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[SIZE=+2]Slots are money in the NFL
[/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]They seldom deliver big gains; position is reserved for the smart, the brave
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]10:36 AM CDT on Friday, October 12, 2007
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]By RICK GOSSELIN / The Dallas Morning News
rgosselin@***BANNED-URL***[/SIZE] Ozzie Newsome calls it the "blood area."
That's where Newsome plied his craft as a Hall of Fame tight end. He worked the middle of the field, grinding with the linebackers and safeties in the heavy-traffic areas.
The wide receivers work the flanks. Generally they face smaller cornerbacks and enjoy open spaces. The wide receiver position features some of the game's most graceful striders in Marvin Harrison, Chad Johnson, Randy Moss and Terrell Owens.
NFL
Download: Routes for the slot receiver (.pdf)
But there are no graceful strides allowed in the blood area – just short, choppy steps as receivers fight their way to swatches of daylight. Big plays are made on the outside, but blood is spilled on the inside.
NFL passing games have evolved over the years and a new receiver has found his way into the blood area: the slot receiver.
There has been an explosion of three-wide receiver sets this decade. Once a set reserved for passing downs, some teams now open games with three wideouts. Many go to that formation on second down. The fullback is out, a third receiver in.
"That guy in the slot has to be able to get open," Giants quarterback Eli Manning said. "Defenses are playing a lot of zone coverage with safeties high. So you've got have that [slot] guy on the nickel backer run hooks, in-routes, crossing routes. It's become an important position."
So important that two teams, the Indianapolis Colts and San Diego Chargers, spent first-round draft picks last April specifically on slot receivers – players who spent their college careers as inside receivers. The Chargers took LSU's Craig Davis with the 30th overall pick and the Colts grabbed Ohio State's Anthony Gonzalez at 32. The New England Patriots traded two draft picks for a slot receiver last off-season, sending second- and seventh-rounders to the Miami Dolphins for Wes Welker.
On Sept. 23, the Seattle Seahawks paraded out their starting offense in pregame introductions against the Cincinnati Bengals – plus one. The Seahawks sent out a 12th player, Bobby Engram, as their starting slot receiver.
"We think of the slot receiver as our 12th starter here," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said. "He should catch as many balls as your second guy."
Welker caught more balls than the first guy at Miami last season. He led the Dolphins in receiving from the slot with 67 catches – but averaged only 10.3 yards per catch and scored just one touchdown. He's the guy who produced the little plays for the Dolphins – the first downs.
Now Welker is producing those first downs for the Patriots, who visit the Cowboys on Sunday.
In 2004, when Peyton Manning set the NFL record with 49 touchdown passes in a season, Indianapolis slot Brandon Stokley finished third on the Colts in receiving behind Pro Bowlers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne. But Stokley still caught 68 passes for 1,077 yards and 10 touchdowns.
By nature, slot receivers are specialists.
http://www.***BANNED-URL***/sharedcontent/dws/img/10-07/1012wwelker.jpg AP
Now in New England, Wes Welker led the Dolphins in receptions last season while working out of the slot.
"He's almost like a closer in baseball," Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy said. "He has to be able to go in at a moment's notice without having to get warm.
"That's why Stokley was so good. He could go two weeks where he only played five snaps a game and then the third week catch 12 passes."
Here's the defensive dilemma created by Stokley – and all slot receivers, for that matter. When he was in the game for the Colts, especially on the early downs, did defenses attempt covering him with a linebacker? A safety? Or a combination of the two? But double coverage on Stokley meant single coverage on the more dangerous receivers on the flank, Harrison and Wayne.
Linebackers and safeties couldn't run with Stokley. The other option would have been dispatching the nickel cornerback to cover him. But that took a linebacker out of the scheme – and made a defense vulnerable to the run. That allowed two-time NFL rushing champion Edgerrin James to exploit six-man fronts.
The slot doesn't have to be your best receiver. But he does have to be your smartest receiver.
And your best route runner.
And your toughest receiver.
And your most courageous receiver.
Let's start with what's under the helmet.
Intelligence
The way to defeat multi-receiver sets is with the pass rush. Make the quarterback throw the ball before he wants to or, even better, tackle him before he can pass.
