Today, we’re going to take some time to go over some effective football drills for your defensive line players.
Redirect Drill
With this football drill, the coach is going to have the ball snapped on movement. The defensive line players are going to step across the line and redirect flat if the ball’s run away from them. We don’t want them to do any bananas, we want to go flat down the line and chase the ball.
They should focus on having a quick reaction, getting across the line, finding the ball, and getting to it in the shortest line possible.
We also will add line stunts to this. We’ll slant to the right or the left and then redirect. We will also call, besides slants, pinches–pinches by one end or another end. We’ll add linebackers in and have them blitz and redirect.
So this is a multi-purpose drill to come across the line, to redirect flat, and get to the ball without having any curves or bananas in your course. We want a straight line to the football.
When coach steps up, that means it’s a draw play. They have to redirect and get back up the field. So the first thing was a lateral run left or right. The second is a draw play; they’ve got to turn, redirect, and get up the field.
Then there’s another step in the progression–coming back to pass, they’ve got to get up in his face. So the three things that we’re trying to do in this drill are: a lateral run away from them, a draw play back up the field, and a pass play.
Pursuit Drill
Next thing we’re going to do is a pursuit drill, and we’re trying to show lateral pursuit by the linemen. We’re going to get them to go sideline to sideline, and we’re going to expect that at all times. The first lineman will stay in his hole, but the other two are going to have to sprint sideline to sideline.
They should be sprinting, as they’ve got to get to the predetermined bags before the ball carrier. They’ve got to be inside-out players. Again, you’ll see the front side player staying, but the other two have to redirect and get to the cones as fast as they can.
If you feel as thought your defensive line players would get something out of these football drills, be sure to share this post with your fellow coaches and players!
