The best way to ease protection assignments and techniques for offensive linemen is to throw quickly or move the pocket. Those methods should be a mix of any offense.

Inevitably, there will come a time when an offense must drop back and attack the weaknesses of a defense. The only way for this to be effective is to protect the quarterback and give him the time he needs to pick the defense apart.

Performing a postseason analysis of dropback protection can help improve a team’s efficiency and effectiveness moving forward.

For a dropback game to be effective, the ball needs to be out in less than three seconds. Calibrated correctly, the first route in a quarterback’s progression can be out in 1.8 to 2.0 seconds. The second option in 2.2 to 2.6 seconds, and third option, check down or escape from the pocket must be executed at 2.8 seconds.

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Get out your stopwatch

Begin evaluating pass protection by putting a stopwatch on the snap to throw, snap to hurry, snap to hit and snap to sack.

Snap to throw is straightforward: The moment the center starts moving the ball to the moment the ball is off the quarterback’s fingertips.

Snap to hurry means the quarterback’s normal drop has been altered, where he has to move up and back or side to side in the pocket to avoid a rusher. The timing is from the snap to the first time the QB alters his drop.

Snap to hit is from the snap until the quarterback is touched. In this scenario, he is able to deliver the ball, but is hit immediately after the throw. Eliminating quarterback hits are important to durability. If a quarterback is being hit after 2.8 seconds, it may be that he is holding onto the ball too long. If he is releasing the ball at 1.8, being hit at 2.0 on that throw, it means that protection has broken down.

Snap to sack is the same as snap to hit, except the QB holds onto the ball and goes down with it.

Measuring these scenarios, then looking at them overall and within averages provides a good breakdown of overall time the quarterback has in the pocket.

Most editing systems allow coaches to create a column in for breakdown. Record this data directly into the system to create future playlists as well as sort and filter clips to go more in-depth in the study of protection.

Looking at the ‘why’

The next part of the analysis determines why quarterback hits, hurries and sacks are occurring. Charting the times provides the starting point.

Anything after 2.8 seconds typically can be attributed to something occurring with the receiver and quarterback techniques or good coverage by the defense. The hits, hurries and sacks occurring before that time should be evaluated for assignment errors, technique errors and weaknesses in the protection.

Assignment errors are identified as players not blocking the defender or gap to which he was assigned.

Technique can be a variety of things – including footwork, eyes and punch – and needs to be further expanded in another round of analysis. If you see a pattern in what is allowing a rusher through, the coaches can address it directly.

Weakness in protection is defined as a problem within a scheme in blocking a certain pressure. For example, in the diagram below, the left tackle is assigned to man protection on the end, with the rest of the linemen sliding to their gaps to the right. While there are five blockers for five rushers, the way the protection is executed allows the defense to overload a side and get a blitzer through unblocked.

These errors can be noted in a separate column for each play. The suggestion for both efficiency and for getting to the root of any issues should be kept to one word for identification – “assignment,” “technique” and “weakness” would suffice.

Once the causes are identified, coaches can go even deeper into each category until arriving at specific problems that must be solved. This information can then be used to develop offseason research to help formulate answers and improve protection for 2018.

Keith Grabowski has been a football coach for 26 years, and is currently USA Football's senior manager and host of the Coach and Coordinator podcast. He previously was a head coach at the high school level for eight years and the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Baldwin Wallace University. Follow him on Twitter @CoachKGrabowski.

This is an updated version of a blog that originally posted Nov. 18, 2015.