Running Back Instincts: Part One

Nick Whalen

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Being a running back in today’s NFL has to be a frightening career. Almost every time a running back touches the football they’re going to get hit by at least one defender and many times multiple defenders collide into their body. Injuries are an obvious byproduct to the position by accident, but we only have to look at Bountygate to see they can sometimes happen intentionally. Concussions, fractures, ligament tears aren’t only injuries that affect them during their career, but also linger throughout the rest of their lives. If all of that wasn’t painful enough to deter someone from playing the position, now NFL teams don’t pay running backs very much money to play the position. The supply is greater than the demand leaving them very replaceable.

This off-season, Cleveland Browns running back Ben Tate said “I would’ve been something else, for sure. I’d have been a safety. I had the opportunity to play it in college, but I wanted to be the guy to get the ball. I had no idea the position would be devalued, but hopefully I can break that trend.” With all of that said, fans want running backs to gain every yard possible. They have fantasy football games that may come down to a yard or their favorite NFL team needs to score on this drive to pull out the big win. That’s why the philosophy of running backs is to lower their shoulder near the sidelines or get as many possible yards before they have to sneak out of bounds. To keep their legs churning through contact from multiple defenders while the safety is flying in from 15 yards away.

One glaring problem in the fantasy community is the obsession with running back metrics. Owners are in awe of a player’s 40 yard dash time or vertical jump or body mass index (BMI). The problem is this creates a great athlete for the underwear Olympics (aka the NFL Combine) but doesn’t necessarily translate into a great running back. Sometimes following metrics will lead those owners to Adrian Peterson or Chris Johnson, but other times they’ll be left with Lache Seastrunk, David Wilson, Lamar Miller, Jonathan Stewart, Christine Michael, or CJ Spiller. While some of that group could still emerge, they haven’t lived up to the incredible price tags they’ve had in order to acquire them. Somehow running backs exist that thrive despite the metrics not being in their favor. That group includes players such as Arian Foster, Alfred Morris, Montee Ball, Gio Bernard, Pierre Thomas, Matt Forte, and Zac Stacy. The difference between the two groups is possessing running back instincts.

Webster defines instincts as “a way of behaving, thinking, or feeling that is not learned…something you know without learning it…a natural ability.” The key words in the definition are natural and not learned. Running backs have instincts that either they possess or they don’t. Players can get coached up and slightly change a behavior, but instincts are internal. Gale Sayers said “I had great peripheral vision; I could see everyone on the field. So I knew where to run, where to cut, I had a feel for where people were.” If you’ve watched him, you can tell he had great instincts and took advantage of defenders for extra yardage.

Running backs with good instincts will take advantage of the defense in any way possible. In part one of this series, I’m going to show you good running back instincts from a wide array of players. We’ll see how players gain yardage that other running backs wouldn’t have been aware was even possible. I’m going to show running backs using leverage to their advantage, blockers downfield, sideline awareness, spatial awareness, and defensive pursuit angles. Most of the plays will be near the sideline, where players have the odds stacked against them to gain additional yardage.

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This is a play of Montee Ball catching a swing pass while at the University of Wisconsin. He’s right near the sideline and has a defender (gray circle) with a great angle (gray arrow) to stop him for a solid gain. Most players would continue their forward momentum (black arrow) and go out of bounds just before the defender can hit them. But not Ball, he senses a big play possibility and goes for it.

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One second later, Ball slows down his momentum and does a semi jump/pressure cut back to the middle of the field (black arrow). Both defenders (gray circles) have over pursued (gray arrows) and have taken themselves out of position to tackle him.

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The end result is Ball has a lot of green grass in front of him. Most running backs would’ve just taken what they could’ve and run out of bounds. Some may have even lowered their shoulder into the defender for extra yardage. But running backs with great instincts will seize a bigger opportunity to cut back inside. Watch the entire play here.

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Next, we’re going to look at Arian Foster in the open field. I apologize for the low quality, but we wanted to catch the frames at exact spots. He has just caught a dump off pass in the flat and turned up field. His momentum is taking him near the sidelines (black arrow) and the defender (blue circle) is coming down quickly at an angle (blue arrow) to tackle him. The easiest path for Foster is to continue to the sidelines and get as much yardage until the defender gets there.

