Over the years our defensive staff has successfully identified areas our defense needed to improve on. After identifying these weaknesses we have the ability to think of some innovative drills to help our players improve in the specified areas. This past season we identified that while getting into their zone pass drops, our linebackers and defensive backs were not reading the backfield action and the quarterback.
In order to improve in this area we came up with our ‘Color Drill.’ In this drill we have a coachstand directly behind the quarterback as he gets into his drop (whether it is a straight drop or a rollout). As he begins to set, the coach holds up a colored card. He holds it directly above the quarterback’s helmet until he releases the ball. At the conclusion of the play the coaches will ask a specific defensive player what color was held up. To keep the drill honest (and to keep the players from guessing) it is best to have a stack of many different colored cards, or even some cards with numbers instead of colors. This drill can be done during individual periods, 7 on 7 periods, or even team periods.
We have found that our players have gotten better at keeping their eyes in the backfield on their drops and reading the quarterback’s eyes on his throws. Also, we feel it helps them get a better idea of dropping to an area rather than finding a landmark on the field to drop to. We hope to use this drill more during our off-season days as we feel that it will be a huge benefit to our players once the season begins (See Diagrams 1 and 2 for ‘Color Drill’ with a Cover 2 and Cover 3 defense).
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