NFL Offensive Line: Explaining the Jargon

I’ve been building this up for a couple weeks now, and the time has come. Let’s skip the fluff and grind on, because that’s how the offensive line does their work! That’s right, today we go into the offensive line.

Explaining this jargon is not an easy task by any means. The majority of football viewers really don’t understand the workings of the O-line. The only way this is going to work for either of us, is going to take me going over the absolute basics and moving along from there.

Yes, there will be some of you saying “well I already know this, why am I going to keep reading?”
Here is your answer, are you an NFL coach? Then you don’t know everything, and neither do I. I’ll never claim to know absolutely everything, but this is a topic I know better than the average person.

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I’m actually a high school offensive line coach, and I’ll even include notes I’ve taken at coaching clinics, most recently from the university of Miami. So take it for what it’s worth and hopefully you’ll learn a little something!
Ready?
Good, let’s get started.

Splits

Some of you may have heard the term “splits” before. No, not a gymnastics or alcohol reference. It’s referring to the distance between each lineman. Some teams use 18 inches and others will go up to 3 foot splits in between. That means between the center and guard is 3 feet and the guard to tackle also 3 feet.
Hopefully we are all on the same page still, since we have a long way to go.
Teams will typically keep the same splits all the way down the field, and once in a goal line situation will cut them down. How short they go will vary, but around a foot is a good average spot to go with today.

Alignment

Now how do the lineman align? This part is pretty simple. It’s all based on the center. When the center lines up to the ball, the guard will line up slightly behind him, with his toes lining up just in front of the heels of the center, so only slightly behind. The tackle will normally lineup about even with the guard, maybe slightly behind. That is a team by team variant.

Stance

Two point stance and proper splits by Alex Gall, Danny Isidora, KC McDermott, Sunny Odogwu, and Nick Linder of the Miami Hurricanes

There are two stances, either a two point (or up) stance or a three point (or down) stance. In an up stance the lineman are just on the feet, hands are both in the air. Knees are bent and weight is forward on the feet near the balls of the feet. Hands are in a comfortable position, either up or lightly resting on the thighs. This stance is typically used for pass blocking. An example of this is in the picture above.

A three point stance is having both feet and one hand on the ground. Head needs to be up to see in front, and most importantly, weight needs to be distributed carefully. All the weight CANNOT be forward on the hands, however a little bit of weight should be up there. By doing this it will keep the defender “honest”, or basically not giving the defender any clues to what the intentions are. An example of this is in the picture below.

Alex Gall getting into a three point stance

The Makeup

As you most likely already know, the offensive line is made up of a center (snaps the ball), two guards and two tackles. How do you decide who goes where? Here is a basic break down:

Left tackle- best pass blocker on the line, protects the quarterbacks blind side.
Left guard- the smallest lineman on the field, should be a feisty and tough run blocker
Center- should be the smartest of the bunch. They will have to call out schemes, slides, blitz pickups and any other calls to all the O-line
Right guard- the best run blocker. This guy should be a true mauler and wreck anyone in his path with a big mean streak
Right tackle- should be the lesser of the two pass blockers, but a better run blocker than the left tackle.

Okay, we’ve gotten through the makeup of the line, the splits, the alignment and the stance. Not so tough right?!
Easy part: done!
Now, how about some blocking terms?
I’m going to keep this basic, so before you blast me below, just know that. This is as basic as I can get it.
First, let’s start with pass blocking.

Pass Blocking

This is pretty basic, the offensive line protects the quarterback on passing plays. This is more than just standing in the way, this involves fast feet, strong punching and quick recognition. The lineman needs to stay low, keep their head up, and actually try to pull their head back out of the way, all while punching both hands out hard to keep the defender off the QB. Sounds like a lot I know.
So how do they know WHO to block? Sometimes it’s not as simple as “block who’s in front of you, duh!”
There are some protections that involve sliding left or right because of the running back picking up blockers. Normally it will involve picking up whoever is coming at the blocker.

