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defensive technique

Defense

also: technique numbers · alignment numbers · 2i · 4i · shade

The numbering system for where a defensive lineman stands relative to an offensive lineman. Even numbers are head up, odd numbers are a shoulder, and an i means the inside shoulder.

Defense

defensive technique, the numbering system

A scale counted outward from the center: 0 is head up on the center, 2 head up on the guard, 4 head up on the tackle, 6 head up on the tight end. Odd numbers are outside shoulders, so 1 is a shade of the center, 3 the guard's outside shoulder, 5 the tackle's outside shoulder, 9 wide outside the tight end. An i suffix means the inside shoulder instead, which is why 4i sits inside the tackle and 2i inside the guard. Seven is the tight end's inside shoulder, and eight is not used.

The scale names a MAN and a SHOULDER. Gap letters name a SPACE. That is the whole difference. It is why a three technique and the B gap point at almost the same ground without being the same statement.

Also calledtechnique numbers, alignment numbers

Not to be confused withgap letters, hole numbers, receiver numbers

Reference

Techniques are shoulders ON linemen, numbered outward. Defense only. Even is head up, odd is a shoulder, and an i moves an even number to the inside shoulder.

A line of scrimmage with the offensive linemen drawn as boxes. Gap letters A, B, C and D sit above the line in the spaces between linemen, mirrored on both sides. Defensive technique numbers sit below the line on the shoulders they name, reading 9, 6, 7, then 5, 4, 4i, then 3, 2, 2i, then 1, 0, 1 from the outside in. A 5 and a 7 sit either side of the C gap.

Number	Measured on	Alignment	Gap it declares	Note
0	center	head up	none, which is what makes it a two-gap alignment	The true nose. Two-gaps the center.
1	center	outside shoulder	A	A shade. Said alone, 'a shade' usually means this.
2i	guard	inside shoulder	A
2	guard	head up	none, which is what makes it a two-gap alignment
3	guard	outside shoulder	B	The attacking interior spot, and a body type as much as an alignment.
4i	tackle	inside shoulder	B
4	tackle	head up	none, which is what makes it a two-gap alignment
5	tackle	outside shoulder	C
6	tight end	head up	none, which is what makes it a two-gap alignment
7	tight end	inside shoulder	C	Shares the C gap with a 5, on the other side of it.
9	tight end	outside	D	Wider than a 6. There is no 8 in common use, which is the scale's one real irregularity.

A note on how the term is used

The origin is worth knowing because the credit is misplaced. The scale was worked out by Bum Phillips, a Texas high school coach, and became standard nomenclature after he joined Bear Bryant's staff at Texas A&M in 1958. Bryant is routinely credited with inventing it and did not, and said so himself. The most universal defensive vocabulary in football came from a high school coach and is attributed to the most famous college coach in the sport.

One drift worth flagging: in Phillips' original version a three technique sat in the MIDDLE of the B gap, where the common modern teaching is the outside shoulder of the guard. Nearly the same place, not the same instruction.

Receiver numbers are also small integers and mean something entirely unrelated: they count receivers outward from the ball. Our own diagram editor puts receiver-number chips and technique-number chips in adjacent rows with nothing distinguishing them, which is filed as taitsmp/fb-clips-cf-monorepo#1351.

Where you will hear it

essentially every defense
the Bum Phillips lineage

By level

The scale is standard enough to rely on, but individual staffs drift, and there are documented cases of a school shifting the whole thing a notch so their five is head up on the tackle. The tight end numbers drift most.

Related terms

gap letters
hole numbers
receiver numbers