Tag: tom brady pre-snap motion

Why Tom Brady loved pre-snap motion… and Peyton Manning didn’t

Tom Brady loved pre-snap motion throughout his career, and Peyton Manning didn’t. Who’s to say who’s right or wrong?

For some quarterbacks, it’s easier to define and regulate a defense with the use of pre-snap shifts and motions. By disrupting the defense with moving personnel, the quarterback can play “spot the Huckleberry,” picking apart a defender who may not have gotten the pre-snap check in time.

Other quarterbacks through recent history would prefer to come to the line of scrimmage without any of that stuff — they want to have a stable and static offensive alignment, read the defense, and go from there.

For Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, perhaps the two greatest quarterbacks in pro football history, the verdict on pre-snap motion was quite different. As Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup explained in this week’s episode of “The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell,” Manning would prefer that things stayed stuck pre-snap.

“Motion is obviously a really good thing to do, but keep in mind — defenses do move when there’s motion, and not every quarterback loves that. Because a lot of quarterbacks like to have the ball snapped where everybody was where they were before the snap of the ball. We always assume it’s bad for the defense, but if the quarterback feels like he’s uncertain on a pass play, and he’s uncertain as to what that movement will result in, it could be disguise and late movement. If your quarterback is uncomfortable with that, you don’t want to do motion. Because the last thing you want is for your quarterback dropping back and being uncertain and hesitant and tentative.

“We always assume that motion’s great, and the numbers for some teams are wonderful. But some quarterbacks want the defense to be… hey, I’m going to get the ball, and they’re exactly where I know they’re going to be.”

Bruce Arians, who was Manning’s quarterback coach from 1998 through 2000 with the Indianapolis Colts, and Brady’s head coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020 and 2021, the difference was pretty clear.

“Peyton didn’t want anybody to move,” Greg said. “He wanted Marvin Harrison on the right and Reggie Wayne on the left, and that’s how they were going to play. He knew where the defense was, and he could figure out the defense.”

You can watch Greg and Doug discussing it here…

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…and listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…or on Apple Podcasts.

Motion creates commotion for Cowboys on Tom Brady’s opening TD pass

Tom Brady knows how to use pre-snap motion to upset defenses, and the Cowboys found this out early on Thursday night.

When Tom Brady signed with the Buccaneers last season, it was a rocky relationship with head coach Bruce Arians and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich for a while. Brady had always benefited from pre-snap motion with the Patriots, but it wasn’t something Arians was interested in. This caused some early schematic schisms and rough moments where Brady and his new receivers were decidedly not on the same page.

But as the season went along, things got better. From Weeks 1-12, per Football Outsiders, the Bucs used motion on 46.4% of their plays, 13th in the league, though their yards per play with it was 6.5, and 4.9 without.

From Weeks 14-17, Tampa Bay went with motion on 56.6% of their plays, good for sixth in the league, and averaged 8.0 yards per play with it, and 6.1 without. Two primary reasons the Bucs stood at a stagnant 7-5 before their Week 13 bye, and came back to win their last four regular-season games.

Arians and Leftwich got even trickier in the postseason, as the Bucs used play-action on 28.5% of their plays, averaging 9.7 yards per play with it, and 6.1 without. Motion was more of a factor as well — 60.8% of their postseason plays featured motion, and though they had the same yards per play with and without it (5.7), it certainly seemed that everyone was finally reading the same playbook.

How motion and play-action are a lethal combination for Tom Brady and the Buccaneers

On Brady’s first touchdown of the 2021 season, left-to-right motion from receiver Chris Godwin gave Brady the man coverage indicator, and created an opening for Godwin to take in the five-yard pass.

When you make things easier for the greatest quarterback of all time, that’s a good thing.