The thing you will often see an offense use to confuse a defense is pre-snap movement — either a formation shift or a man in motion. Coaches believe it is two things: fun and lethal.

The thinking is that they will be difficult to defend and, at the same time, they won’t overload their offensive linemen or quarterback with too much to remember as the teaching remains the same each week.
For them, the benefits of pre-snap movements are as follows:
- Simplifies the defense – It causes defenses to make multiple checks prior to the snap which can force them to play mostly base defense. This helps the offensive line.
- Motion Causes Emotion – Movement makes defenses tentative because they’re not sure what will happen next. For most defenders, it forces them to think, and when they’re thinking, they’re not as aggressive.
- Prevents the defense from matching up their best defenders on our playmakers – By changing up where they line up their “go-to guys”, they prevent the defense from getting their best defenders on their biggest offensive threats.
- Creates opportunities for our playmaker – Moving their playmakers around can create touches for them in a variety of ways. This is a way of making sure that their playmakers touch the ball enough in order for them to be successful.
- Allows for Multiplicity – Movement will give them an opportunity to run their plays from a variety of formations and looks, which allow them to exploit a specific weakness in the defense.
- Gain leverage on defenses – They can get an extra player to the point of attack by motioning or shifting. They can also get to unbalanced formations to cause problems for defenses.
Manipulating a defense is the main goal of any pre-snap movement, be it a trade, a man in motion, or a shift. The idea is to “change the picture for the defense” before the ball is snapped and get them thinking because, as coaches know from experience, when a defense is thinking, it’s stinking.
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Tags: defense, Go=to=Guys, Leverage, Mismatches, Motion, Offense, Shifts, Trades, Unbalanced