I would ordinarily include the quarter eagle and hit progression drills at this point. However, since I have already included these drills in my articles on linebacker and defensive backfield play, I didn't feel the necessity for them here. I would simply refer you to those articles.

When we begin to talk of defensive line play, we have to define the style of play, the scheme, level, and player ability etc. etc. Obviously, we would like to have them all big, strong, agile, interchangeable and smart. Unfortunately, in the real world, that never happens.

Therefore, for the sake of argument, what we're talking about is a typical 4-3 defense with two inside tackles and two outside ends. The position requirements and resposibilities are very much different from each other. Generally speaking, the two defensive tackles are usually larger, slower players that must take care of the inside run. While the two outside players are "edge" guys that must have outstanding quickness and be able to rush the passer.

This is my 50th hub since I began writing on July 4th.  Since that time I have learned to add diagrams and am going back and adding these drawings to hubs I wrote earlier. Therefore if you read an earlier article and it didn't make sense to you without a diagram, you might want to check it out lately. Also, I welcome any and all comments you might want to make. Thanks for your perusal.........