Effective Practice Drills for Receivers

I have a saying that says, Players make plays. Coaches can be the greatest coaches in the world, but unless they have good players, they’re not going to be very good.

In today’s blog post, I am talking about some great practice drills that you can implement into your team’s training program, so they can progress in their skills, and you can become that great coach!

Pressed Defensive Back Drill

In this drill we’re going to try to emphasize our release and then working against a pressed defensive back. And there’s some elements that we want to encourage. We want to go back to the concept of attacking half the defender, using good body lean, and then as we defeat the defender we want to retrace to where we saw him last.

If he’s in position, we’ll try to touch his opposite shoulder from where we’re running to give him a false read. And then the last of the components is to stick the route and run it. We’re in a pressed defensive situation, so the hands are up, we’re in a good body position, good body lean, and we’re going to attack the defender.

Outside Cut Drill

Now let’s look at an outside cut. We’re going to attack the outside half of the defender and then use basically the same techniques of retracing to where we saw him last if we have the opportunity to touch his shoulder, and then sticking the route.

So let’s review those points.

• Good stance. You want your body over your knees in good lean position.
• Use your hands. Use the rip or swim move.
• Retrace to where you saw the defensive back last. And then you want to touch on opposite shoulder if the opportunity presents itself.
• Finally, stick the route, whether it be an out cut or an in cut. This is what is critical in separating from a defensive back.

Base Coverage Drill

This drill is set up to give an impression of base coverages. Set up a two-high coverage using the barrels as the safeties. The cones are used as the underneath coverage; the corners and the linebackers.

This is a good two-fold drill. One, for your receivers, so they can see the seams in the difference defenses, and then for your quarterbacks to work their progression. If you have a full complement of receivers and a full complement of quarterbacks, you can line all of them up and go through their one, two, three reads assigning each quarterback their read.

In this particular drill we have two receivers and two quarterbacks, so one quarterback will drop and hit the initial read which is going to be the seam route between the two deep safeties. The other quarterback will take his drop, look to that route, he’ll pretend it’s covered, and then work his way to his option route which will be the slot receiver hooking up between the two linebackers.

So this drill is really two-fold. One, it allows receivers to see seams in defenses, and then also to help your quarterbacks with progression reads and to learn to catch and throw the ball in game-like or defensive-like situations.

Three-deep concept

In this drill, we’ve changed the defensive alignment to a three-deep concept. We have the three barrels no win the two corner positions and the middle safety. And now we’re going to work the hook-flat combination. Again, this is all about spacing and seeing seams in the defenses’ alignments.

So the outside receiver will be running the hook route. The inside receiver will be running the flat combination. Again, the quarterbacks will go through their read. And basically these are stationary reads, but in a live situation they would be reading off the underneath coverage.

But we’re using two quarterbacks, two receivers, so one quarterback will go one two progression, and the other quarterback will throw to the first progression. In this case, the first progression is the hook route. So again, we’re emphasizing seeing spacing in defensive alignments, and then going through our quarterback progression. This is a hook-flat combination.

And in this drill you emphasize all the same things you do in basic drills. You want to have that body lean, hands and release working in space, coming back to the ball, sticking your routes, reaching out to catch the football. Hook-flat combination.

This is a great opportunity for quarterbacks to see spacing, for receivers to see the seams, and to work on all the fundamentals.

What do you think of these football practice drills?   Like them?   Love them?   Can’t wait to try them?   Share your comments below!   And for more great Football Drills and Practice Plans, be sure to check out my video training series, complete with podcast clips!   And don’t forget to Become a Fan on Facebook, where I will share more great football practice drills, tips and techniques!