American football has 11 places on the field. These positions are usually labeled in position groups, as coaches may discuss a set of players rather than 1 player. This is exactly the same on offense and defense.
A DB in American Football is brief to get a defensive back. Including the cornerback and security positions. Positions are often grouped in American football, as it is a lot easier to control a chunk of players compared to individual positions.
If you are looking to find out more about the defensive back position, we offer free training guides, in addition to a comprehensive football guide. In this article, we are going to break down what does DB mean in football and their positions are important.
Table of Contents
What Does DB Mean In Football?
Defensive backs would be the smaller, quicker, and faster defensive players who often serve as a shield’s backstop — the last, best hope at stopping an offensive player who’s gotten loose. They are the players you will see lined up across from wide receivers or spread out, usually 10 or so yards behind the line of scrimmage — though some of them might play nearer to the line of scrimmage and even blitz (a berserker-like attempt to hit the quarterback before he could throw the ball) sometimes.
Defensive backs have a wide selection of assignments and physical abilities. They need to be powerful enough to tackle a running back who’s running at full rate and skilled and crafty enough to closely follow the path of a large receiver doing his very best to get open for a pass from his quarterback.
The defensive back retains a lot of his time running at full rate. They need to be fast enough to follow the movements of the wide receiver. It’s like following in couples dancing with an insanely athletic spouse who not only won’t let you know exactly what the moves are but is actively attempting to fool you.
Defenses utilize their own brand of trickery to attempt and recover the initiative the offensive side has. Defensive players engage in a dizzying variety of schemes to cover recipients.
Diagrams of those schemes are as complex as a molecular version but for our purposes, there are three philosophical coverage theories: man to man coverage, where every defensive player is assigned to cover a specific offensive player, no matter what occurs; zone coverage, where each defensive player has responsibility for a specific field of the area and covers any player that comes through;
The players represented by the red-shaded blocks are all defensive backs. CB = cornerback, FS = free security, and SS = powerful security. The opposing offense lines up below this diagram and they are trying to move the ball up.
There are a lot of other terms associated with policy schemes –“jamming” a recipient, by way of instance, essentially means catching him and preventing him out of leaving the line of scrimmage. The”bump and run” is a type of policy where defensive guards jam the receiver for a second simply to throw the drama’s off time, then turn and run with him. There are a lot more, however, the overall concepts outlined above should provide you a good base.
What positions are defensive backs?
Cornerbacks
The cornerback is typically the fastest of these defensive backs. The ideal NFL cornerback can run the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds, weighs between 180 and 190 lbs, and is at least 6 ft tall. Although speed and agility stay the necessary commodities, height is becoming an element in order to guard the ever-increasing elevation of the wide receivers.
Here is the cornerback’s role in two specific types of policy:
Cornerbacks in man-to-man policy: Most defensive schemes employ two cornerbacks (CB) in man-to-man coverage against the offense’s wide receivers (WR).
The cornerbacks align to the far left and right sides of this line of scrimmage, at least 10 to 12 yards from their nearest teammate (usually a linebacker or defensive end) and opposite the offense’s wide receivers. Space varies based on where the recipients align.
Cornerbacks in zone policy: If a group’s cornerbacks are slower and smaller than its competitor’s receivers, that team generally plays more zone policies, fearing that fast receivers will expose its own secondary’s athletic flaws. However, if you’ve got two talented cornerbacks, your team can play more man-to-man coverage.
Safeties
Most defenses use two safeties – strong safety and free safety. They must see and comprehend the crime’s formations and instruct their teammates to make whatever coverage alterations are necessary:
Strong safety: Of the 2 kinds of safeties, the powerful safety is generally bigger, stronger, and slower. Coaches often refer to (and estimate ) their own safeties as little linebackers. These players should.
Have the ability to backpedal and immediately escape in order to pay a specified place to defend the pass (which is called dropping into pass coverage)
The strong safety normally aligns into the tight end side of the offensive formation (also known as the powerful side, hence the name strong security ), and 99 percent of the time, his pass policy responsibility is the tight end or a running back who renders the backfield.
Free safety: Generally more athletic and less physical than strong safety. He usually positions himself 12 to 15 meters deep and off the line of scrimmage. Free safety Requires the following characteristics:
The speed to prevent a long touchdown pass. The speed and quickness to get a jump on any lengthy pass that is thrown in the gaps on the field.
The capacity to make instant and astute judgments. Many folks say that a superb free safety can read the quarterback’s eyes, meaning he knows where the quarterback is looking to throw the football.
Nickel and Dime Defensive Formations
Nickel back: The fifth defensive back to get into the game (five players equivalent five cents).
Dime back: The sixth defensive back to the input has termed the dime back.
When it is pretty clear that the offense will pass the ball third down and long-yardage situations, for example–the defense can add a DB or two to its creation in an attempt to prevent a completed pass. The extra springs need to substitute for one of the defensive linemen or linebackers since the group is still confined to 11 defensive guys on the area, so someone should come out so that further defensive backs can go in.
If one DB is inserted, it’s a nickel package. When two backs are added for a total of six players at the secondary, it’s called a dime formation.
Conclusion
DB’s will also be in charge of covering wide receivers and making sure no moves are down the field. Defensive backs are often tasked with covering wide receivers in man coverage or enjoying an area of the field called zone coverage.
Defensive backs are both tall and longer shorter or players and quicker players. This all depends on the coaches’ preference and what sort of player he would like to perform with that particular defensive back position.
DB’s have one of the most difficult positions in the area physically but one of the easiest mentally. The defensive back position is frequently the least physical position, as players are rarely tackling and engaged in bodily plays. Defensive back necessitates more athleticism and ball skills to have the ability to catch or knock off the football when thrown.