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As Foster gets close to the defender (blue circle), he decides he wants to try for more yardage and cuts inside (black arrow). You can see the defenders momentum is taking him towards the sidelines as he pushes off with his left foot.

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The final product of Foster’s decision to cut inside is an arm tackle attempt by the defender. He easily breaks this tackle as all of his momentum is moving forward, while the defender’s feet are out of position. His instincts led him to believe he could take advantage of the defender in this instance, but that doesn’t stop him from trying again on the very same play.

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Ten yards later, he is now cutting back to the middle of the field again to get inside yet another defender, whom is off the screen at the moment. He’s right by the sideline, so going out of bounds is an even bigger possibility. But he senses an opportunity and if it worked before, why not try it again!

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From a different angle, you can see that Foster easily cuts inside of the defender (blue circle). The defender is facing the wrong direction and can only put an arm tackle attempt on Foster. Watch the entire play here. What could’ve been a mere 15 yard reception, Foster turned into a 78 yard touchdown because he took advantage of the defense due to recognition of momentum and angles.

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Here is a classic play from running back Reggie Bush in a USC versus Fresno State game. He took a handoff and bounced outside up the sideline for a big gain. The defenders (blue circles) have good angles on Bush to stop him from running up the sideline for a touchdown. However, Bush doesn’t want to just go out of bounds, he instead cuts back to the middle of the field.

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Bush simply stops near the sideline and lets the defender (blue circle) use his momentum (blue arrow) to take him out of the play. He continues to cut back inside (black arrow) and all the way across the field for a touchdown. By simply not accepting to go out of bounds and stopping, Bush is able to turn a good play into a great one. Instincts led him to believe he could take advantage of the defender and his great stopping ability.

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We’re going to pick this play up five yards downfield with Chris Johnson while he was with the Titans. Johnson (yellow circle) has cleared the second level of defenders and only has to beat the safety (blue circle) for a touchdown.

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He (yellow circle) decides to play peekaboo with the safety (blue circle) by keeping the offensive lineman between them.

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The idea worked beautifully as the lineman took care of the safety (blue circle) and Johnson is off for a memorable touchdown run. Players with good instincts use space to their advantage and anything within that space. The key is Johnson wasn’t in a hurry; instead he was patient and got to reap the award for his efforts, which is a touchdown.

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Melvin Gordon is a patient runner and we’re going to look at one play of his against Arizona State. He (yellow circle) has just taken a fly sweep up the field, but is angling (black arrow) towards the sideline. He reads his block (red circle) and sensed a defender (blue circle) towards the middle of the field.

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Only a few frames later, he’s still surveying the situation as the sideline is getting closer. The defender (red circle) is gaining leverage towards the sideline, forcing Gordon to either go out of bounds or back to the middle of the field. The other defender (blue circle) has over pursued up field.

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It’s clearly evident now that the defender (red circle) has good outside leverage and forces Gordon (yellow circle) to make a decision. Gordon plants his outside foot and changes his path (black arrow) towards the middle of the field. The other defender (blue circle) is now out of position to make a tackle and Gordon senses it.

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The outside defender (red circle) is taken out of the field of play, but did his job to force Gordon back inside. The inside defender (blue circle) can’t tackle Gordon and is trying to recover. Yet another defender (brown circle) is adjusting to Gordon’s new path (black arrow) and moving in for the tackle.

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Gordon is now surrounded by five defenders all within a few yards of him and only one blocker (green arrow). Raise your hand if you think Melvin Gordon can gain eight more yards on this run. Okay, put your hand down, kind of awkward when you’re the only person in the room. If you did raise your hand, you would be correct. Miraculously, Gordon doesn’t panic here and uses his blocker to his advantage. He waits for his blocker (green circle) to move forward and he follows right behind him. Gordon pumps his legs through contact and gains eight more yards. All together he added 11 yards all together on this run, when most backs would simply go out of bounds. Just a little patience and instincts go a long way to adding hidden yardage. You can watch the entire play here.

It’s nice to see many different running backs use their instincts near the sideline and hide behind blockers to gain extra yardage. It goes to show that a specific athletic skillset isn’t needed to perform to simple tasks, but rather a mental awareness.

Please tune in to rest of this running back instincts series and thanks for the read!

nick whalen
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