Here is a clip I took of a pass blocking drill to work on punching and hand speed.

Run blocking

This is a little trickier. This is definitely more than “block whoever is in front of you”. I’m going to hopefully not lose everyone here. Hang tight, it will make sense…..I hope. I’m going to go through a couple examples of plays now.
We’ll call this first one an “inside zone read right”. The quarterback will hand off to the running back, and the running back will be aiming to run between the guard and tackle on the right side. The right tackle will be blocking the defensive end and will be taking him outside, as if he wanted to push the end all the way to the sideline. The right guard and center will be double teaming the defensive tackle, and one of them will then move up to get the linebacker. This moving up to the linebacker is known as “climbing”.

Center and Right Guard double team the defensive tackle, one of them will “Climb” to the linebacker. The Right Tackle will push the defensive end outside towards the sidelines

(For the sake of making this easy, we will say all the defenses are using a 4-3 defense, if you are unsure of what that means, go back and read the differences in defensive schemes HERE.) The center and guard will be responsible for recognizing a potential blitz, and relay the information to the other lineman.
We still okay here? Tackle takes out end, guard and center double team and climb. Simple enough right? Just a side note on these zone reads, the quarterback has the option to keep the ball and run or pass, but because we are learning about the offensive line that does not matter today. We are only focusing on the blocking of the line.
Okay, let’s move on then.
Now the “outside zone read right”. The center and guard have the same jobs, but now the tackle has a very tough job. The run is designed to go to the outside of the tackle, so he must turn the defensive end inside and create a wall. BUT, yes there is a but, the tackle must make a decision. If the defensive end is lined up very far outside and looks like he may take an outside route to get in the backfield, then it may be okay for the tackle to block the end just how he did on the inside zone, and try taking the defensive end to the sideline. This will come at the discretion of the tackle, the running back will have to hope he made the right decision.

Counter

Now I’ll go through one more basic run play, and one more basic concept to go with it.
The last one will be the counter. There is a very distinct move that comes on the offensive line when a counter play happens. This move is called a “pull”. This means that a lineman will have to step back and behind and across the rest of the lineman to block someone on the other side. Okay, I know you’re lost, it’s okay. Let’s pretend the call is counter right. The right tackle, right guard and center will all block as if the run was going to the LEFT. The left guard is going to step back, and run to the RIGHT, and block either a defensive end, or tackle, or whoever is right there. With all the defenders going to the left, and the last defender on the right being taken out by the pulling guard, it leaves a nice hole for the running back to run through.

Here is a series of counter runs, look for the lineman pulling from one side to the other. They should get out in front of the running back clearing space to run. The rest of the offense should all look like they are going in a different direction.

The Review

Phew! We’ve made it through the makeup of the line, the stance, the alignment, the splits, basic pass blocking, basic zone read run blocking, and a basic counter. If you don’t believe me as to how basic this is, I just spent an hour in a film session with Joe Philbin, the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, and that was extremely extensive. My mind is still blown from everything I learned from him! Fun fact, he started out as an offensive line coach.

This is as simple as I can think to get it, and I can only hope I didn’t lose you.
One final reminder to those about to blast me: this is to help those who may not fully understand how the offensive line works. We all tend to focus on the quarterbacks, running backs and receivers and forget that none of those guys can function without the O-line. They don’t get much glory, only headaches when they miss a block. So after reading this, show the lineman some love, would ya?! There are tons more schemes, assignments, plays and stunts that lineman need to do in practice everyday and in every game. It takes hard work and extreme discipline to keep training for the least glorious position on the team.

Be sure to keep an eye out through the offseason for the rest of the “Explaining the Jargon” series to come out, and in case you missed them, here are the first two of the series:

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Next: Next NFL Evolution: The Running Back

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Explaining the Jargon: The Dreaded NFL Offensive Line

By Matthew Holowiak | Jun 2, 2015