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The two most common formations are the 3–4 defense and the 4–3 defense, where the first number refers to the number of defensive linemen, and the second number refers to the number of linebackers (the number of defensive backs can be inferred, since there must be eleven players on the field). Thus, a 3–4 defense consists of three ...
In Canadian football, which has twelve players on the field compared to the eleven of American football, there is an additional position called defensive halfback, which plays like a hybrid between a linebacker and cornerback. Canadian formations include two cornerbacks, two halfbacks and one safety, for a total of five defensive backs.
The cornerback position requires speed, agility, strength, and the ability to make rapid sharp turns. A cornerback's skill set typically requires proficiency in anticipating the quarterback, backpedaling, executing single and zone coverage, disrupting pass routes, block shedding, and tackling. Cornerbacks are among the fastest players on the field.
When there are only three linebackers, the one inside is labeled middle linebacker (MLB), and the outside positions can instead be named as left and right. The defense's halfbacks have been renamed cornerbacks (CB), a fitting term given that they play at the edges or "corners". The term has no spurious indicator of the depth at which they are ...
Notice the strong safety in the box and the two outside linebackers shifted to the same side outside of the defensive end. This formation was invented by Buddy Ryan, defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears during the 1980s. Instead of having four linemen and six linebackers (as the name may suggest), it is actually a 4–4 set using 4–3 ...
The nickelback is the third cornerback or safety on the depth chart.Usually, the nickelback will take the place of a linebacker, so if the team had been in a 4–3 formation, the four defensive linemen would remain, alongside only two linebackers and now-five defensive backs, creating a 4-2-5 formation.
The quarterback reads the safety's decision and decides on the best matchup (i.e., which mismatch is better: tight end vs. safety or wide receiver vs. cornerback). This disadvantage is ameliorated somewhat in the Tampa 2 variation; however, in moving the middle linebacker into deep coverage, it opens up the "underneath" center zone in the 5-10 ...
The middle or inside linebacker (MLB or ILB), sometimes called the "Mike" or "Mac", [15] is often referred to as the "quarterback of the defense". [16] Often it is the middle linebacker who receives the defensive play calls from the sideline and relays that play to the rest of the team, and in the NFL he is usually the defensive player with the electronic sideline communicator.