As a former lineman, it’s painful to watch running backs and tight ends attempt to block. Backs and tight ends do the natural things like running and catching, so a skill like blocking is foreign to them for the most part.
First off, whenever we talk about backs blocking, everyone wants to know about LeSean McCoy and how he’s doing. He’s certainly improving with every practice, but he still has a long way to go.
The thing that really sticks out to me when I watch these guys block is that almost all of them want to stop their feet, and just attempt to push guys. Rather than getting into their man and moving their feet, they want to play patty-cake.
The key to blocking a man on the move like that is to engage him, and never stop moving your feet. If your feet stop, you become extremely vulnerable to a spin move, or having them simply run around you.
What a lot of the guys want to do is come up to the blitzing man, stop, and give him a forearm or shoulder shot, then move to wherever the guy bounces.
Attempting to block like this is going to get McNabb killed.
The discouraging part was that every single back and tight end was doing this, even a guy like Leonard Weaver, although it wasn’t nearly as bad. Weaver would come up, stop his feet, and throw the forearm and give the shoulder shot, but from there he was very good at recovering and sticking with the man.
The point is that there shouldn’t have to be a recovery time. If he would step up and engage the man, the guy blitzing loses all momentum, and will have a difficult time getting around.
Surprisingly enough, Lorenzo Booker probably had the best form of any of the backs. However, he just doesn’t have the power to stop most guys. A corner or safety he would probably be able to control, but a linebacker would plow him right over and keep moving.
Kyle Eckel and McCoy were probably the worst about stopping their feet. Eckel was made to look silly a couple times because he would stop his feet and watch the guy just run around him. Even diving at him, Eckel could barely get a hand on his man at times.
McCoy was a bit better than that, but was very susceptible to an inside move, and the defensive guys picked up on that right away, exploiting it on several occasions. He did, however, stop an inside attempt by Gaither, and was able to ride Demps around the quarterback.
Brent Celek was pretty decent at just riding the man around in a big loop, which at least shows that he’s keeping his feet moving, but also shows that he doesn’t know how to use his hands to punch at the guy, and must lack the upper-body strength to stop a blitzing man.
Eldra Buckley was not impressive, getting knocked over a few times, and Eugene Bright looked like he could hold his own.
My suggestion would be to send these guys to Juan Castillo for a day and let him show them the basics. Otherwise, McNabb could be running for his life.
