First thing, and it's really one of my favorite things, is the protection part. Who everybody is blocking and where the pressure is coming from. Because if we can't get the ball off, it doesn't matter what you're doing out here.
I haven't seen a new football play since I was in high school. You have just so many holes in a line and you have eleven men playing, and there's only so many ways you can go through those holes, and those ways have been used for forty, fifty years.
Even as a coach, sometimes you forget the little intricacies of the offense, the details of the routes, the timing of the footwork, and the timing of the offensive tackles with the different sets that they have.
A defensive coordinator is always going to try to throw you something different and get you out of your element, and I have to do better with the pass protection.
Plays are designed to attack certain coverages and schemes.
All the backs in the history of this game are the same when there isn't any hole to run through.
Football is and always will be a game of blocking and hitting
There are a lot of running backs who see the first level, the D-linemen, and they can't really see the second level.
Usually, you have one blocking, one catching tight end.
I'm just going out there and doing my job, so whatever it is - if it's a hard slide protection, if it's a double team, or even a triple team or a chip - whatever it is, I'm just finding ways to win, so that's about it.
I know how important it is to have your quarterback standing upright. Matter of fact, I know how important it is not to allow someone hit on him period because I want him to think that this pocket is completely safe, no one is going to get to me and I got all the time in the world to make whatever decisions I need to make.
The more you know about your opponents, the more you learn how to beat them. Where the holes open to run through, blocking schemes, even down to player tendencies and what hand they like to carry the ball with.
David Bakhtiari is a guy I like to watch. He's an exceptional left tackle.
I want to learn more about the game as a whole and about the finer points of technique across the line of scrimmage. I want to learn more about coverages and blitzes so I can kind of see the game before it happens.
A lot of different things go into calling the run game - especially at the line of scrimmage.
When you can recognize hot throws and blitzes, that's when they can slow down their blitz and they don't want to blitz you as much because you're getting the ball out.
The NFL offensive blocking is played differently; they use their hands instead of their head and shoulders.
I think anytime you can take as much off the quarterback as possible, that only helps them out in the long run.
I'm used to the two tight-end sets.
