What does "the Mike" mean, anyway?

 

Middle Linebacker. 

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Worst to 1st.  Curse Reversed!

Linebackers in the NFL:

 

• Mike - middle linebacker, responsible for calling plays, jack-of-all-trades
  
• Sam - outside strong-side linebacker, blitzes most often, needs strength
  
• Will - outside weak-side linebacker, drops into pass coverage most often, needs speed
  
• Jack - middle linebacker used in a 3-4 on the weak-side of the Mike, another jack-of-all trades type
  

 

Once someone said the second inside linebacker is Ted.

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Absolutely right.

 

New defenders coming into Landry's flex initially hated it because it curtailed their aggressive tendencies and called for more discipline.

 

I love the basis of Landry's Defense. It gets a bit of a bad reputation since it allows yardage by the Offense, but it only allows two yards per its design. An Offense cannot get first downs with two yards per play any more than they could if they were averaging zero yards per play. Landry recognized this and rode that Defense for several years in the NFL. I honestly don't know of any other overarching defensive scheme that has lasted that long.

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

What does "the Mike" mean, anyway?

 

"Michael" Jordan, silly

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I love the basis of Landry's Defense. It gets a bit of a bad reputation since it allows yardage by the Offense, but it only allows two yards per its design. An Offense cannot get first downs with two yards per play any more than they could if they were averaging zero yards per play. Landry recognized this and rode that Defense for several years in the NFL. I honestly don't know of any other overarching defensive scheme that has lasted that long.

 

I wonder why more teams don't use more "flex" alignments on some passing downs.

 

I know Randy White had considerable success rushing the passer as the "flexed" lineman.  I would think it would give the interior lineman more space to use his quickness to beat a blocker, or add more confusion to blocking schemes when paired with a blitzer attacking the gaps near him.

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Worst to 1st.  Curse Reversed!

What does "the Mike" mean, anyway?

 

 

 

Linebackers in the NFL:

 

• Mike - middle linebacker, responsible for calling plays, jack-of-all-trades
  
• Sam - outside strong-side linebacker, blitzes most often, needs strength
  
• Will - outside weak-side linebacker, drops into pass coverage most often, needs speed
  
• Jack - middle linebacker used in a 3-4 on the weak-side of the Mike, another jack-of-all trades type
  

 

 

That's what it means to the Defense, but to a team that uses Zone Blocking, the Mike indicates where the players start their count so they can determine whom to block.

 

For the O-Line, each player is designated to block a "numbered" defender and that numbering starts at the Mike who the Offense then numbers as zero. The typical assignment for that blocking scheme is that the Center blocks zero, the Guard blocks one, the Tackle two, and so on. When the QB or even the Center names a player as "the Mike", that helps the rest of the blockers identify who they are blocking.

 

As for the Ted comment that you made, a lot of teams will come up with different terminology for a lot of their positions. You'll probably come across references to the Jack as CSTBlank wrote, the Bandit, Moe for a weakside Inside Linebacker, and lots of others. Teams do this so that the opposition can't discern the formation as quickly.

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

I wonder why more teams don't use more "flex" alignments on some passing downs.

 

I know Randy White had considerable success rushing the passer as the "flexed" lineman.  I would think it would give the interior lineman more space to use his quickness to beat a blocker, or add more confusion to blocking schemes when paired with a blitzer attacking the gaps near him.

 

Ever since I've become aware of exactly what the flexed Lineman does, I've noticed them more and more although they don't use the loop technique as often as White did. I think that teams have simply figured out a better way of handling it.

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

Deacon, your information about zone blocking makes me think think I would need to take a class to understand everything. This is harder to grasp than I thought.

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Deacon, your information about zone blocking makes me think think I would need to take a class to understand everything. This is harder to grasp than I thought.

There are professional coaches that spend years trying to figure this stuff out, so don't worry if you don't grasp it right away.


I'm posting from my phone now but as soon as I get to a PC I'll try and work up a diagram for you. That may help some.

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

There are professional coaches that spend years trying to figure this stuff out, so don't worry if you don't grasp it right away.


I'm posting from my phone now but as soon as I get to a PC I'll try and work up a diagram for you. That may help some.

 

OK I thought it was because I never played football.

