OL Pass Pro vs Wide-9 DE
Wide-9 DEs win with speed and angle. A coach's guide to the kick-step, the long-arm, and how the tackle's hands decide every rep.
The wide-9 DE alignment puts the edge defender outside the tight end's outside foot — sometimes 3-4 yards off the offensive tackle. The angle is brutal: the rusher has clear runway to the QB and the tackle has to cover ground while staying square.
The rep is won in the first three steps. The tackle's kick-step has to gain depth and width simultaneously. Lose ground (kick straight back) and the DE bends the corner; lose width (kick too inside) and the DE long-arms the tackle into the QB's lap.
The long-arm is the wide-9's bread-and-butter. The DE attacks the tackle's outside breastplate with a fully-extended arm, planting and bull-rushing while the tackle is still trying to gain depth. The fix is the tackle's strike: independent hands, inside hand to the chest plate first. Hand placement decides the rep before the rusher's third step.
The scheme answer is help. Chip from the back, slide protection, half-slide where the guard helps post-snap. But chips have a cost — the back is no longer in the route, and the QB has one fewer hot read. Most NFL OL coaches build pass pro vs wide-9 around the assumption that the tackle is on an island most of the time.
Vaults that go deep on ol pass pro vs wide-9 de
Vaults whose cuts are tagged with: wide-9, pass-pro, OL, BOB.
OL Pass Pro — D1 Reps
1,200+ pass pro reps from Power 5 OL, sortable by protection scheme and rusher.
Inside Zone Install
Build inside zone from the ground up — line technique, back's read, RPO tags.
Pressure Pickup & ID
How OL and QBs identify and protect against modern pressure looks.