Screen Drills

Probably one of the reasons I LOVE the Air Raid is because of the simplicity and efficiency of the heavy screen game utilized. Nothing gives a defense more diarrhea like an offense that can attack multiple areas of the field in an instant.

Secondly, you don't even have to be able to block to make screens work. Hands down our best play this year was the 41/51 fast screen (and we 'technically' weren't Air Raid), where we would average 8 yards a pop (and we threw a lot of them). It is a simple double-play-at-second-base-baseball-throw (Darin Slack's C4 disc 3 has some great drills for this under center and from the gun), to a split receiver giving a 2-step stem then working back to the quarterback.

Screens are an amazing way for your players to gain confidence in the offense immediately (can master the entire screen game in one practice) as well as establish an intense practice and playing tempo. The viciousness of these fast hitting plays can devastate a defensive line and allow your offensive linemen to dominate with cuts, lateral movement, and otherwise frustrating the beejesus out of the defensive front.

Here are some drills (i.e. "cage drill") for reinforcing the proper footwork for fast (1 step NOW!), rocket (fake 3 step action), and solid (zone run action for 3 steps) screens on the perimeter.

screen @ Yahoo! Video