As football evolves, all of our coverages are become some form of man coverage. Even in zone structures, players are taught a pattern match – not zone drop – philosophy.

At XandO Labs, coaches who are teaching defensive backs center the targets of the receiver that we use to teach off-man coverage and the techniques that coincide with those targets.

I believe in man coverage for the following reasons:

• It breeds familiarity. Most kids were raised playing backyard football where they learn to cover a person, not an area – although those numbers seem to be decreasing in the electronic age.
• It cultivates competition. It drives a “me vs. you” philosophy. Let the best player win.
• It provides accountability. There are no gray areas in man coverage where defenders could fall asleep. “Wherever they go, I go.”
• Offensive schemes demand it. With the advent of run-pass options that continue to put zone defenders in conflict, it often becomes necessary to play some form of man coverage.

Having said that, it is imperative to make sure you put your players in the best position to be successful. Don’t expect them to cover receivers who they physically cannot stay with.

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There have been times where I’ve matched corners on slot receivers and linebackers on wideouts to give them a chance to win. Football is a matchup game, and playing man coverage facilitates that aspect.

When teaching off-man coverage, the principles we focus on include:

• Alignment
• Leverage
• Cushion
• Hips

Here’s a closer look at each.

Alignment

In training off coverage, our general rule for cornerbacks and safeties is to be five to seven yards off the receiver. This can be altered based on what we call “ability alignment.” If a player has the ability to match the speed of his opponent, he can play a little tighter – or vice versa.

For linebackers who are assigned to man coverage on slot receivers, we tend to back them off to a seven-yard depth, giving them the best chance to be successful. It’s important to note that when we play man coverage, our defenders key their receivers both pre- and post-snap.

We never expect a defender to cover a receiver down the field and make a tackle on the ball-carrier. He is not counted in the run fit.

Leverage

In any defense, it’s essential to know where your help is located. Typically speaking, there are two types of man coverages in our system.

• Cover-1. Requires deep safety help.
• Cover-0. No deep safety help.

Leverage will depend on if the defender has help. In Cover-1, he will align in what we call an “ork” position: outside eye of the receiver. If there is no deep safety help, we use an “ink” alignment, which means he will be on the inside eye of the receiver.

These horizontal alignments can be tweaked as well. For example, if you know a receiver has a knack for making double moves, it may make sense to cheat your defender inside. Various split rules also may apply, but this is our base teaching progression.

Cushion

Cushion is defined as the functional space a receiver has on a defender. The technical landmark for a receiver who is threatening our cushion is around two to three yards.

Since players have a difficult time assessing that distance, we often talk more about the receiver’s ability to step on our toes. When he can step on our toes, we lose our cushion.

We don’t want our coverage defenders providing too much space to receivers in man coverage, so we teach our defensive backs to pedal rather than slide or turn and run, because we feel it’s a more natural movement for them.

We use the following footwork progressions:

• Control pedal. A backpedal at 75 percent speed. It’s used when we have maintained our cushion.
• Speed pedal. A backpedal as fast as possible. It’s used once our cushion is threatened.
• Man turn. A technique when we flip our hips and run with the receiver. Our back will be toward the quarterback. This is used when the receiver has broken our cushion.

Hips

We have found the hips of the wide receiver to be the most accurate indicator for his route intentions. As Shakira once said, “the hips don’t lie.” So we work endlessly on getting our defenders to key those hips.

Whether the receiver is running vertically, breaking inside or breaking outside, defenders are clued by the direction of his hips.

Some of the drills we do to reinforce this technique include:

• Throttle drill. Pair a receiver and a defender vertically down a yard line. The receiver gets into his stem, and every couple of yards (at his discretion) he will break down to simulate making a cut. The defender is asked to “throttle” his hips down once the receiver does.
• Throttle and break drill. This is the next progression off the throttle drill. Here, a receiver will only breakdown once during his stem. When he does, the defender is expected to make a T-plant (we don’t bicycle plant) and make a break down the line of scrimmage.
• Weave drill. Same concept of pairing a receiver and defender up vertically down a yard line. But this time, the receiver will zig-zag around as he progresses down the line. The defender is expected to keep the necessary leverage (ink or ork) on the receiver hips by backpedaling with his shoulders squared and not opening up his hips.

This is just a framework of how important a visual is on the hips of the receiver in playing off man coverage. In my next blog, I will detail how we teach press man coverage and the techniques we use to do so.

Mike Kuchar is co-founder and senior research manager at XandOLabs.com, a private research company specializing in coaching concepts and trends. Reach him at mike@xandolabs.com or follow him on Twitter @mikekkuchar.