giving up the big deep play. Still the play often involves less coverage in the back end and teams usually like to bring the blitz from the short side of the field or up the middle.

There is a difference between sending a safety after the quarterback and a blitz involving the safety, which means that you are sending more defensive men than the offence has blockers. The safety hits the line at full speed in a safety blitz and a lot of things can go wrong. First of all, if you don’t hit the gap right you’re running through the line of scrimmage at full speed and a monster 300 pound offensive lineman doesn’t need a lot of force to send you flying. Run directly into him and you’ll feel you’ve hit a cement wall. Secondly, the safety may get past the offensive lineman at the line of scrimmage and a fullback can sneak over and send you head over heals or sailing through the air.

However, there is nothing like the feeling of sticking one’s helmet into a quarterback, hearing the loud ‘ooooomph’ as air is expelled instantly, and following through to drive his body deep into the turf. Makes me wish Orange Shoes had played quarterback back in my college days!! :wink:

Defenses will sometimes use a delayed safety blitz. While the play takes a fraction longer for the safety to get to the quarterback it also provides the safety with the ability to read the blocking of the offensive line, it provides the time for the offensive gaps to open more, and it also disguises the blitz better in terms of the running back’s read. Garney Henley, the great Garney Henley, who played offence, defense, and special teams was the first to purrfect the safety blitz with the Hamilton Tiger Cats while down south Larry Wilson of the St Louis Cardinals was one of the NFL's great blitzers. Fun to watch if you ever get a chance to watch them on old film! By the way, the term 'blitz' comes from the German word for 'lightning attack'!

BLITZ MIND GAMES!

The safety blitz can be one of many potent blitz calls to nullify a high-flying air attack. However, blitzes must be disguised to insure their effectiveness. If the offense knows they are coming ahead of time, it can easily adjust and burn the defese. Deception represents an essential element of any blitz. The fake blitz has to look exactly like the blitz itself in terms of hand and feet placement. You alwasy want the feet and arms to do the same thing. When a a fake blitz is called it should be so convincing that it looks like the defense missed the call.

The free safety is the quarterback of the pass coverage defense and needs to lead and direct on the field. A lot of defensive backs like to walk into their blitzes, and when they are supposed to fake they jump. Teams pay their coaches good money, and fake blitzes better look very similar to active blitzes, or they aren’t going to fool anyone. There are endless combinations to blitzes, limited only by the imagination,â€
Last edited by Blitz on Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
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lion24
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It is interesting to note that the safety is the "quarterback" of the defence and like qb's there tends to be different styles of player's playing the safety position. You have the crafty, chess like players like Miles and the heavy hitters who are willing to take more chances on the qb blitz and the big hit on the receiver to try to intimidate the receivers and cause them to get "alligator arms" coming across the middle. Even though Hebert is considered a linebacker he has been employed on occasions as this intimidator safety role for the bombers. while both can be effective ways to play the position i would pick Miles method of play as there is less chance of getting a big td against him by not always going for the big "knockout" hit. On the other hand intimidating receivers out of certain routes can be effective as well but a lot of receivers are able to play without the fear of getting hit as well and can use the over aggressiveness of a safety to their advantage.
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TheLionKing
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So who assumes the safety's responsibilities when he's on the blitz ?
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lion24
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TheLionKing wrote:So who assumes the safety's responsibilities when he's on the blitz ?
i would think no one really as it is a chance play that assumes the safety better get to the QB or at least pressure him to throw the ball away? but Blitz can verify that if correct or not?
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The position of Safety seems to be more often referred to as the more general Defensive Back since the player is often assigned the role of a Cornerback or Defensive Halfback. But there are still a few players officially known as Safeties. Here are some of the Lions who were known as Safeties.

Neal Beaumont, 1960-67
Grady Cavness, 1974-78
Shadwick Criss, 2003
Tom Europe, 1993-96
Neil Ferris, 1954
Greg Frers, 1997
Dale Joseph, 1998-99
Rick Ryan, 1985, 1988-90
Remi Trudel, 1990-92
Don Vassos, 1959-60
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Nelson Martin
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would think no one really as it is a chance play that assumes the safety better get to the QB or at least pressure him to throw the ball away? but Blitz can verify that if correct or not?
All depends on the defensive formation and the call lion24. In a '0' coverage the safety would blitz and every other defensive back would be in man coverage. The key for the defensive backs is to take the inside away and not give up the post, since there is no one in the middle back there. You can also rotate a defensive halfback into the safety position. For example, in a four receiver set, if they have one reciever on the short side and three on the wide side, the short side halfback could drop into the free safety position when the safety is blitzing and the shortside corner would play man.

Most teams now run zone blitzes. If you have six defensive backs in the game the 'nickel' back can drop into the safety position or the nickel could drop into a halfback spot and the halfback could rotate into the safety posiiton. Even with only five defensive backs in the game you can drop your llinebackers into deeper zones and let your two defensive halfbacks run a two deep zone. There are lots of variations but you don't have to run a '0' coverage and play man always, like the old days, when you run a safety blitz. The key, on the safety blitz, is not to give up the deep ball, while taking the chance to get to the quarterback.

Let's have a little fun now you've read the thread. Pretend it's first down and the offence is in a traditional set with two running backs and four receivers. The tailback is fast and has great hands. The offence lines up two receivers to each side. The defense is in a traditional set, with four down linemen, three linebackes, and five defensive backs.

Before the snap of the football the tailback goes in motion to the wide side of the field. Now the offence has three recievers on the wide side of the field and you only have your wideside corner and halfback to cover them.

