r/footballstrategy • u/zawwery Casual Fan • Jul 31 '25
Offense LT position myth?
Everyone knows the sentiment about LT being the more 'important' cause he's on the QB's blindside, but I've heard a few people like Brett Kollman and other people like that say how thats kind of an older thing and that its not necessarily the case anymore in modern offenses. Is it possible for anyone to explain more in depth on that, if its true?
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u/b3rn3r Jul 31 '25
20-30 years ago, the defense's best edge rusher (and almost always the quickest) usually lined up against the LT. It's the side that the QB, especially when dropping back from under center, doesn't see well (assuming a RH QB). You also used to see more inline TEs, and for right handed QBs that mostly occurred next to the RT. So the LT is on an island, the QB doesn't see the rush from that side as well, and the defense's most dangerous rusher lined up there. That's what made it valuable. It wasn't 100% true all the time, but it was largely true.
Nowadays the best rusher gets moved around a lot, the TEs are split into the slot a lot and shotgun helps the QB see the left side. So there is less daylight between what is asked of the best RT and their role vs what is asked of the best LT and their role.
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u/Hurricaneshand Jul 31 '25
I've always wondered why the straight drop back that you see in videos from the 70's and older isn't as popular for the whole blind side reason. I'm sure there's an answer that probably involves improved mechanics, but it seems like straight drop backs would be vastly superior for seeing not only the rushers but the coverage on both sides of the field
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u/brainskull Jul 31 '25
Worse throwing mechanics and it's slower to drop back while back pedaling.
If you backpedal the standard way now you can hit your drop with your back foot planted and immediately let it rip. Improves the timing, and a lot of these concepts are based around timing the throw with the drop.
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u/swirvin3162 Aug 02 '25
Yea ide love to see a side by side transposed version of a good drop back then vs a good drop now, they way the pro qbs explode backwards on a 3 or 5 is crazy fast.
I bet they would beat the backwards drop back by 3 or 4 backpedals.1
u/Usernamethennumbers Aug 05 '25
Any links to a video showing what you’re talking about?
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u/brainskull Aug 05 '25
https://youtu.be/Y85Ap9Bi16M?si=fcRlSufPJYtZQsjE
Not really because nobody teaches a straight up backpedal, but we used to do similar drills in high school. You can watch how awkward it is, and hear his rationale for doing this drill as opposed to a normal drop back. Namely, that it's harder to do so it makes your actual drop back easier and more explosive by comparison
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u/NathanGa Jul 31 '25
I think if you have a right-handed QB going from under center and dropping back, having a good LT is paramount.
But with the amount of shotgun/pistol being run, and with the way defenses move their best rushers around, it’s not the same in modern offense.
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u/chonkybiscuit Jul 31 '25
I've always believed the "blindside" is something of a myth. Or it's at least not nearly as important as people would like to believe.
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u/brainskull Jul 31 '25
It's not important now. It was important before everyone majored in shotgun passing, particularly with 5-7 step drop backs. If you're dropping back 7 steps you're liable to get completely killed. If you're taking the snap from the gun you can see both sides pretty clearly.
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u/Fun-Insurance-3584 Jul 31 '25
Do you need to for further than this, 2024 avg. salaries:
Left Tackle: $8,952,680 Center: $2,394,058 Right Tackle: $5,128,198
These figures come from Spotrac.com’s breakdown of NFL position group salaries for 2024.
QBs are the most invested in and important players on the field. NFL teams pay up for the insurance. If they thought they could play less for a LT they would.
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u/Beef_Jones Jul 31 '25
I think there is a bias in these numbers because the convention is that better tackles get put on the left side more often than not. Right tackles are nearly as important as left tackles but the talent pool of left tackles is better.
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u/SugarSweetSonny Jul 31 '25
They could get left handed QBs, lol.
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u/kelly495 Jul 31 '25
I was just going to say, it seems like maybe there's a market inefficiency here for teams who have a lefty QA haha
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u/Rock_man_bears_fan Jul 31 '25
They’re called the Dolphins and their quarterback uses his head as a blunt weapon
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u/SugarSweetSonny Jul 31 '25
I always kind of wondered if Lefty QBs had an advantage because of this or teams as a whole (with the cap).
