It is sometimes easy to forget that the product that is on display on game day is the culmination of years of work behind the scenes. Greatness is forged in obscurity. Practice, training camp, and the preseason help players translate their work into actual football scenarios, but it is the long offseason grind of film watching, training, and working on their craft that makes players special on game day. Alex Highsmith described this perfectly during today’s episode of The Christian Kuntz podcast when asked about his pass rush moves.
“Coach [Mike] Tomlin always says, skills relative to your position. And for us as pass rushers, we have to use our hands,” Highsmith said. “For me, for example, my spin move, I’ve been working on that. People can say, oh he’s working that move and it just happened. But no, I’ve been working on that move since 2017.
“…2017 was the first time I had brought it out because I remember I was watching different guys rush. I would be in the facility at Charlotte watching NFL tape watching guys like Vonn [Miller] and DeMarcus Ware.”
Highsmith didn’t enter the NFL until the 2020 draft, so his work began long before he was wearing the black and gold.
Below is one of many examples of Highsmith’s potent spin move via DLineVids on X.
Dwight Freeney is probably best known for this particular move, but there are a number of players that deploy it successfully in the NFL. Highsmith’s spin is definitely one of the best in today’s game. His success with that move is the result of countless hours of drilling it. And his work during practice is only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, he said that he will work it as he is walking around in his everyday life.
“Literally, I would be walking around our weight room. Say we’d finish a lift or whatever and I would just have my arm up and spin on air. People would probably look at my like I’m crazy. But I’ll literally just get the muscle memory,” Highsmith said.
To be a successful rusher you have to have a plan. The same move isn’t going to work on every rep. You can set up and inside spin move with pressing the outside edge all game, for example. But when it comes time to execute the move, it needs to be second nature, drilled in by the muscle memory of countless hours of behind the scenes work.
It has worked out pretty well for Highsmith. He went from a college walk-on to a third-round draft pick. And now he is in the top-2o of NFL pass rushers in terms of annual salary, averaging $17 million per year.
In four years, Highsmith has 29.5 total sacks, 40 tackles for loss, and 59 quarterback hits. His sack total was down in 2023, but his pressure numbers were way up. He is poised for another breakout season in 2024 if the advanced analytics have anything to say about it.