You're the free safety and you have to make the call. Do you a) stay in your zone formation with you as the safety still playing the deep middle or b) do you slide over to the strong side of the formation to help out c) call an audible to have the strongside outside linebacker pick up the tailback and shift the two remaining linebackers or d) change into a man formation and go out yourself to cover the tailback or e) change the pass coverage with an audible so the shortside halfback covers the deep middle an d try to cover the shortside slotback initially with the shortside linebacker or f) call out a combination coverage with the shortside db's playing man and yourself and the wideside defensive backs playing zone or g) say screw it and blitz the wideside linebacker to quickly get in the face of the quarterback to force a quick throw or h) yell at the defensive coordinator for not having six defensive backs out there in the first place or i) some other combination.

Your skill at making this call will determine whether you get to sit in the upper end zone nose bleed seats at the next game or get to advise Ritchie on his next game plan!! :wink: If you're willing to take the risk you're definitely free safety material!! :twisted:

ps. I can't believe TheLionKing read the whole post....he's graduated to the speed reading elite club on Lionbackers!! :roll: :wink: :rockin:
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TheLionKing
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I would have the linebacker cover the tailback.
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I would have the linebacker cover the tailback
Who is your wideside outside linebacker TheLionKing and would you have him play press coverage and hit the tailback off the line or have him back up and give the tailback some space? Would you play man with the linebacker or play zone on that side? By the way it's a good answer!!
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
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i guess as the safety i would take a chance, may not be the smartest move, and identify the tailback in motion but play off the tailback to give the qb an idea he may be open but then at the snap try and jump the play for an interception. This is my "all or nothing" defence Blitz and may result in my termination before the next game!!!?? :lol: :lol: seriously though if the tailback is in motion in the CFL a good percentage of the time it may be a swing pass out to the back and i suppose the best option would be to get the linebacker on him, although this often can result in a mismatch for the linebacker.
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guess as the safety i would take a chance, may not be the smartest move, and identify the tailback in motion but play off the tailback to give the qb an idea he may be open but then at the snap try and jump the play for an interception
Spoken as a confident free safety... lion24... who knows that a big interception.. out there on the wideside of the field will likely result in a quick six points for the defense. Of course it's a risk but a calculated one! By vacating the middle you obviously have a lot of confidence in your halfbacks to not give up the deep post!

You're also right that you'd better have a linebacker that's a great cover guy if you make the choice of matching him against the tailback. It's why I asked TheLionKing who was his outside linebacker, in terms of coverage. However, it's a call defenses make.

Thanks for making the call lion24..... it's different and challenging to put yourself inside the action and take up the challenge to make the call rather than analyzing the play after all is said and done!
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My outside linebacker will be someone like Otis Floyd. A guy who can run and track down a running back.
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Jason Crumb was also a free safety a few years back.
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Jason Crumb was also a free safety a few years back.
He was Balraj but he was never able to fully lock up the position!
My outside linebacker will be someone like Otis Floyd. A guy who can run and track down a running back.
Hard to argue with that choice TheLionKing!!

I'm going to have a little fun and put a twist on the play but still cover the tailback with a linebacker as lion24 and The LionKing have done. I'm going to come at it with a zone blitz with iso coverage on the tailback with the linebacker.

The safety will call an audible. While Floyd was a great choice I want to use Floyd for another purpose. I have Johnson playing linebacker and he will go out and press cover the tailback off the line, hit him, and run with him. Since the Leos are running last year's 4-3 on this play I have Foley playing defensive end, Ty Williams at left tackle, Hunt at right tackle (they have the ability to interchange) and Brent Jphnson at shortside end.

Since the formation is strong to the left of the defence Miles take a dropstep so it will look like he's staying home initially to give the qb a false read and then Miles will slide strongside and hopefully be able to jump a route or help out to the strongside of the offensive formatiom with double coverage on the receiver of his choice.

Korey Banks and Marsh will drop off their men more than usual just prior to the snap of the football. With no deep help from Miles.. Banks will give up a little more room and take away the deep post and Marsh will have a bigger cushion against a deep route. To help against a slant or shorter route I'm dropping Brent Johnson from his defensive end spot to take away the shortside hook/flat. Johnson can also pick up the fullback if they release him to the short side of the field.

I don't want my linebacker covering the tailback for too long and also want to force a quick pass and get heat on. :twisted: At the snap of the football Foley will speed rush wide on the strongside and make sure the quarterback does not break contain. As soon as the tailback went in motion and the audible was called Williams slightly shifts into the guard/tackle gap while Hunt lined up on the outside shoulder of his guard. At the snap of the football Foley's wide rush pulls the offensive tacle outside while Ty Williams occupies both the center and right guard. Otis Floyd takes a couple of quick lateral steps and blows up inside the space created bt Foley and Williams and should come clean on a blitz right into the quarterback's face. However the fullback could read it and pick Otis up.

At the same time Hunt will explode into the weakside guard/tackle gap and then fight outside for shortside contain. The guard will need to block Hunt and the left tackle will be frozen waiting for Johnson's rush... that didn't happen. At the same time Javy Glatt will blitz through the space created by Hunt pulling the weakside guard wide and the centre being occupied by Williams. The fullback has a choice now..who would he like to kill his quarterback...Floyd or Glatt?? Of course if the quarterback escapes he's have a lot of room to run but we've designed this audible for Ricky Ray and the Evil Empire! :wink: Besides we're good at our blitzes and there are no gaps to run to!

Hopefully Johnson can pick one off weakside with the deception or Miles can double the correct receiver strongside with a good read and perhaps get a pick, or we sack the quarterback, or at worst force a horrible, rushed pass for a turnover! Who said only offensive guys have fun?!! :wink:
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
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