Jeremy Bates Offense: PA WR Screen #1

…provided that we’re actually able to throw deep enough to scare corners off of our WR’s. If pop-gun Hass comes back, every CB from here to Miami is just going to sit on our WR’s (particularly the small, easily-chucked ones) and a WR screen like this becomes impossible.

For those of us who get more clarity from words than pictures, football play diagrams can be a real chore.

But this looks really good, and it got me immediately thinking of suggestions that may be helpful even for folks who are pretty visual. These are a handful of small changes worth considering. They’re mostly for future diagrams; adding consistency to them so that the message comes through immediately at a glance.

1. Move the play title outside the diagram entirely to avoid the problem of arrows and lines overlaying the title.

2. Consider dashed arrows (like the one with the RB in this diagram) to signify movement in the passing game (routes and movement in pass pro) and solid lines to signify runs and run blocking.

3. For pass plays, use different colored dashed arrows for the primary target (e.g., red) and secondary targets/blockers (e.g., blue). For running plays the lines should be solid and black.

4. The numbered sequence in the diagram is a godsend for a non-visual processor. Yet, it might be useful to substitute “Phase 1,” “Phase 2,” and “Phase 3” for just the numbers. By themselves, the numbers really only imply temporal sequence—1 happens, then 2, and so forth. But adding “phase” broadens it just a tad, which is all you need. Phase 1, 2, and 3 could indicate sequencing by order of importance rather than time, or sequencing by the QB’s read (which could be the opposite of when receivers leave the LOS), or any other way of sequencing. It’s a subtle change that I think allows for you to better direct the reader’s attention the way you want.

Perhaps the best thing here is that if you diagram a single pass play and a single running play, put them in a post with the full-length explanation on how to read the diagrams you should only have to do it once. You can simply link to them every time you put up a post with a play diagram.

No background. We all know, by way of the five "O"’s that make the offensive line, where the line of scrimmage is. You could very easily have a blank background, this one is distracting.