Believers and leaders

I believe this motion concept has the potential to turn NFL and college football upside down. Line a player up 15 yards deep. Give him room to accelerate toward the formation. Then have him bend left or right so he’s moving parallel to the line of scrimmage when the ball is snapped. A running start, with two directions still available. I’ve always been drawn to gray areas in football. We have incredible offensive coaches finding new ways to use motion, but I think the depth from which a player starts his motion remains an enormous opportunity. Some of you may have seen Lafayette line up a player 15 yards deep for a pass play a couple weeks ago. They didn’t motion him, but it was a great reminder that there’s no rule preventing a player from lining up that deep. Now imagine using that space to build speed before the snap. Watch the 2010 Winnipeg Blue Bombers clip below. Two players begin deep behind the quarterback and bend their paths sideways before the snap. You cannot bring the two player version to the NFL or college football, but watch the path each player takes and imagine an offensive package built around one player doing it. A key aspect of this would be practicing the timing and execution, ensuring that the player is no longer moving toward the line of scrimmage when the ball is snapped. For this concept, he must have completed his bend and be traveling parallel at the snap. Over my time in the league, I asked a dozen different officials about this exact idea. They confirmed it could be done legally. We were seriously exploring it, and there were coaches I worked with who wanted to implement it in a game. As we looked into it, I dug into the NFL player tracking data going back to 2017. My summary found: • Just 3 total snaps with a WR moving above 19 mph at the snap
• Just 3 total snaps with a RB moving above 18 mph at the snap
• Just 5 total snaps with a TE moving above 17 mph at the snap Players in these position groups are capable of running significantly faster than those thresholds (in some cases, 3-plus mph faster). Giving them more room to accelerate could create opportunities to reach those speeds far more consistently and easily exceed them. The potential advantage is significant, especially when you combine it with uncertainty about which direction the player is going. Many defenses have rules and reactions for handling jet motion. But those rules become much harder to execute when the player is approaching from depth and can still bend either way. You don’t know whether he’s coming toward your side, but you know he’s going to be moving very fast. Commit early, and he can go the other direction. Wait for him to declare, and you may be trying to match him from a near standstill. That creates questions about leverage, pursuit angles, coverage exchanges and timing before the play even begins. You could give him the ball. Send him across the field. Use him on a clear-out route. Make him a decoy and attack the space the defense vacates. Build complementary plays off the same starting alignment. The defense can adjust, of course. But what does that adjustment give up elsewhere? Coming up with a defensive plan for this could be a literal nightmare. You have to account for the speed, both possible directions and everything the offense can build around that motion. An adjustment that takes away one option could open up another. That’s what makes this so interesting to me. A WR, RB, TE or FB starting from that depth could force defenses to rethink where they line up and when they commit. It reminds me of baseball’s defensive shifts. An unconventional alignment became a routine part of the game, and eventually MLB changed the rules to restrict it. I’d love to see an NFL or college staff fully explore the possibilities. Test the starting depth, the acceleration, the turn and the snap timing. Then build the complementary plays. And no, I don’t want the NFL to ban this one too.