It’s the quintessential “Madden-style” play. An agile rusher expertly times the snap, explodes off the line of scrimmage, bends the edge like a speed-skater and with a final burst of energy, leaps to deflect the field goal with the edge of his fingertips. Unfortunately, this exhilarating display of game-changing athleticism is nearly extinct at the NFL level. Of 55 charted field goals blocks, just four were deflected by an edge FG rusher. Understanding what makes the outside block such a rare bird is a story of the limits of human ability and 1.5 seconds that turned the play on its head.
In the first part of this series, the concept of the block zone was introduced to quantify the goal of interior field goal blockers and more specifically the precise positioning and (leap) timing necessary to deflect a kick. While positioning and timing are the key “currencies” of interior kick blocking, they are not the core elements of an edge blocker’s assignment. The simple yet formidable challenges facing the edge player are distance and time. Given that distance/time = speed, it’s no surprise that one of a team’s fastest players is typically given this daunting assignment.
How much distance does the edge blocker need to cover and in how much time? The typical bounds of both variables can be estimated with NFL player tracking data from the 2022 Big Data Bowl. To calculate the necessary distance, it’s necessary to know the destination, in this case the potential block point. For our purposes, a block point at ~2.5–3 yards directly in front of the kick contact location is reasonable. At typical kick angles of 30–35°, the ball will be ≤6 yards off the ground (after accounting for drag) at that distance. This also seems to be the typical location on video of successful edge blocks. The Euclidean Distance between the block point and an edge blocker’s usual starting position can be found with the x (towards the backfield) and y (sideline to sideline) distances. The necessary x distance is self-evident. Field goals occur 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage, while the edge rusher is aligned almost exactly on the LOS (perhaps 0.25–0.5 yards behind it). Therefore, with a block point 3 yards in front of the kick location, the x distance is at minimum 8–3 = 5 yards. There is no similarly simple equation for the y variable, but it can be estimated for both edge rushers with tracking data…
Typically, the closer edge rusher is ~4.9 yards from the center point, while the farther player lines up ~5.5 yards away (or a 5.2 yard average for both). However, kick blockers typically extend their arms horizontally to deflect the kick and in practice a kick seems to be blockable 1–1.5 yards from the ball’s horizontal location. Eschewing a hyper-nuanced estimate, we can assume that the necessary straight-line distance to travel is 4² (horizontal) + 5² (vertical) = ~6.4 yards, with an approximate range of 6–7 yards.
The available time calculation is far simpler. As established in part one, the typical time from snap first movement to kick contact is just under 1.5 seconds. Initial horizontal kick speeds are generally over 25 yards per second and all-in (including an approximate <0.01 second contact time) the ball’s traveling time to the block point should add ~0.1 seconds. So, the edge rusher is generally afforded 1.55–1.6 seconds to block the kick.
A deeper look at these straight-line distance and time estimates explains the near impossibility of an edge-blocked field goal. Covering 6.4 yards in under 1.6 seconds requires a minimum average velocity of 4 yards per second (8.1 mph). As an absolute upper bound for early velocity, elite sprinters can cover 10 meters (10.94 yards) in 1.9 seconds and top combine performers top out at a ~1.5 second 10 yard split in the hand-started 40 yard dash. Given that the edge blocker’s task is further complicated by the curved path that they are forced to take, wearing pads and the chip-block they often receive, the margin for error is quite narrow.
Using player tracking data, it is possible to get a sense of the edge blocker’s typical velocity ramp-up. BDB data is provided in frames at 0.1 second intervals. Given the split-second nature of the outside rush, the exact moment of the snap is a crucial data point. It is difficult to verify the system’s snap timing precision externally, but the general pattern of the football’s tracked movement indicates that the data’s indicated snap time should largely be reliable (with some outliers presenting a “teleporting football”)…
Starting from the ball snap, we can visualize the frame-by-frame ramp-up of speed and distance traveled by edge blockers at several benchmarks…
Therein lies the rub: edge blockers generally accelerate far too slowly to have a realistic chance at reaching the block point. The above-derived 6.4 yard straight line distance (let alone the added length of a curved path) is not even approached by the 90th percentile frame-by-frame curve. It is difficult to assess the effect of blocking on the edge’s ramp-up, but understandably, edges are often left lightly or unblocked.
One caveat to this approach is that it ignores the effort level of the rusher. Often an edge does not seriously attempt to block the kick, potentially skewing the sample of the above plot. To circumvent this issue, we can restrict the sample to players that clear certain objective benchmarks that indicate high effort. The chosen benchmarks for “close” players are:
- Speed greater than 5 yds/sec before frame 15.
- Cumulative distance greater than 4 yds before frame 15.
Justin Bethel and Patrick Peterson were the 2 leaders in close plays in the 2020 tracking dataset. These restriction shrink the dataset by more than a third and naturally result in more promising curves.
