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.