The knowledge one person has of the game does not foist that limit on everyone else.
It is not 2 or 10+. If one takes a pencil and paper and EMPIRICALLY counts the 1-2-3-4-5 routes run on each play and charts their length, it will be obvious only a small minority of routes are of the 2 yard variety. Most routes run will go for 5-7 plus YAC. And most 2 yard outs part of a larger game plan to hit a big play. Like Cobb and Nelson crossed at 2 yards and a few plays later faked the cross fro TD; or Bennett who ran a few 2 yard outs and then ran a 30 yard wheel off another.
If one assumes the receivers are running the correct, one can make an educated guess as to the progression You see Nelson run a 5 yard drag; Cobb run a 25 yard dig, we know for certain Nelson's read is before Cobb's. If we see Cobb left and Nelson right run a 5 yard drags and see the right OL opening a lane and left side blocking straight up; you know Nelson is read #1 and Cobb is either not in progression or his secondary move is the 2nd or 3rd read. If you take the time to break down every route, identify the assignment of the OLmen, you can see it come together too. Also, if you watch enough football and analysis of plays of those who do know; you'll see that very rarely is there all long routes. 90+% of the plays have a combo of shorter and longer routes, hot recievers on blitzs, etc. Now if you see 2 guys running short routes and 2 guys going deep, we dont need to be brain surgeons know which routes are the first reads, right?
So if all the short routs are open and the QB throws deep, the QB skipped the progression, right?
BTW, this is what defensive coordinators do, right? I mean they dont know the progressions, right? But, they can be damn good at figuring it out. To say, GB dont publish the reads, therefore no one can know what GB is doing is just absurdity at the highest level.
Can one know all he plays all the time? No, but the aforementioned is not armchair QBing, its just that some fans/defensive coordinators know or than others.
Originally Posted by: Barfarn