How to Play Defensive Back

Video Transcript

"Hi my name's Otis St. Clair and I'm here today to talk to you about how to play Defensive Back. Now when we talk about Defensive Back, we're talking about three positions. Cornerback, Free Safety and Strong Safety. Each of them have a different characteristic, each of them play, each of them play different part of the field. So let's walk over to the board and go over each one individually. First let's talk about the Cornerback. Cornerback's responsibility is 1) to defend the pass, 2) to stop the run. So as the Cornerback, you need to read pass first, run second. So when the ball snap, you need to take a couple steps back to make sure that it's not a pass play, and then come up to defend the run. Two types of coverage you can play as a Cornerback, is a man coverage, where you have this man all alone by yourself, and you just follow him wherever he goes. Or you can play a zone coverage, where you get help with either the Free Safety or the Strong Safety, meaning that, if it's a cover three zone, you have a third to field back here and the Free Safety has a third of the field. Or if it's a two deep coverage, the Strong Safety is hid back here with the Free Safety and the Cornerback will play out here in the flats. Now going over the Strong Safety, the Strong Safety is almost like a fourth Linebacker. You may have three Linebackers sitting in here, he's almost like a Linebacker, maybe a little bit faster. What he does is he does run support up here. In pass coverage, if he plays man, he covers the Tight End, if it's a zone coverage, he'll stay out here in the flats, with another Linebacker that sits in the flats over here. Then you have two Middle Line, two Linebackers who cover the middle. And then finally with the Free Safety, on sometimes he's all alone, all out there by himself. He's covering either this deep part of the field, if it's a man coverage, if it's a zone coverage, again, he can have help with the corners on a three deep zone, or he can have help with the Strong Safety, with the two Safeties back there. Free Safety as a Defensive Back, normally spots the Quarterback, and reads the Quarterback wherever he goes. o if it's a pass play, he's going to break on the ball, depending on where the Quarterback's throwing the ball, and he can help with run support, because he can see the run develop quickly. So those are your three different positions for Defensive Back, Corner, Free Safety, Strong Safety. Again each of them have three different types of characteristics, three different types of responsibilities on the field, but the main thing is to help your defense win ball games. My name's Otis St. Clair, and that's how you play Defensive Back."