Go into the classroom with Suds and take in depth look at the fundamentals of the game.
Positions (Cont.)
Backs
In the old days, the game of football was very run-oriented; as mentioned earlier, ends were eligible receivers, occasionally catching a pass or taking the ball on an end-around run, but at the end of the day they were linemen. The true stars were the backs: the players who were in back of the line. Most teams, regardless of formation, employed a quarterback, two halfbacks, and a fullback. They were designated as such because of their relationship to the line of scrimmage: the quarterback was a quarter of the way back of the formation; the halfbacks were halfway back, and the fullback was the farthest back. These designations are practically meaningless today. In fact, they have basically been reversed.
Quarterback
Today, quarterback is the most important position in football…but it wasn’t always this way, and it varied from scheme to scheme. In the T formation (probably the most basic American football formation) the quarterback took the snap from center and initiated the action on every play—much like a quarterback does today—except most plays were misdirection running plays.
In the single wing (and its variant, the Notre Dame Box), the quarterback did not receive the snap and was usually not much more than a blocking back lined up behind the guard and tackle on the strong side of the formation…basically like the blocking fullback of later years. There were exceptions: Red Dunn, the quarterback for the first three Packers championship teams, threw more passes than the guy who actually took the snap from center.
Halfbacks
The halfbacks were the workhorses of the old run-oriented offenses. Most teams had both a left and a right halfback. In the T formation they were pretty much of equal status, lined up on either side of the fullback and incorporated heavily into the running game (and what few passing plays were run). In the single wing and Notre Dame Box, the roles were dramatically different; the left halfback (tailback) was the star, taking the direct snap from center and acting as the primary passer. The right halfback (wingback) lined up just outside and behind the right end (teams were heavily right-handed in those days) and served as a blocker and pass receiver.
While referred to primarily as quarterbacks in the record books, Packers passers Arnie Herber and Cecil Isbell—who connected with Don Hutson at a record-breaking pace—were left halfbacks. Ditto Verne Lewellen (whom Curly Lambeau considered the greatest back he’d ever coached) and Hall of Famer Tony Canadeo. Remember when the Wildcat offense, with the ball snapped directly to the running back in shotgun formation—had its 15 minutes of fame just a few years ago? That was essentially the single-wing offense with updated personnel.
Johnny Blood was a right halfback and was heavily involved in Lambeau’s prolific (for its time) passing game as a receiver. In the three championship seasons of 1929–31, Blood caught more touchdown passes than ends Lavvie Dilweg and Tom Nash combined. Today Blood would most likely be a wide receiver; in fact, that’s exactly where the right halfback position evolved.
Flanker/Slot Receiver
As passing games became more prevalent and formations spread horizontally, the right halfback was split wide as the left end had been some years before. This new position became known as the flanker. The Packers’ Boyd Dowler, drafted as a right halfback, was the Packers’ flanker. A flanker is simply a wide receiver lined up behind the line of scrimmage.
A slot receiver is like a flanker—also designated as a wide receiver—but is lined up in the “slot”, which is the gap between the split end and tackle. The slot receiver tends to be shorter and quicker than the perimeter (wide) receivers—Randall Cobb, for example—and is the closest in concept to the Johnny Blood-style right halfback or wingback.
Fullback
This position has all but disappeared from many NFL rosters, but many of us can remember when the fullback was a team’s featured runner. Packers Clarke Hinkle, Jim Taylor, and John Brockington were all designated as fullbacks. In the 1930s, Hinkle was the main running back in Lambeau’s two-halfback Notre Dame Box, in which the aforementioned halfbacks filled multiple roles. Taylor, on Lombardi’s 1960s teams, had far more rushing yards than multi-tool halfback Paul Hornung (whom Lombardi still called his “left halfback” even though there was no longer a right halfback) In the same split-back offense in the ‘70s, halfback MacArthur Lane likewise blocked for fullback Brockington a lot more than he ever ran the ball.
The advent of the I formation was the death knell of the old fullback position. The halfback (later called the tailback, à la the single wing) was the featured runner and the fullback became his lead blocker, getting the ball only on quick dive plays or as a check-down pass receiver out of the backfield (see William Henderson, John Kuhn). The roles had become officially reversed, with the halfback lined up behind the fullback. Eventually, the tailback simply came to be called the running back.
Today’s Packers don’t even have a fullback on the roster. Coach Matt LaFleur prefers to use an “F” tight end (F as in fullback, see Football 101: Part II) lined up in the backfield as an H-back-type FB/TE hybrid.
Backs in the Offensive Scheme
Just as receivers have their own symbolic letters in offensive playbooks (X/split end, Y/tight end, Z/flanker), backs have their own (Q/quarterback, H/halfback, F/fullback). Backs are also numbered in order to call running plays: 1 = quarterback, 2 = right halfback/flanker, 3 = fullback, 4 = left halfback/tailback.
The lesson in all this is that, no matter how much the game of football has evolved, the basic rules mentioned in the first segment on offensive positions are still in play today:
● The team playing offense must have at least seven players on the line of scrimmage.
● Only a player on the end of the line or in back of the line is eligible to run with, throw, or catch the football.
Josiah Deguara may be listed as a tight end, but when he lines up in the backfield he becomes, by rule, a back. If RB Aaron Jones motions wide and lines up at the line of scrimmage, he is now an end. And if he were to mistakenly do that outside TE Marcedes Lewis who is also on the line of scrimmage, Lewis would cease being an end and would now be ineligible, resulting in an illegal formation penalty…unless Lewis were to take a step backwards and essentially become a wingback.
Five interior linemen. Two ends. Four backs. No matter how many different formations an offensive coach can come up with, it all boils down to this basic format.
Next: defense.