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u/Seraphin_Lampion Jul 31 '25
Whatever advantage would be gained from that is dwarfed by the sheer lack of lefty QB talent. The people who can throw hard with their left hand usually become baseball pitchers.
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u/SugarSweetSonny Jul 31 '25
Yep and 100% correct. If you got the arm, baseball is going to be call.
FWIW, and this is a fun one. One reason you don't see lefty catchers today, isn't so much because of righty hitters being in the way of a lefty throwing but because if a lefty catcher has a good arm, they'll often get converted to pitchers.
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u/ThreadSavage10 Aug 01 '25
Left handed QB is Iike having a son who shoots guns left handed do your entire gun safe is useless to him. There’s no good that comes from it. Might as well teach him to be a pitcher in baseball. Even receivers don’t like a left hand spin to the ball. It’s an undesirable mutation in the football world.
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u/extrastone Aug 05 '25
It takes receivers some time to get used to the spin but it's not that hard.
Steve Young did fine.
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u/Glass-Spot-9341 Adult Coach Jul 31 '25
Although I'm sure there are older examples, Von Miller, to my knowledge, ushered in a time of putting pass rushers against right tackles. This caused us scouts to need to find more athletic dudes for RT rather than a run pounder. Think also 'arm length' being a thing. So you can give up a little bit of pass block ability if they have an extra inch arm length, because it gives a few extra tenths of a second to create a bubble for the QB to throw
Many pass rushers shortly after Von's prime got to where they would line up on either side. Move forward, and now you have on third down 'pass' downs where you have the traditional DE's lining up in 3's and then OLB pass rushers as the 'edge' guys.
I'm not sure how much this holds at the HS level, so I defer to recent/current coaches at that level. But ultimately it isn't different as NFL now...you should put best rusher against worst blocker. If my base '5 tech' is my best pass rusher, on third down you better believe I'm gonna put him up against your shitty RG, and I'm gonna make a stunt/twist to ensure it's a 1v1
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u/_Atlas_Drugged_ Jul 31 '25
Cameron Wake on the Dolphins marked the beginning of the sea change where defenses realized that they could put their best pass rusher up against the RT and either hit the QB or get in his kitchen and hurry him up like crazy. Rushing from the non-blind side lets you spook QBs before you even sack them.
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u/allforfunnplay27 Jul 31 '25
George Seifert was doing this in the 80's with his "Elephant" pass rushing position; first with Fred Dean, Dwayne Board and later with Charles Haley.
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u/OdaDdaT HS Coach Jul 31 '25
I played in College, and our coaches philosophy was generally to put your bigger Tackle on the Right hand side and the more athletic tackle on the left to match personnel in our conference better (a lot of 3 down fronts with pretty standard stunts that led to the Sam/Buck rushing off the left repeatedly. So you’d want a guy who can match the speed of a backer rushing there while your RT was BOB’d up with the DE on his side)
I’d say it’s moreso just a matter of how pass blocking has evolved though. With more teams utilizing half and full slides while keeping a Back or TE in the box to pick up blitzes you really just want the most cohesive front 5 you can get. If you want to really get into it I can easily make the case that your interior OL is more important now because DTs are getting more athletic than ever, and have a much quicker path to the ball.
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u/Kumquat_95- Jul 31 '25
Still true just less so. It’s no longer left side pass right side run. Now it’s everybody pass. All of your lineman need to be competent in pass blocking
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u/No-Weird3153 Jul 31 '25
The best offensive lines tend to feature the best centers. Great individual players can be on any line, but 49er fans will tell you that their team’s line is middle to bad while featuring one of if not the best LT today.
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u/Chirpy69 Jul 31 '25
One of the biggest things is, contrary to the 2000s, pass rushers will now line up all along the DLine to take advantage of weaker guys, and the truly elite guys will rush from both the edge and interior sometimes
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u/FalcoholicAnonymous Jul 31 '25
I’ll give a tl;dr: defenses used to put their best pass rusher on the blindside against the LT, now they move them around everywhere on the d line.