So the name of the game on defense is pressure. There are five blockers along the line of scrimmage. Defenses try to send more rushers than the offensive linemen can block. You do that by blitzing.
That's why the slot becomes the thinking man's receiver. He has to read any blitz before the snap and adjust his route accordingly. He becomes the "hot" receiver – the immediate primary receiver on all blitzes.
"So the slot is really your quarterback of the wideouts," said Hines Ward, a Pro Bowl wideout who moves inside to the slot for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
That's just the first page of his job description – figuring out what to do on his presnap read. It gets more complicated for the slot receiver after that. It all hinges on the coverage.
"He's got a lot of reads and a lot of adjustments," Dungy said. "Defenses "are limited in what they can do on outside. But inside there'll be combinations of linebackers, safeties, nickel backs. You get played a lot of different ways."
So a quick thinker is a must in the slot.
Precision routes
Every February, the NFL summons the top 30 wide receiver prospects to Indianapolis for the scouting combine. Talent evaluators there search for players with 4.3-second 40-yard speed who can stretch defenses.
But speed isn't the chief prerequisite for slot receivers.
"Speed does you no good in there," Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick said. "There are just too many bodies."
It's all about quickness and separation on the inside.
"You have less space to work in," Craig Davis said. "So you have to be able to get in and out of your cuts quickly."
Moss or Owens can free-lance a bit on the flank. His routes don't have to be as tight. Where he is and what he does is easy for a quarterback to see. But precision is the key in the slot – and that's a problem because there's so much more clutter. A slot receiver is like a pinball.
"You've got to be able to dodge people when you're running and still get into your route and get there in time," said Rashied Davis, the slot receiver for the Chicago Bears. "You can't say, 'Coach, I got hit.' You have to avoid that guy."
When a slot receiver gets knocked off his route, bad things happen. So he can't always run the route the way it's drawn up in the playbook. That's where his football instincts come into play.
"If you don't have a natural feel, you keep running into people and that screws up the quarterback," Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "There's an amount of trust a quarterback has to have to throw in that traffic area."
The slot receiver not only needs to be cognizant of where the defenders are. He needs to be cognizant of where his fellow receivers are.
"Your routes also have to be a little more distinct than those on the outside because you may be running your routes against air," said Antwaan Randle El, the slot receiver for the Washington Commanders. "But you have to still catch the ball between two linebackers."
Toughness
Terrell Owens is 6-3, 218 pounds, Randy Moss 6-4, 210, and rookie Calvin Johnson 6-5, 240. The game's best cornerback is Champ Bailey at 6-0, 192. The incumbent NFC Pro Bowl corners are Ronde Barber (5-10, 184), DeAngelo Hall (5-10, 201) and Lito Sheppard (5-10, 194).
So the two wideouts on the flank generally have a size advantage in their matchups every Sunday. Not so the slot receiver.
"You've got a safety, linebackers, even defensive linemen dropping into your zone," Rashied Davis said. "There's a little bit of everything out there – and every one of those guys is bigger than you."
The slot receiver is steered, pushed and pummeled on his pass patterns. But because he's lining up on the inside, he's asked to do more than run routes. The absence of the fullback requires the slot receiver to be a contributor on run downs, as well.
That's challenging physically but cannot be mentally.
"You can't be the nail," Craig Davis said. "You have to be the hammer. You have to deliver the blow."
Ward estimates he lines up in the slot 25 or 30 percent of the time for the Steelers. He may throw a dozen blocks from the slot on a given Sunday. Blocking is blood and sweat, not speed and finesse.
"I've always said receivers are the toughest guys on your team," Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said. "You say that about receivers in general, then you get a little more specific about that slot guy. Absolutely he's got to be a tough guy."
Courage
It takes talent to make plays down the field. But it takes heart to make plays across the middle.
"It's not a position for the faint of heart," Gonzalez said. "At 6-0, 190 pounds, the person hitting me on the inside 99 percent of the time will be bigger than me."
Billick says the best slot receiver he's ever seen was Cris Carter of the Minnesota Vikings. Commanders coach Joe Gibbs says Art Monk was the prototype. But they were starters who moved inside. True slots who excelled in the past include Brian Brennan of the Cleveland Browns and Wayne Chrebet of the New York Jets.
