Eli5: what does a quarterback look for when teams get to the line of scrimmage? And what does he do before the snap?
In: 2
Just to add some more to the other responses, he’s gonna look at the safeties and see are they both playing back, or is one creeping up. He’s going to look at the corners to see if they are playing press or if they are backing off their man. Even more, if they are in press are they straight up, or on the inside/outside shoulder. He’s going to look at the linebackers to see how they are lining up. He’s checking for anyone showing blitz. If they put a man in motion, he’s watching how the D reacts to the motion to get a hint of whether they are in man or zone.
Then what does he do with this? Well that varies based on the level. In general, it will help guide his decision for which receivers to check for. He might also adjust blocking schemes. Sometimes in college but more often in the NFL, he might audible to a second play they called in the huddle. Or he might tell a receiver to switch to a different route. An example, let’s say his X receiver is setup to run a slant, but the corner on him has inside leverage, and the safety on that side is cheating in. He might tell his X receiver to switch to an out or an out and up. Another example, their TE is set to run a route, but he can see a possible OLB weak side blitz, he might send the TE in motion and tell him to block the potential blitzer, or give him a block and release assignment to slow the blitz.
As to how they do all of that, it’s all either in those things you might hear them yelling like “Blue 42”. Or it might be in hand motions.
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