Rival NFL linemen share secrets
FRISCO, Texas – Yes, Lane Johnson has heard. Perennial Pro Bowler Von Miller hosts a pass-rush summit.
Johnson, riding a two-Pro Bowl streak himself at right tackle for the Eagles, knows what you’re thinking: The offensive linemen who gathered this past weekend for their second annual OL Masterminds Summit are simply trying to respond. Johnson agrees, in part.
“I think you see all these pass-rush summits, all these defensive linemen have a cohesiveness, and that’s something the offensive line has never really had,” Johnson told USA TODAY.
“I wanted all the NFL linemen to start communicating and start really talking football, something that’s never really happened.”
After all, Johnson says, offensive linemen are “protectors of very valuable men.”
Nearly 50 NFL and college linemen gathered in Frisco from Friday through Sunday to discuss how to better protect those valuable men – including their quarterbacks, some of whom now cost upward of $30 million a season.
Johnson began the event in 2018 with Duke Manyweather, an offensive line scouting and development consultant who currently trains or consults with 35 NFL linemen. Johnson had mentioned during an interview about the NFL’s top 100 players that offensive linemen needed to join forces to stop elite defenders.
Manyweather saw the interview and called Johnson, whom he used to train. The 27 attendees in 2018 brought a combined 700 starts and three Super Bowl rings’ worth of knowledge to film study and on-field training, Manyweather said.
In 2019, 41 NFL players and six college linemen showed up.
The film breakdowns were detailed. A 45-degree-angle set works well against Cardinals outside linebacker Chandler Jones, shared one lineman. Another explained that Jones has size and power but not a whole lot of speed without awkward movement. Against Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, linemen explained, opponents must beware Lawrence’s cross-chop. “He’s just really long and crafty,” they said. “He’s pretty good at stances (and) definitely doesn’t give anything away.”
The players were granted anonymity because of competitive issues.
In Denver, Miller will react to whatever a lineman prepares, so Broncos opponents be ready, Chiefs tackle Mitch Schwartz said, for the times that “you’re dying a slow death” – offensive line parlance for when Miller
explodes into a lineman’s chest before the lineman can anchor, and the lineman is left simply trying to slow the bull rush.
Linemen aimed to stop the bleeding more effectively after exchanging recommendations and observations from film study.
The summit is unusual: Players from NFL teams who will face one another openly share their best tricks for success at personal technique. They offer analyses of defenders garnered after hours of film study. Each knows the player sitting next to him could use the new understanding of outside leverage or how to ease in a rookie quarterback who hasn’t yet mastered in-game calls, against fellow summit attendees’ teammates.
Pro Bowl left tackle Terron Armstead, for example, could go home and recount to Saints defensive end Cam Jordan how linemen planning to strike him will take care not to lean.
Still, elite players such as Armstead shared openly. “I feel like Cam’s the best D-lineman in the NFL,” Armstead told USA TODAY. “There’s nothing I could tell him that he isn’t watching on his own that is going to be a change to him.
“If it’s something that could be beneficial in your game – regardless if you’re playing this team, you still got 15 other games it could be an added asset.” Routines, too, were compared.
Some linemen talked about receiving fluids by IV before or during a game.
Others talked about showing up early to the weight room, getting in a ready stance 100 times in a game week, and increasing mobility through pilates and massage sessions.
“You’re going to feel like (expletive) eventually,” Schwartz said of training camp aches. “You don’t want it to be the third day.”
Raiders tackle Trent Brown, who started every game for New England’s Super Bowl champion team last season, said he hasn’t stuck to a routine through 44 starts in four seasons.
“I just go with the flow,” Brown said. Game-day mentalities differed, too.
Some players battle anxiety before games, and one said he picks a fight with an opposing fan during pregame warm-ups each week. Buccaneers center Ryan Jensen hopes to anger the defender lined up against him.
“I try to get guys pissed off at me where they’re more trying to kick my ass than (expletive) make plays,” Jensen said. “When I have them to that point, it’s over. I’ve won. He’s more worried about trying to push me over a pile, get me to the ground, all right my day’s just got a lot easier because he’s not too worried about trying to make plays and make tackles and rush the quarterback.
“To me, if a lot more guys on the line play with a little more edge like that, it’d change the perception.”
So too, linemen hope, will the summit, though they understand some across the league might not want to share secrets. No current Cowboys attended, even as the summit took place in a practice facility across the street from team headquarters.
Manyweather said he doesn’t know of any team that specifically told its players not to attend for competitive advantage purposes. But “that might be the reason some guys don’t show up,” Manyweather told USA TODAY, before adding “the guys here are willing to share.”
And the more they share, Manyweather said, the more a lineman who hasn’t faced an out-of-division opponent in three or four seasons can go home with film notes that jump-start their season preparation. Take teams facing the Cowboys and Lawrence this season, with linemen who heard NFC East opponent Johnson break down Lawrence’s athleticism, bend and tendency to fake inside often then cross-chop.
Manyweather hopes Lawrence will face a string of more educated offensive linemen when the season hits thanks to the Masterminds Summit.
“We understand his cross-chop and his pan techniques with his hands are a problem,” he said. “If we can get it out there what we’re going to try to do to have a collective, another hope is that if we tell these guys, ‘Hey, listen, this is what he’s good at and this is where to have success at,’ he may have to change some things. Because now, some guys may have his number.
“Now, when all things are equal, you play football.”