The NFL consensus is that Ward is the best slot receiver in the game today. Amani Toomer, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Derrick Mason, Keenan McCardell and Stokley also were mentioned.
"The slot receiver is almost like a quarterback," said Ward, himself a former college QB at Georgia. "Because as he reads coverages, he has to be on the same page with the quarterback. He's the guy that converts third downs. When you need a play, you depend on your slots to win."
CLUTCH OFF THE BENCH
NFL writer Rick Gosselin ranks the top five seasons by NFL slot receivers. The one qualification: None of the receivers were starters.
1. BRANDON STOKLEY, Indianapolis Colts
Year Rec. Yards Avg. TD
2004 68 1,077 15.8 10
Though two Pro Bowl pass catchers started ahead of him on the flank (Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne), Stokley still finished 10th in the NFL in receiving touchdowns and 20th in yards.
2. BRIAN BRENNAN, Cleveland Browns
Year Rec. Yards Avg. TD
1986 55 838 15.2 6
Webster Slaughter and Reggie Langhorne started, but Brennan led the Browns in receiving in a season that ended in an overtime loss to the Denver Broncos in the AFC title game.
3. WES WELKER, Miami Dolphins
Year Rec. Yards Avg. TD
2006 67 687 10.3 1
Chris Chambers and Marty Booker started, but Welker led Miami in receiving. Bill Belichick was so enamored with the crafty, undrafted Welker that he traded two draft picks to get him last off-season.
4. WAYNE CHREBET, New York Jets
Year Rec. Yards Avg. TD
1997 58 799 13.8 3 Keyshawn Johnson and Jeff Graham started, but Chrebet was second on the team in receiving and turned in a team season-best 70-yard touchdown reception.
5. KELVIN MARTIN, Dallas Cowboys
Year Rec. Yards Avg. TD
1992 32 359 11.2 3 Norv Turner loved what Martin brought. "He had no speed but could find the hole, sit down and he was dependable," said Turner, then Dallas' offensive coordinator.
[/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]They seldom deliver big gains; position is reserved for the smart, the brave
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]10:36 AM CDT on Friday, October 12, 2007
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]By RICK GOSSELIN / The Dallas Morning News
rgosselin@***BANNED-URL***[/SIZE] Ozzie Newsome calls it the "blood area."
That's where Newsome plied his craft as a Hall of Fame tight end. He worked the middle of the field, grinding with the linebackers and safeties in the heavy-traffic areas.
The wide receivers work the flanks. Generally they face smaller cornerbacks and enjoy open spaces. The wide receiver position features some of the game's most graceful striders in Marvin Harrison, Chad Johnson, Randy Moss and Terrell Owens.
NFL
Download: Routes for the slot receiver (.pdf)
But there are no graceful strides allowed in the blood area – just short, choppy steps as receivers fight their way to swatches of daylight. Big plays are made on the outside, but blood is spilled on the inside.
NFL passing games have evolved over the years and a new receiver has found his way into the blood area: the slot receiver.
There has been an explosion of three-wide receiver sets this decade. Once a set reserved for passing downs, some teams now open games with three wideouts. Many go to that formation on second down. The fullback is out, a third receiver in.
"That guy in the slot has to be able to get open," Giants quarterback Eli Manning said. "Defenses are playing a lot of zone coverage with safeties high. So you've got have that [slot] guy on the nickel backer run hooks, in-routes, crossing routes. It's become an important position."
So important that two teams, the Indianapolis Colts and San Diego Chargers, spent first-round draft picks last April specifically on slot receivers – players who spent their college careers as inside receivers. The Chargers took LSU's Craig Davis with the 30th overall pick and the Colts grabbed Ohio State's Anthony Gonzalez at 32. The New England Patriots traded two draft picks for a slot receiver last off-season, sending second- and seventh-rounders to the Miami Dolphins for Wes Welker.
On Sept. 23, the Seattle Seahawks paraded out their starting offense in pregame introductions against the Cincinnati Bengals – plus one. The Seahawks sent out a 12th player, Bobby Engram, as their starting slot receiver.
