The language of football is often confusing: play calls, alignments, techniques, and concepts litter the commentary and writing about the game. Inside the Pylon wants to aid everyone in developing a deeper understanding of the game, so our glossary entries will offer clear explanations and video examples to that end. We hope we can help you to enrich your experiences with the game of…
Mark Schofield spent a short lifetime playing quarterback. Now he is in the midst of a second lifetime watching, evaluating, and writing about the position. In this summer series covering techniques for playing QB he takes us through some of the books he used to learn to play the position, using film to illustrate these…
The ability of a quarterback to use their feet, peripheral vision, and awareness of pressure to navigate the pocket to find or create throwing lanes is what is referred to as pocket mobility. If the quarterback feels pressure off the edge, he could climb the pocket to avoid the outside pressure. As the pocket may…
Like any good researcher, Mark Schofield despises a small sample size. Unfortunately, prospect evaluation is almost always too early, or without all the information necessary. Thus, we have our series: On Two, in which Inside The Pylon examines two plays from a quarterback that address traits that scouts are talking about. Having highlighted the ability of Christian Hackenberg to deliver throws with timing and anticipation, another area where the…
Cal Bears quarterback Jared Goff is considered the #1 quarterback prospect in the 2016 NFL Draft, and for good reason. Mark Schofield looks at his Goff’s pocket presence in this installment of On Two. Pocket presence is one of those football terms you hear during draft season, as it relates generally to the ability of…
Last year, Joseph Ferraiola wrote that “we’re thinking about quarterback ceilings all wrong,” poking holes in the conventional draft wisdom on QB projections. He re-examines this theory by looking at 2018 rookies Josh Rosen and Josh Allen and applies this lens to the 2019 class’ top signal-callers, Kyler Murray and Dwayne Haskins. When projecting NFL…
Football is littered with specialized terminology. From punt gunner to climbing the pocket, commentators rarely get to explain everything you need to know before the next play. Inside The Pylon’s glossary was developed to give fans a deeper understanding of the game through clear explanations, as well as image and video examples. Please contact us…
Studying and evaluating football players is a continual exercise in uncovering actions, methods, and processes in the players themselves that are repeatable and bear out well for their future development and advancement at their position of choice. Scout the process, and not the results. Often times you may find that even though a play or…
Ten down, ten to go. In this group of passers we start to get into quarterbacks who I expect to become starters in the NFL. All five of these quarterbacks are graduating seniors, all of them were multiple-year starters, and four earned Senior Bowl berths while the fifth earned a spot in the NFLPA Collegiate…
I’ve long been fascinated by offensive drives. I would dedicate entire pieces to a single drive and I even wrote a book filled with nothing but drives. I was sitting in the barber’s chair the other morning (shoutout to my man John at Brookville Barber Shop) brainstorming ideas for a piece on this quarterback class…
Labor Day brings the return of the school year, and the return of football. Now that games are upon us, of course it’s time to think about the 2018 NFL Draft. In part 1 of this, we looked at 10 rising seniors, in part 2, we looked at 10 more seniors, and in part 3…
To hear Head Coach James Franklin tell it, Penn State’s offensive line is the engine that makes their offense work. While that is a strong group, which returns four starters and two other players with significant playing time in 2016, the offense as a whole returns starters at every skill position. Chief among those are…
Seattle’s 2016 NFL season contained detrimental elements that had not previously been seen from a Pete Carroll-led Seahawks team. Additionally, existing factors continued, such as the Seahawks’ poor red zone offense. Their inability to convert good opportunities is something that has plagued the team. Jimmy Graham Jimmy Graham had 65 catches for 923 yards and…
It is a tradition as tried and true as any during the draft cycle: Quarterbacks are built up, torn down, and built up anew. Running backs are broken down to the nth degree, receivers are scrutinized for every route they have run, and edge defenders are analyzed down to the flexion in their ankles. But…
The defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos have one of the most feared defenses in the entire NFL. With high caliber players at all three levels of the defense, their game plan for the last year and a half has been to rely on their defense to win games, and it has certainly worked. In…
Quarterbacking is hard in so many ways and people are always trying to figure out who will be the next great one. Mark Schofield thinks LSU might have a winner in Danny Etling. The LSU Tigers entered the 2016 full of promise and potential. Ranked in the Top-5 to start the season, they enjoyed an embarrassment of riches on…