Areas Of Responsibility For Linebackers

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Sean Hobson, for Expert Village. When talking about linebacker play, one of the first things the linebacker has to be thinking about on every play is where does their responsibility lie. The first thing they have is gap responsibility. That doesn't mean that on every play they have to bust up into the gap. But, first, they have to be concerned about what's coming through that gap, and then help out on the play. Let me show you where the gap responsibilities of each of these linebackers (video demo). We're going to start in the middle. In the middle is our mike linebacker. He's got big responsibility because he has this whole middle area. Up in here, we call this the A gap. The A gap is on both sides of the center. It's where they will often times try to run the running backs through. The mike linebacker has to come up and break down this gap to see if they're going to run through. If he picks up that it's a passing play then he has to back peddle and cover this middle area as a cover man. On the outside, the strong side linebacker has the C gap. The C gap is on the outside of the tackle and the tight end. He has to make a decision to come up and make sure no one is coming through his gap and then react. The last gap on the other side is the will linebacker who also has C gap responsibilities and anything coming off the tackle. As a linebacker, the first thing is to know if anybody is coming through your gap and then react to what's going on in the play."