"We think of the slot receiver as our 12th starter here," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said. "He should catch as many balls as your second guy."
Welker caught more balls than the first guy at Miami last season. He led the Dolphins in receiving from the slot with 67 catches – but averaged only 10.3 yards per catch and scored just one touchdown. He's the guy who produced the little plays for the Dolphins – the first downs.
Now Welker is producing those first downs for the Patriots, who visit the Cowboys on Sunday.
In 2004, when Peyton Manning set the NFL record with 49 touchdown passes in a season, Indianapolis slot Brandon Stokley finished third on the Colts in receiving behind Pro Bowlers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne. But Stokley still caught 68 passes for 1,077 yards and 10 touchdowns.
By nature, slot receivers are specialists.
http://www.***BANNED-URL***/sharedcontent/dws/img/10-07/1012wwelker.jpg AP
Now in New England, Wes Welker led the Dolphins in receptions last season while working out of the slot.
"He's almost like a closer in baseball," Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy said. "He has to be able to go in at a moment's notice without having to get warm.
"That's why Stokley was so good. He could go two weeks where he only played five snaps a game and then the third week catch 12 passes."
Here's the defensive dilemma created by Stokley – and all slot receivers, for that matter. When he was in the game for the Colts, especially on the early downs, did defenses attempt covering him with a linebacker? A safety? Or a combination of the two? But double coverage on Stokley meant single coverage on the more dangerous receivers on the flank, Harrison and Wayne.
Linebackers and safeties couldn't run with Stokley. The other option would have been dispatching the nickel cornerback to cover him. But that took a linebacker out of the scheme – and made a defense vulnerable to the run. That allowed two-time NFL rushing champion Edgerrin James to exploit six-man fronts.
The slot doesn't have to be your best receiver. But he does have to be your smartest receiver.
And your best route runner.
And your toughest receiver.
And your most courageous receiver.
Let's start with what's under the helmet.
Intelligence
The way to defeat multi-receiver sets is with the pass rush. Make the quarterback throw the ball before he wants to or, even better, tackle him before he can pass.
So the name of the game on defense is pressure. There are five blockers along the line of scrimmage. Defenses try to send more rushers than the offensive linemen can block. You do that by blitzing.
That's why the slot becomes the thinking man's receiver. He has to read any blitz before the snap and adjust his route accordingly. He becomes the "hot" receiver – the immediate primary receiver on all blitzes.
"So the slot is really your quarterback of the wideouts," said Hines Ward, a Pro Bowl wideout who moves inside to the slot for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
That's just the first page of his job description – figuring out what to do on his presnap read. It gets more complicated for the slot receiver after that. It all hinges on the coverage.
"He's got a lot of reads and a lot of adjustments," Dungy said. "Defenses "are limited in what they can do on outside. But inside there'll be combinations of linebackers, safeties, nickel backs. You get played a lot of different ways."
So a quick thinker is a must in the slot.
Precision routes
Every February, the NFL summons the top 30 wide receiver prospects to Indianapolis for the scouting combine. Talent evaluators there search for players with 4.3-second 40-yard speed who can stretch defenses.
But speed isn't the chief prerequisite for slot receivers.
"Speed does you no good in there," Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick said. "There are just too many bodies."
It's all about quickness and separation on the inside.
"You have less space to work in," Craig Davis said. "So you have to be able to get in and out of your cuts quickly."
Moss or Owens can free-lance a bit on the flank. His routes don't have to be as tight. Where he is and what he does is easy for a quarterback to see. But precision is the key in the slot – and that's a problem because there's so much more clutter. A slot receiver is like a pinball.
"You've got to be able to dodge people when you're running and still get into your route and get there in time," said Rashied Davis, the slot receiver for the Chicago Bears. "You can't say, 'Coach, I got hit.' You have to avoid that guy."
When a slot receiver gets knocked off his route, bad things happen. So he can't always run the route the way it's drawn up in the playbook. That's where his football instincts come into play.
"If you don't have a natural feel, you keep running into people and that screws up the quarterback," Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "There's an amount of trust a quarterback has to have to throw in that traffic area."
