Ask Austin: What makes route running so difficult? | Ekeler’s Edge
Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler and Yahoo Sports’ Fantasy Analyst Matt Harmon answer a viewers question on the complicated subject of running routes in the NFL? Austin tries to shine light on everything that goes into route running. While Matt who charts every wide receiver route ran during the regular season, reveals his favorite aspect of the art of route running. Another new feature of Ekeler’s Edge this season, fantasy managers have the opportunity to ask Austin a question on the show. Simply email your question to askaustin@yahoosports.com. Catch fresh episodes of Ekeler’s Edge every Wednesday on Yahoo Sports and your favorite social media platforms. Listen to Ekeler’s Edge on the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast wherever you get podcasts.
Video Transcript
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AUSTIN EKELER: There are so many different factors when running a route. Is it man? Is it zone? What's the depth? Am I hot? What type of coverage is it? And so there's all of these little factors that you have to be able to adjust to physically and mentally within your route.
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MATT HARMON: All right, now it's time to get into our Ask Austin Mailbag segment. Remember, people, you can get any question answered by Austin and me. Askaustin@yahoosports.com-- send emails, written, audio, video, whatever, to have Austin answer your question on a future episode.
All right, first one here, and I think we can actually both tackle at least parts of this. This one comes in from Hunter. I have always been curious about the complexities of route running. What makes it difficult? Why are some players so much better at it than others? These are all, like, crazy athletes competing at the highest level. So without trying to sound rude or crass, what about route running is so difficult?
AUSTIN EKELER: I would say this. With football, it's still a game, right, a kid's game that we've just taken up to a very complex level. So the game is still simple, conceptually. The game is very simple. But it's just not easy. It gets even harder the higher quality of athletic ability you have.
And what I mean by that is speed, right, timing, physicality, awareness, recognition. And what do I mean by those? There are so many different factors when running a route. Is it man? Is it zone? What's the depth? Am I hot? Which means there's one extra blitzer that's coming, and I need to change my route. What type of coverage is it?
So there's all of these little factors that you have to be able to adjust to physically and mentally within your route, as you're running off the line. You can get some type of tell before the-- before the snap. But a lot of times, people are moving all over the place. If it's man, you have to be able to physically get open, which is not easy, especially as defensive players continue to get better and more physical.
And so I would say there's a lot of different type of route runners, too. There's some that are more physical than others. Some that are faster than others. So there's a lot of different strengths in running routes. And that's great because that allows us, as offenses, to have a lot of different types of plays that are designed to attack different types and parts of a defense.
And it's not that it's hard. But it's-- I would say it's challenging to make sure you're having a good balance that makes the defense defend a bunch of different types of routes and a bunch of different types of route runners. And so with those different layers, it adds complexity on to the simple game, which makes it obviously harder to-- to execute at a high level.
MATT HARMON: I've told you about my-- my side business, Reception Perception, where I'm charting-- this is what I do. I chart route running, chart players. Everybody in the NFL is big, fast, and strong. Just, like, to what degree are you fast? To what degree are you strong? To what degree are you big? Whatever.
My favorite part of route running and evaluating it is the deception part of it. And I think that's the part that gets overlooked by most fans. Great example-- CeeDee Lamb, this past week against Washington on his touchdown, you could tell he's selling the go route all the way. And the corner's buying it because he keeps backing up, keeps backing. And then he snaps back on the inside, and it's a post route.
That art of deception, in order to work yourself open to just a big, open space at that point because the safety's underneath, that is what I-- it gets me so gassed up. Like, I weirdly have goosebumps talking about it because I think it's that cool.
AUSTIN EKELER: [CHUCKLES]
MATT HARMON: The deception and art and craft of it is my favorite part. Because, obviously, you can be as fast as you want. But if you're not a craftsman as a player, there's going to be a certain-- I guess there'd be a certain ceiling on who you could be as a player. But to me, the guys that are big, fast, and strong, and then they become great route runners, those are the players who are really difficult to cover.
[LIGHTNING ZAPPING]
