A handful of elite NFL quarterbacks began to use the once-rare back-shoulder throw, and now teams like the Seahawks have changed the NFL by countering with a different kind of cornerback:
Rather than fielding the usual bunch of regular-sized speedsters in the defensive backfield to keep up with opposing receivers, Seattle decided to go big. By starting the tallest, largest cornerbacks possible — the 6-foot-3 Sherman or the 6-foot-1 Byron Maxwell, for instance — they tried to disrupt receivers at the line of scrimmage to throw off the timing that is crucial to the back-shoulder ballet.
But it wasn’t just the height of Seattle’s cornerbacks — they also had long arms. That is a trait more appreciated in linemen than defensive backs.
According to Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid, the numbers say long arms are crucial: Reid said that having long arms is the equivalent of having an extra tenth-of-a-second advantage on a 40-yard dash. It was the equivalent of one full step, which can mean everything at the speed of the NFL. For Seattle, it worked like a charm. If one of those pinpoint passes did get through, one of their long-armed cornerbacks would simply poke it away.
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The result of all this is that the NFL is becoming basketball on turf.
Football has become so fast, and the athletes so good, that coaches use basketball terminology all the time, said Rams general manager Les Snead. He sees tall cornerbacks now as the “power forwards” of football. “When you have to shoot over a taller guy, that’s hard,” he said. As with power forwards, football teams now are willing to give up some athleticism for height.
In The Sports Gene, David Epstein makes the point that basketball players aren’t simply tall; they have even wider wingspans than their height would suggest. (He mentions this on EconTalk, too.)
Aha! I loved playing pickup basketball in college, but I didn’t figure out my edge until I got married. One day, my wife said to me “you’re very long-waisted.” I had no idea what she meant.
I’m 5’10″ but I often played opponents who were much taller and beat them easily. The “long-waisted” reason is that my 5’10″ height is an “average”. From the belt down, I’m 5’7″ – and from the waist up, I’m 6’1″, with the extra long arms to match. As a result, I could easily block the shots of guys 3-5 inches taller that me. Guarding guys my own height was no contest.
I realized that basketball was a game that turned not on how many feet tall your opponent was, but on just one tenth of an inch. If I could just touch an opponent’s shot with the tip of my finger, it would be a miss.
I was quick, too, but that’s another story ;-)