The slot receiver not only needs to be cognizant of where the defenders are. He needs to be cognizant of where his fellow receivers are.
"Your routes also have to be a little more distinct than those on the outside because you may be running your routes against air," said Antwaan Randle El, the slot receiver for the Washington Commanders. "But you have to still catch the ball between two linebackers."
Toughness
Terrell Owens is 6-3, 218 pounds, Randy Moss 6-4, 210, and rookie Calvin Johnson 6-5, 240. The game's best cornerback is Champ Bailey at 6-0, 192. The incumbent NFC Pro Bowl corners are Ronde Barber (5-10, 184), DeAngelo Hall (5-10, 201) and Lito Sheppard (5-10, 194).
So the two wideouts on the flank generally have a size advantage in their matchups every Sunday. Not so the slot receiver.
"You've got a safety, linebackers, even defensive linemen dropping into your zone," Rashied Davis said. "There's a little bit of everything out there – and every one of those guys is bigger than you."
The slot receiver is steered, pushed and pummeled on his pass patterns. But because he's lining up on the inside, he's asked to do more than run routes. The absence of the fullback requires the slot receiver to be a contributor on run downs, as well.
That's challenging physically but cannot be mentally.
"You can't be the nail," Craig Davis said. "You have to be the hammer. You have to deliver the blow."
Ward estimates he lines up in the slot 25 or 30 percent of the time for the Steelers. He may throw a dozen blocks from the slot on a given Sunday. Blocking is blood and sweat, not speed and finesse.
"I've always said receivers are the toughest guys on your team," Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said. "You say that about receivers in general, then you get a little more specific about that slot guy. Absolutely he's got to be a tough guy."
Courage
It takes talent to make plays down the field. But it takes heart to make plays across the middle.
"It's not a position for the faint of heart," Gonzalez said. "At 6-0, 190 pounds, the person hitting me on the inside 99 percent of the time will be bigger than me."
Billick says the best slot receiver he's ever seen was Cris Carter of the Minnesota Vikings. Commanders coach Joe Gibbs says Art Monk was the prototype. But they were starters who moved inside. True slots who excelled in the past include Brian Brennan of the Cleveland Browns and Wayne Chrebet of the New York Jets.
The NFL consensus is that Ward is the best slot receiver in the game today. Amani Toomer, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Derrick Mason, Keenan McCardell and Stokley also were mentioned.
"The slot receiver is almost like a quarterback," said Ward, himself a former college QB at Georgia. "Because as he reads coverages, he has to be on the same page with the quarterback. He's the guy that converts third downs. When you need a play, you depend on your slots to win."
CLUTCH OFF THE BENCH
NFL writer Rick Gosselin ranks the top five seasons by NFL slot receivers. The one qualification: None of the receivers were starters.
1. BRANDON STOKLEY, Indianapolis Colts
Year Rec. Yards Avg. TD
2004 68 1,077 15.8 10
Though two Pro Bowl pass catchers started ahead of him on the flank (Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne), Stokley still finished 10th in the NFL in receiving touchdowns and 20th in yards.
2. BRIAN BRENNAN, Cleveland Browns
Year Rec. Yards Avg. TD
1986 55 838 15.2 6
Webster Slaughter and Reggie Langhorne started, but Brennan led the Browns in receiving in a season that ended in an overtime loss to the Denver Broncos in the AFC title game.
3. WES WELKER, Miami Dolphins
Year Rec. Yards Avg. TD
2006 67 687 10.3 1
Chris Chambers and Marty Booker started, but Welker led Miami in receiving. Bill Belichick was so enamored with the crafty, undrafted Welker that he traded two draft picks to get him last off-season.
4. WAYNE CHREBET, New York Jets
Year Rec. Yards Avg. TD
1997 58 799 13.8 3 Keyshawn Johnson and Jeff Graham started, but Chrebet was second on the team in receiving and turned in a team season-best 70-yard touchdown reception.
5. KELVIN MARTIN, Dallas Cowboys
Year Rec. Yards Avg. TD
1992 32 359 11.2 3 Norv Turner loved what Martin brought. "He had no speed but could find the hole, sit down and he was dependable," said Turner, then Dallas' offensive coordinator.