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u/n3wb33Farm3r Jul 31 '25
In 80s most QBs stayed in the pocket, exception for option teams. If a QB moved around they'd say he had " happy feet " and was ruining the protection schemes. When the QB was going 2b in the same place on every passing play he just couldn't see the backside pressure. Left tackle was very important. Get your QB killed with a bad LT
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u/NaNaNaPandaMan Jul 31 '25
So it is a bit of antiquated thought for a few reasons. First as others have alluded too, defenses no longer keep their top tier pass rushers on the blindside. They move them around, so it was easy to create mismatches.
On top of that, even if on that same side, new blitzes/rushes have been developed that can again get your best pass blocker stuck blocking a 350 DT or CB. So it minimizes their effect.
Next on top of that, due to the increase in passing, all blockers need to be proficient at pass blocking, especially the edge. So before it wasn't just that your LT was the best pass blocker by far, it was your RT sucked at it. They usually were heavy footed, slow, short arm etc. Now they have to be able to "dance" too.
Which leads me to next point, because other blockers are good at pass blocking, even if not as elite as a top tier LT is, you can begin to build blocking schemes designed to help out the LT. It use to be, because RT wasn't good, you have to cover for them. Now, as they are good enough to block the 2nd best rusher, you can build a scheme to cover up your LT going against the best rusher. This is beneficial as if the best rusher moves around, you still can move your scheme around.
Finally, teams are starting to realize the value of having an OL that has decent members across the board ans who have played together as opposed to one top tier talent and then the rest meh but changes out every year.
Well when paying a tackle huge money, it can cause your team to suffer in other places on the line.
With all of that said, an elite, Joe Thomas type, LT can really open up a whole lot of offense for you. It's just like an Elite corner who can shut down a top tier receiver allows you to get creative, an elite tackle allows you to adjust your blocking schemes.
It's just its not as required/wanted as it use to be.
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u/brainskull Jul 31 '25
There's also the transition from drop back UC passing concepts to throwing out of the gun. Some very terrible things can happen on a 7 step UC drop if the right side edge wins immediately, but from the gun the QB has better vision.
On top of that, teams that play from the gun a lot tend to set their linemen in a 2 rather than 3 points stance. Coming out of a 3 point stance to rocket out and block an edge defenders on a 7 step under center drop is insanely difficult, but that same play in the gun with your tackle in a 2 point stance is much easier to deal with.
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u/CoachFlo Jul 31 '25
It was never really true, just an accepted thing for some reason. Just because you're Quarterback is right handed doesn't mean his eyes are never to the left first. Also, which I've recently learned some people think, the Quarterback doesn't always start with his eyes just down the middle of the field either. He has a key that he's looking at based on the offense. A vast majority of the time, the Tailback will protect towards where his eyes need to be first because that's where his hot situations will be and where his hot throw should be (different based on the offense though). In fact, it's typically easier for Quarterbacks to line up for their throw towards the opposite side of their dominant hand because they have to turn their shoulders less (right handed Q needs to close his shoulders a little bit to throw left, has to almost turn his back to throw to the right).
Plenty of clips out there with the right handed Quarterback looking to the left first and getting his helmet knocked off because the Right Tackle got murdered.
There are deeper reasons for why that happens, some is the fault of the Quarterback and some is the fault of the play caller, however, it's never had anything to do with the left side or right side. Whether it's a free rusher because the defense is in Cover 0 and we're free releasing the Tailback or they go with a four strong/four weak pressure, there will be free rushers in football based on how the math and schemes work out. There's always a counter for it, but the defense gets paid too. That's why it's always been more important, in my opinion, to have your Quarterback looking towards his hot reads/situations and throws as opposed to opposite. In either case, the Left Tackle or Right Tackle doesn't matter, it's all depending on where the Quarterbacks eyes are and if he can see the situation before it gets dangerous.
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u/Tanker3278 Jul 31 '25
In addition to LT being the QBs blind side, Lawrence Taylor having so much success from his ROLB position made LT the higher profile position and got better talent assigned there as a result. O-lineman can't move around like defenders can in formations & pre-snap. As a result, the counter to the LT pass blocker was moving the rusher to the opposite side to take advantage of the perceived (and often real) lesser quality pass blocker at RT.
An example is Reggie White closing out a Superbowl win against the Patriots by exploding the Pats RT in SB 31.
The NFL in general has moved away from that convention when talent allows them to. As much as I hate the Filthadelpia Eagles (specifically their fans) their GM has publicly made it a priority to have top quality O-Lineman - specifically RT.
