John Downs

7on7 has turned into a terrible thing for the development of the high school football game & players. The whole purpose of 7-on-7 to begin with was to give high schoolers reps in the offseason without having Spring Ball (with pads) like college does. That needs to be closely reevaluated, and if states actually care about the safety and development of their high schoolers, they’d benefit significantly greater from having actual Spring (or “Summer”) Ball than continuing on with 7-on-7s. The entire concept of 7-on-7 ultimately took 1 step forward while taking maybe 5 steps backwards for the game of football and development & safety of players. Pros of 7-on-7: - Competition (really just something to do) Cons of 7-on-7: - Competition - Unrealistic Personnel & Looks - Rewards bad habits at every position that have to be untaught and re-taught in the fall Competition: The pros of competition: obviously any time kids can compete it’s generally a good thing. And they get exposure to competition they wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity to do, so yes there are a few minor positives. And no, this is not a primary point, but it needs to be said, so that if anything the only concrete positive of 7-on-7s is countered. If you go to any given 7-on-7, you’ll most likely see one of three things… and unfortunately often all of them: 1. Players trash talking more than they communicate with their own teammates. 2. Players worried about their celebrations more than their own assignment. 3. Coaches trash talking opposing players & coaches. I’m all for some fun, but when the culture of 7-on-7 has completely shifted to players (and coaches) focusing more on what the opponent is saying than their own assignment, there’s no point of even competing and we’re just wasting everybody’s time & money. Unrealistic Personnel & Looks: It is completely in the offense’s best interest in a 7-on-7 to go Empty 4x1 on every single play. How many snaps of that do you see in a real football season? If any, can probably count them on one hand for most teams. Defensively: In a real football game, unless you’re in Prevent Defense with 5 seconds left defending a Hail Mary, on obvious passing downs (e.g. 3rd & 13) at most the defense would be in Dime Personnel (6 DBs on the field [4-1-6]). You’d have a Linebacker on the field considering there’s always some threat of a run. In a 7-on-7, however, all 5 Eligibles are Receivers, considering every play is a pass and there’s no pass rush. Even when the offense has a RB aligned in the backfield in a 7-on-7, he’s really a WR. He’s never in Pass Pro. So if you want to realistically compete defensively at a 7-on-7, there’s no reason not to have all 7 of your defenders be Corner-type defenders. If you have an actual Mike LB out there (who vs the pass in a real game is usually either playing the Hook or defending a Tight End or Back) he’s going to get stuck covering an actual elite WR which would almost never happen in a real game. So the response, from a competitive standpoint, is to put 7 DBs in the 7-on-7. So most teams have a Corner at Mike LB. And if you do have that actual Mike LB at Mike LB, then that takes us to the last point — Rewarding terrible habits for every position — which is such a long list, it has earned its own separate tweet.