Pass rushing is an art formin the NFL. Players have to weigh their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses and deploy any number of moves or techniques to get the job done. Steelers DE Cameron Heyward joined the ALL NFL podcast with Brian Baldinger and Anthony Gargano on Tuesday evening in Las Vegas ahead of the Super Bowl and was asked how to put together a dominant performance over the course of any given game.
“I think you build on it from first play to last play,” Heyward said. “One thing I was taught, and it’s bad because it was taught by a Baltimore Raven, Chuck Smith…He said use moves to win later. So I’m not doing things just to do things out there. You’re setting them up.”
Offensive linemen, and all other players for that matter, do film study throughout the week to learn opponents’ tendencies and come up with a plan to counter them. For example, if a defensive lineman is constantly teeing up a bull rush, an offensive linemen might start to lean into them a bit more to try to brace for power. A savvy defender might use that power move for a few snaps before setting up a push-pull to take advantage of an offensive lineman’s weight distribution to easily shed a block. Like this example from Owen Straley on X.
So when a top defensive player always seems to make the big plays in the big moments, it isn’t always just by chance. They may have been setting their move up for the right moment in the game to make the biggest impact.
“If they’ve been leaning on you the entire game in the run game, now it’s time to give ’em a little shake to get ’em out of the gap,” Heyward said. “In the pass game, setting up the bull or going to the bull right away so that you can work speed off of that. Having a lot of counters in the game, and then understanding when to pick your spots…It’s just about playing the game within the game.”
That’s why it is so important when evaluating defensive linemen and pass rushers to make sure there are a variety of moves they have proven capable of using. They may have one excellent move that wins a lot of reps, but NFL offensive linemen will eventually catch on and work to counter it.
This understanding of “the game within the game” is a large part of what has allowed Heyward to enjoy a 13-year (and counting) career while being one of the most dominant defensive linemen over that span.