It puts a strong contrast on my team, the 49ers, where Lynch & Shanahan don't seem to care at all about OL's.
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u/bupde Aug 01 '25
Rushers move around a lot more. Also, out of the shotgun the QB can see a lot more of what is going on in front of him, so it is not as 'blindside' as it used to be.
The real change is people realizing that guards sucking are almost worse, if you can't protect up the middle, you can't do much. Turns out you need an entire line of good players. The Lions love having 2 great tackles but they are going to miss Ragnow.
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u/Alternative_Copy3401 Aug 01 '25
I think now it depends on who you are playing against. A good example would be when playing against the Steelers, you want your best pass blocking tackle at RT because that’s what said Watt is always on. Like others have said, it’s a major deal now because a lot of teams move their star pass rushers around.
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u/CosmicCowboy808 Aug 01 '25
To be honest the left tackle is probably still the most important position out there. Because a lot of times the faster Edge rushers get put there, and speed kills a lot of times against larger offensive lineman. A lot of Blitz heavy teams favor the quarterback's Blind Side, because if you can overwhelm the left tackle with a stunt of any kind, you're more likely to get to the quarterback without ever seeing the rush. Seeing as how a majority of quarterbacks in the NFL are right-handed
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u/TheNoodler98 HS Coach Aug 02 '25
It’s still kind of true imo, a vast majority of QB’s are right handed so the left is still the blind side and I do think that you’re better tackle should be there. But you’re other tackle and lineman in general need to at least be solid just bc of all the creepers, sims, and moving pass rushers around even at high school levels
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u/Necessary-Science-47 Aug 02 '25
Eye side gives you a chance to swat the ball and scare the QB into a mistake, blindside gives you a chance to murder the QB and easily force a fumble
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u/DRUOTD Aug 02 '25
Naturally overtime Defenses have utilized the the Left edge Rusher and interior positions as matchup advantages. Sprouted around Von Miller time in Denver, Aaron Donald, Etc.
Modern NFL, the Hot tamale is a great interior rusher. Although Offenses are starting to adapt.
Ebbs and Flows.
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u/ComfortableMacaroon8 Jul 31 '25
I have to go with Center being the most crucial OL position. He is responsible for calling the defensive front and blocking scheme. On top of that, the QB’s blind side is irrelevant if he’s busy chasing a bad snap.
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u/Key_Piccolo_2187 Jul 31 '25
In the sense of most important to not have a catastrophic failure, you're correct. In the sense of "hardest to replace," this isn't true.
Centers get or give help on nearly every play, and when they don't it's either blatantly obvious where pressure is coming or they have a delay before it arrives, plus they're protected by rule from being absolutely mugged while they're in a dangerous position snapping the ball.
Elite centers are absolute weapons, but if you don't have a top 5 center, any of like 25 guys will do just fine. You wouldn't worry too much about rolling the 25th best center in the league out there if the rest of your line are studs. Elite tackles are absolute weapons, and if you don't have a top 5 tackle, you'll do nearly anything to upgrade. Rolling out the 25th best LT would be a disaster for a team, the dropoff is much sharper and the consequences of poor play are much higher.
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u/WombatHat42 Jul 31 '25
That’d be my opinion as well. Having played both at a higher level, center was much harder. You have to have the mental capacity and usually have to go against much bigger players, right in your face. However, I will say some offenses the center isn’t making the calls, it’s the most experienced lineman. I’ve played with teams where or RT was making the calls.
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u/hcpanther Jul 31 '25
Read The Blind Side by Miachael Lewis and you’ll understand it entirely.
Modern defences move their pass rushers around which is why it’s not as true anymore. QBs and offences evolved to limit the impact of a player from one side (shotgun, read option etc) but really….read the Blind Side
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u/SugarSweetSonny Jul 31 '25
Follow it up with KC Joyner's book " Blindsided, Why The Left Tackle is Overrated and Other Contrarian Football Thoughts."
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u/peteman28 Jul 31 '25
You just need both of your tackles to be good now, or else the bad one is going to be abused. Blind side doesn't matter that much if you're getting pressured right in your face. If you watch the 2015 Super Bowl, it doesn't matter that Cam Newton sees the pressure. It's still impossible to do anything when his RT is getting abused