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Football
Defensive Positions
The
Defense are the 11 players on the field that are trying to stop
the opposition moving the ball up the field to score in the
end-zone. The various positions have many different
responsibilities and require different attributes in the
players.
A
typical 4-3 defensive formation may look like the following
diagram.
*** Move your mouse over a helmet *****
FS - Free Safety
SS - Strong Safety
LB - Linebacker
LB - Linebacker
LB - Linebacker
DE
DT
DT
DE
CB
Defensive Defensive
Defensive Defensive
CB
Cornerback
End
Tackle
Tackle
End Cornerback
^^^^ Line of Scrimmage
^^^^
Offense
Cornerback
(CB)
Primarily responsible for covering the offense's
wide receivers. Therefore they have to be quick and it is useful
if they can catch (or at least jump) like a wide receiver as
intercepting or deflecting the ball is desirable. There are
usually two cornerbacks in the defense.
Safeties -
Strong Safety (SS) & Free Safety (SS)
Safeties are the last "line of defense" as they are often
positioned further back in the defensive formation (10 yards away from
the line-of-scrimmage is not uncommon). Being so far back away
from the play, they must be fast to get to where the action is,
or cover a wide receiver coming into their area (or "zone"). The
strong safety lines up on the same side as the offense's
Tight-End, the Free Safety is on the opposite side. It's useful
if Safeties are big as well as quick as they sometimes have to
tackle big running backs that have broken through the linemen
and linebackers. There is usually 1 strong safety and 1 free
safety in the defense.
Linebacker
(LB)
The linebackers have one of the toughest job in the defense as
they have a wide range of responsibilities.They line up behind the defensive line
(hence the name linebacker). They are versatile as they must be
fast enough to chase running backs and intelligent enough to
defend passes to wide receivers or tight-ends. The linebackers
must be courageous enough to plug holes in the defensive line,
to stop running backs. In a typical 4-3 defense, there are 4
linemen and 3 linebackers, in a 3-4 defense, there are 3 linemen
and 4 linebackers.
Defensive End
(DE)
The Ends are primarily there to put pressure on the Quarterback.
This forces him to throw before he's ready and hopefully miss
his receiver. Ends are usually tall, strong and fast as they
have to get by the offensive tackles, who are usually big guys,
to get to the QB. The Ends often have 'contain responsibility'
which means that nobody should run around the end of the
defensive line with the ball.
Defensive
Tackle (DT)
The tackles are usually big guys as they often have to try and
stop running backs coming straight through the middle of the
defensive line. They are also trying to power their way through
the offensive line to get to the QB. In a typical 4-3 defense,
there are 2 defensive tackles.
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