Handoff mesh

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American football drill · Under-8 and up

A fumbled handoff loses more yards in youth football than any defence does, and nearly every one is the same mistake: the back reaching for the ball instead of letting it be put into them. This drill builds the mesh, the pocket the back makes and the quarterback fills, and then makes the quarterback carry out the fake so the defence has to respect it.

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Time
8 minutes
Players
2 at a time, from a quarterback line and a back line
Equipment
  • 1 or 2 balls
  • 4 cones

Setup

  1. Put the quarterback four yards behind the line of scrimmage with the ball.
  2. Line the backs up four yards behind the quarterback and seven yards to their left, so they arrive at the mesh at speed.
  3. On the snap count the back runs across the quarterback's face, takes the handoff, and runs through a gap between two cones on the line.
  4. After the handoff the quarterback keeps going the other way, as if they still had the ball.
  5. Back and quarterback swap lines after each rep.

Coaching points

  • Back: make a pocket. Inside elbow up, outside hand under it, and eyes on the gap, not the ball.
  • Quarterback: put the ball into the pocket, at the belly, and take your hands away.
  • Back: clamp it with both hands and keep it there until you are through the line.
  • Quarterback: carry out the fake for five yards. A fake that stops at the handoff fools nobody.

On the run sheet: Back makes the pocket, inside elbow up, quarterback puts it in, back clamps it and runs, quarterback fakes the other way

Progressions

  1. Run it to both sides, so the backs learn to make the pocket with either arm up.
  2. Add a defender seven yards off who has to decide who has the ball and pull a flag.
  3. Mix in a fake handoff and a pass, so the defender cannot just follow the back.

How it runs

The back starts deep and to one side, runs across the quarterback's face, and makes a pocket with their arms as they arrive. The quarterback puts the ball into it, the back clamps it and runs through the line, and the quarterback keeps going the other way as though they had kept it. The animation shows that sequence: the back arriving at the mesh at speed, the exchange without the back slowing down, then the run up through the line while the quarterback carries out the fake the other way.

This drill assumes flag rules where a handoff behind the line of scrimmage is legal and the quarterback cannot run the ball themselves, as in NFL FLAG. In those rules a handoff also changes the rush: once the ball has been handed off, defenders no longer have to stay behind the seven-yard rush line. A run is not a legal call inside a no-run zone, so set this one up in the middle of the field.

Why it works

The back cannot see the ball and the gap at once, and the gap is more important. So the drill takes the ball off the back's list: they make the pocket, and the quarterback's job is to fill it. The fake is the other half. A flag defence with nothing to read follows the ball, and a quarterback who sells the fake every time makes them stop and look.

The mistakes to watch for

Backs reaching out with their hands to grab the ball, which knocks it loose. Quarterbacks who watch the back run away instead of faking. And backs who carry it in one hand as soon as they are through, when the defender is about to arrive.

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