Has Anyone Ever Dedicated One Player to ALWAYS Watching An Opposing Player?

[coblue]

In basketball, it is common to assign a guy to go wherever the opposing squads star goes. Always. No matter what.

Has anyone ever applied this to someone like Westbrook? If he runs the ball he is there. If he goes slot or leaves the back field, whatever, he is always there to jam / cover him.

Without him, I don't think Philly accomplishes much.

Yeah, it might have some dangers to overall coverage, but if you drastically control Westbrook, you beat Philly.

 

[Hostile]

Yes, it's called a spy and I won't be at all shocked if Bradie, Roy, or Zach aren't doing exactly that. My money is on Zach since he is better in coverage.

 

[adamknite]

Yes. Teams have LBers do it to mobile QB's at times. We used Bobby Carpenter like that against Vick I believe.

 

[Hostile]

Yes. Teams have LBers do it to mobile QB's at times. We used Bobby Carpenter like that against Vick I believe.

Yep, good example.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Randal Cunningham faced that every game in his career.

 

[coblue]

Sorry, I should have said for covering a RB and not a QB.

I know of spying on mobile QB's

So, could we really have Zach or Brady 100% dedicated to go wherever Westbrook goes every play he is on the field?

I mean more than half the time, that's where the ball will go anyway.

 

[YosemiteSam]

PUP was assigned to do that to Jerry Rice, but not every single play. Deion Sanders got that call several times too for opposing teams that had great receivers.

 

[adamknite]

Sorry, I should have said for covering a RB and not a QB.

I know of spying on mobile QB's

So, could we really have Zach or Brady 100% dedicated to go wherever Westbrook goes every play he is on the field?

I mean more than half the time, that's where the ball will go anyway.

Usually if a Linebacker isn't blitzing he's watching the RB out of the backfield anyway or doing his coverage assignment, so there is almost always a person who is keying in on the RB, I know when I played, on different formations and different play calls somebody always had the assignment of watching the backfield.

The reason for a QB spy is because you don't want to have great coverage just to have the QB pull the ball down and run it for a good chunk of yardage, you typically don't have that worry with a RB because he isn't the first person touching the ball, the QB would have to give it to him first before he could run with it, so you're normal coverage and your normal defense should cover that, since they are supposed to be watching where the ball goes anyway.

I'm sure it's probably been done, but I can't think of an example for you off the top of my head.

 

[CrazyCowboy]

we will scheme this out perfectly

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Last year we played a nickel D against Philly just for this. We did it when they only had two WRs -- the 3rd DB was for Westbrook.

And it worked very well.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

If I remember correctly Aaron Glenn always wound up with the biggest, tallest WR on the opposing teams, Burress, Roy Williams...that type. Usually with bad results.

 

[joseephuss]

If I remember correctly Aaron Glenn always wound up with the biggest, tallest WR on the opposing teams, Burress, Roy Williams...that type. Usually with bad results.

Glenn played mostly nickle back in Dallas and lined up mostly on the left side while Newman moved to the slot. The objective was not to put Glenn on the tallest guy, but whomever was on the left side in the nickel packages. Glenn had pretty good success against Burress while playing for Dallas.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

Yeah I was going to point out the Carpenter on Vick example.

 

[joseephuss]

Didn't Mel Renfro shadow Paul Warfield the entire game in SBVI?