Despite the improvement, the “close player” curves underline the difficulty of the edge blocker’s task. At the key frame 16 threshold, just the 90th percentile curve reaches the estimated distance benchmark of 6.4 yards traveled.
Despite the massive challenge, edge blockers do occasionally deflect a kick. What do the curves for a successful block look like? Here’s a sample block by Justin Bethel on an extra point in Week 7 of the 2020 season.
Bethel is left almost entirely unblocked and he manages to graze the kick (which is nearly good nevertheless!). From the video, it appears that the time from snap movement to kick contact is just over 1.4 seconds. Similarly, tracking data records the kick attempt at frame 14, with a presumed additional frame for ball flight. Bethel accelerates quickly, eclipsing 2 yards per second before frame 4 and 5 yards per second by 9 frames from ball snap, culminating in a cumulative distance of 6.2 yards at the 15th frame. By that time Bethel is moving at nearly 7 yards per second and is a bit more than two yards from the ball per the tracking data.
In sum, blocking a field goal off the edge conventionally requires a quick reaction to the snap, lightning-fast acceleration, a fairly direct path to the block point with minimal blocking impediments and preferably a slow snap to kick process. Given all those necessary factors, it’s no wonder that the successful outside block is so uncommon. However, if one had to distill the challenge of outside blocking into one core theme, it would be time, more precisely a lack of it. By the end of the field goal play, edge blockers are often moving at upwards of 6 yds/sec, meaning that each marginal frame of time would accrue >0.6 yds of distance, or approximately 1/10th of the original goal. A field goal process timed at 1.8 seconds would be far easier to block, even versus a marginal reduction in distance. Put differently, the ramp-up phase, in which it takes 8–10 frames to travel 2 yards, is the root issue.
This roadblock seems insurmountable. Human reaction time (as measured in elite sprinters) is limited to ~0.1–0.15 seconds and peak human ground forces (and resultant acceleration) are constrained as well. However, I’d like to highlight one approach that solved this problem in a stunning fashion.
In Week 2 of the 2023 season, the Patriots pulled off a unique play that instantly went viral. Before the snap, special teamer Brenden Schooler sprinted parallel to the line of scrimmage, then bent the edge and easily blocked a Jason Sanders 49 yard attempt. On his show, former punter Pat MacAfee commented that Schooler was likely able to time the snap perfectly based on a tell from the holder. Beyond a marvel of scouting and execution, this play is a triumph of speed/time over distance. Understanding why is a story of 4 snapshots.
The first comes at the time of the snap…
It is difficult to tell from a freeze-frame, but the ball is off the ground at this moment, as the snapper begins to snap the ball. Schooler is one yard behind the LOS (~7 yds from his eventual block point) and ~1 yard inside the numbers (~8.5 yds of distance horizontally). Overall, Schooler is 7² + 8.5² = 11 yards from the block point, compared with 6–7 yards for a conventional approach.
The next checkpoint occurs at the holder’s catch frame, approximately 0.55 seconds later…
There is still no distance advantage for Schooler. He’s barely passed the line of scrimmage and even trails some of his com-patriots. Measurements based on field landmarks indicate that he’s made up just 3–3.5 yards, leaving him ~7.8 yards to go. Then…
Boom! Definite progress from Schooler. Just ~0.4 seconds have passed and he’s moved within ~4.5 yards of his block point. Finally…
He’s there with time to spare! Schooler’s early leap actually serves to slow down his progress. Without it, he’d have flown by the block point before kick contact even occurred. Schooler’s approximate progress can be summarized in a single plot.
While the plot’s figures are certainly not pinpoint accurate, they reveal the reality underlying Schooler’s success: the triumph of speed over distance. Schooler’s significant distance disadvantage at the snap and even at the holder’s catch point is rendered irrelevant by his distance-churning speed. In fact, Schooler would’ve had a reasonable chance of blocking the kick from a start at the bottom of the numbers. However, Schooler’s average speed is not unattainable at peak from a conventional edge block attempt. He is simply offloading the costly ramp-up to before the snap, when time is a plentiful resource. Similar to outfield catch probability, when time is scarce, attaining peak speed as quickly as possible is the determining factor.
Brenden Schooler’s block was the epitome of a perfect football play, combining advanced scouting, creativity and execution. While it may be nearly impossible to replicate, the play, along with the difficulty of a conventional outside block attempt, illustrate the electric pace of the NFL and the scarcity of time that creates. This same concept underlies the explosion of pre-snap motion across the league and the success that motion has engendered for teams like the Dolphins, 49ers and Ravens. Despite the explosion of player (and coach) salaries and ever-growing cap, time is the truest currency in the NFL.
Thanks to the NFL Next Gen Stats team for openly providing (2022) Big Data Bowl tracking data of special teams plays. More of my work can be found here on Medium, at Down on The Farm and on Twitter @matan_writes.