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I apologize for derailing this Tre Mason thread into a football technical skills thread, but I thought that JW would appreciate a little description of a Zone Blocking Scheme.

 

Teams that zone block can go one of two ways; they either block their targetted player no matter what, or they react to what the Defense is doing after the first few moments of a play starting and take whomever is in their area / zone. Regardless of which approach they take, they need to target their man to block at the beginning of the play and the simplest way to do that is to count. But, as number line theory goes, you can't math unless you have a starting spot, known as zero. This is where the "Mike" call comes in.

 

  2      0   2

  W  M  S

      3    1     1        3

       E   T   T      E

 

T G C G T

 

I don't know if the diagram above is going to be clear enough, but I'll try and talk through it some. Before the snap, the team identifies who the Mike is on the Defense, and each player counts "out" from him. This can be done either by the Center or the QB, depending on the team's preference. After the call is made, the players on the Offense's right count the defenders from left to right, and the ones on the left count right to left. In football terms, this is known as Inside Out, since the side of the player where the ball is located is considered "inside". Each player is designated a "numbered" defender to block and that's where they head at the beginning of the play.

 

The rules / assignments for the blockers are really simple; The Center blocks "zero", the Guards block "one", Tackles block "two" and the Tight End or blocking Back or whomever else will block "three". Referencing the diagram, for a play run to the right, the Center would block the Mike, the Right Guard would block the Defensive Tackle and the Right Tackle will take the Sam (S). The Defensive End is left for another blocker to take. The Left Guard also takes the DT to his side, and the Left Tackle takes Will.

 

It's important to note that this is only the foundation of ZBS, and things can get a lot more complex than this. Teams can mix ZBS with normal gap control from side to side and lots of other variations.

 

Again, sorry to derail the thread, but I thought this might help a bit.

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

Tre Mason is a good player. Even last year when Auburn was 3-9 he was the sole bright spot rushing for more than 1,000 yards. He has also returned several kick returns for touchdowns in his career. I think he compares to Ray rice in ability and would be happy if we were to draft him at the top of round 3.

 

Gil Brandt compares him to Tony Dorsett.http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000...-quickness

 

Rang also compares him to Rice.http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/nfl-d...burns-rise

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I appreciate it Deacon. Now let's get back to Tre Mason.

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Tre Mason is a good player. Even last year when Auburn was 3-9 he was the sole bright spot rushing for more than 1,000 yards. He has also returned several kick returns for touchdowns in his career. I think he compares to Ray rice in ability and would be happy if we were to draft him at the top of round 3.

 

The only reason I would object to picking him is we need to finish rebuilding our offensive line first. That said, if we trade down for more picks (not a bad idea if we are near the top of Round 2) we can pick Mason and two linemen on the same day.

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Fred Taylor was pretty much terrible in blitz pickup as a Jag....

 

Just to put that into perspective. 

 

Yes, all things being equal, you'd prefer a RB to be adept at blitz pickup, but the most important thing for a RB is, you know, his main job, i.e. playmaking, extending drives, topping 4.0 YPC, et al.... 

This

Most of these guys now you have no clue if they can pick up blitz or not since they dont play in pro style offense, get a guy who can carry the football get yards and score first, then worry about the rest later, RB is the easiest position to learn in the NFL.

 

Trey Mason is no product of the system, the guy carried the ball 44 times for over 300 yards and 4 tds and after the game did not look tired at all, give me that kinda football player any day of the week.

 

I always remember that player from Mich st saying put ladainian tomlinson in the big 10 and he would be just another RB, then LT went on to rush for over 200 yards vs Mich st.

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<B><FONT color=cyan>Jags this is your year</FONT></B>

Mason is only a jr. he hasnt even said he was coming out

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<FONT face="Weltron Urban" color=#008080 size=7><I></I></FONT> 

Manziel in the first, Mason in the 2nd and Prosch in the 5th

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Does he block well?

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"Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." Galatians 5:26

2015 NFL Draft - Analyzing Targets www.jungle.jaguars.com/index.php?/topic/7892-2015-nfl-draft-analyzing-targets/

Does he block well?

Im not sure, I havnt really seen him block a whole lot.  I dont really remember seeing him just miss blocks but backs with his build are usually the better blocking backs in the league. 

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after this performance i dont think he will be there when we pick in the 2nd

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