Some interesting comments from Isaiah Hodgins

[MightyGiants]

How does a wide receiver who runs a 4.61-second 40-yard dash get open against NFL cornerbacks? For Hodgins, it's all about the finer points of route running.

"I'm loose with the wiggle at the top of the route," Hodgins said. "Corners are some of the fastest people on the field. You're not going to be able to just outrun them all the time. There's going to be times where it's like, 'OK, now I've got to craft and use my footwork and my hips and my head and shoulders and wiggle off of it.'"

"In the red zone, you can't really use speed unless you're just running a shallow across the field," Hodgins said. "You can only go so far, so you have to be able to wiggle a little bit and be loose to shake a defender off of you. That's when some of those whip routes and those double moves have come in."

"Games and practices are so different," Hodgins said. "In practices, a lot of stuff is scripted like, 'We want this person to do this.' You can control that. ... I had so many touchdowns last year that I literally didn't catch one time throughout practices. It was just that Daniel read it out, it played out like this, the defense did this, and that's how it happened."

https://theathletic.com/4846669/2023/09/09/new-york-giants-nfl-season-jalin-hyatt/

[Bob In PA]

The last of those is the "secret" (not making a comparison, but think Brady/Gronk for example).

There are pairs (QB/WR) who are simply on the same wave-length and see the game the same way.

That type of connection is rare, and it mystifies even the most knowledgeable football people.

Bob

[Slugsy-Narrows]

Hodgins other good point is that it's how a WR sells his route!

WRs that can sell breaking one way and force a DB to lean one way while they break another is important especially if you don't have that top end speed!  The wiggle as he called it.

He is using head and feet to fake out DBs!  That is where the separation of a good or great route runner comes in.

Playing soccer coaches used to teach us watch the hips, a player can move their head and feet and do crazy things with the ball but where the hips go the player must.  Not sure if that works in football when you also have to watch for the football and other players

[Bob In PA]

Playing soccer coaches used to teach us watch the hips, a player can move their head and feet and do crazy things with the ball but where the hips go the player must.  Not sure if that works in football when you also have to watch for the football and other players

Slugs: Same for basketball. Bob

[GMenRF]

Hodgins other good point is that it's how a WR sells his route!

WRs that can sell breaking one way and force a DB to lean one way while they break another is important especially if you don't have that top end speed!  The wiggle as he called it.

He is using head and feet to fake out DBs!  That is where the separation of a good or great route runner comes in.

Playing soccer coaches used to teach us watch the hips, a player can move their head and feet and do crazy things with the ball but where the hips go the player must.  Not sure if that works in football when you also have to watch for the football and other players

Like the song right - Hips don't lie 

[Ed Vette]

So now we Boogie and Wiggle. Whatever works. His best asset is finding the soft spot in Zone Coverage.

[RelaxTension]

Hodgins other good point is that it's how a WR sells his route!

WRs that can sell breaking one way and force a DB to lean one way while they break another is important especially if you don't have that top end speed!  The wiggle as he called it.

He is using head and feet to fake out DBs!  That is where the separation of a good or great route runner comes in.

Playing soccer coaches used to teach us watch the hips, a player can move their head and feet and do crazy things with the ball but where the hips go the player must.  Not sure if that works in football when you also have to watch for the football and other players

I read an article on Tyrek Hill and he explains that he knows CBs are coached to look at the hips so he waits as long as possible before he shifts his on his cuts. I always thought he ran funny but after this article I understood why he looked different.