Understanding the Playbook

By Gus Ornstein

In the NFL there are 32 teams and that means there are 32 different offenses. As you move from team to team through a career, as I did, you start to realize that a lot of teams are running the same plays but calling them by different names. It is very much like a foreign language in the sense that the English word for a four legged house pet that barks is “dog” but if we were in France they would call it a “chien”. These words may sound completely different but they mean the exact same thing and that is how it is in the NFL with team playbooks.

I recently had the opportunity to chat with TE Daniel Wilcox who was a teammate of mine with the NY Jets about this exact subject. Daniel is now with the Baltimore Ravens and since they have hired new head coach John Harbough, he is in the process of learning another new playbook. In this interview, Daniel discusses how he goes about understanding yet another “foreign” language!!

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