Quarterback - Throwing Skills

After the ball is snapped to the quarterback, the offensive line forms a pocket around the quarterback to keep defenders away from him so he can locate a receiver and plan on where to throw the ball.

The pocket area begins two yards outside of the offensive linemen, and can sometimes include the tight end. It goes all the way back to the offensive team’s own goal line. Think of the pocket as an invisible cage around the quarterback. The offensive line acts as the bars of the cage keeping the defenders from sacking the quarterback or making an interception on the pass.

There are a lot of different ways the quarterback throws the ball, and they depend on how close he is to getting sacked, how much time he has to throw the ball, or where a receiver is located. Here are just a few ways that a quarterback throws the ball. Try practicing these with a friend and see how well you do.

• Bullet pass: a hard and fast throw from the quarterback to a receiver
• Touch pass: a soft throw from the quarterback that a receiver can easily and gently catch
• Bomb pass: a very high and long throw from the quarterback to a receiver that usually has a lot of airtime. A bomb pass can be really hard to complete, but when it is, it can look really neat.

Quarterbacks have to keep an eye not only on the offensive line, but also on every move the defensive line makes. It takes a lot of concentration and skill to be a quarterback. But the quarterback sometimes has a few tricks up his sleeve to fool the defense. One trick is called a hard count where he yells one signal louder than the others trying to fool the defense into thinking the play is starting resulting in an offside penalty. Pretty clever!

Another trick the quarterback may use is a pump fake. This is when the quarterback pretends like he is going to throw the ball, but instead just “pumps” his arm making the defense think he is going to throw the ball. Instead, he pulls the ball back as the defense is looking in the direction they thought he was throwing the ball and makes a pass in another direction. The pump fake is always a very fast motion, so you need to sometimes watch the quarterback closely to catch it.

If you were the quarterback, what kinds of tricks would you use to confuse the defense? Can you come up with your own bag of tricks?

The quarterback will sometimes yell a signal louder than the other signals trying to fool the defense into thinking the play is beginning. This is called a hard count. The idea is to get the defense to cross the line of scrimmage before the play begins and get a penalty.