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American football positions. A diagram showing an I formation on offense and a 4-3 formation on defense. In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players [1] on the field at one time and have "unlimited free ...
3-deep quarter formation (3–1–7), the most common. The 0–4–7 quarter. Defense consisting of seven (quarter) or eight (half dollar) defensive backs. The seventh defensive back is often an extra safety, and this defense is used in extreme passing situations (such as to defend against a Hail Mary pass).
Free safety and strong safety positions in the 3–4 defense. Safety (S), historically known as a safetyman, is a position in gridiron football on the defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position: the free safety (FS) and the strong safety (SS).
The three basic defensive positions are: Defensive lineman (DL): Linemen play at the line of scrimmage, directly across from the offensive line. They are categorized as defensive tackles (DT) or defensive ends (DE). The 4-3 defense has 2 tackles and 2 ends; the 3-4 defense has 2 ends and 1 tackle, who is sometimes called a nose tackle (NT) to ...
Defensive back. A diagram of a standard 4–3 defense set. The defensive backs include two cornerbacks (labeled CB on the diagram), a free safety (labeled FS) and a strong safety (labeled SS). In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the ...
The 3–4 defense was originally devised by Bud Wilkinson at the University of Oklahoma in the 1940s as the 5–2 Oklahoma defense. The first NFL team to regularly employ the 3–4 was the 1974 New England Patriots under Chuck Fairbanks, who employed the 5–2 for all but one of his six seasons (1967–72) as head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners ...
Early in the history of the National Football League, teams stacked the defensive line of scrimmage with seven linemen, typically using a 7-diamond or the 7-box. [1] With the liberalization of the forward passing rules in 1933, the defenses began to evolve along with the offensive changes, and by the later 1930s, the standard defense in the NFL and college was the 6–2.
A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that typically lines up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards; however, he may also line up opposite one of the offensive tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the largest and strongest of the defensive players. Depending on a team's defensive scheme, a ...