Slant vs. Shade: What Is Best For Your Defensive Linemen?

There’s more than one way to dominate up front. Are you doing what’s best for your team?

Most High School defenses will use a mix of slanting and shading. Few play the same every down.

There are advantages and disadvantages of both. It depends on your kids, and your scheme.

Scheme is a big factor. Odd fronts tend to use more slanting. The Odd Stack and 3-4 Defense normally slant.

I’ve left a third technique off – playing a head up, 2 gap defensive lineman. Some coaches do this, and have success. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you really know how to teach it though.

Even fronts like the 4-3 Defense and 4-4 / 4-2-5 Defense play more shades. The Over and Under front use an outside shade on the majority of snaps.

Advantages of Slant Technique

You feel a little more aggressive as a coach, when you coach a slanting defensive. You’re trying to attack something.

Use slants to utilize your quickness up front. Make your guys harder to find.

There is no pre-snap tell when you use a head-up defender who slants on the snap. They don’t know where you are going to be.

When you make your play calls to create new fronts, instead of just calling at random, the offense has no way of knowing what you’ll be in after the ball is snapped.

Advantages of Shade Technique

Fooling the other team isn’t what it’s all about, though. You can sacrifice disguise for the ability to be comfortable and read the blocks.

From a shade, your defensive lineman knows where he’s going. And he is in a great position to read the block of the Offensive Lineman.

You react on the snap of the ball. When your block reactions up front are great, it doesn’t matter if they know where you are or where you’re going.

You still win the battle. A well coached Even Front Defense is a beautiful thing.

Slant Technique Cons

Why wouldn’t you slant? You’ve got speed. They can’t find you!

When you slant on the snap, you can get caught in your slants and washed. Zone blocking teams can do a great job of this.

It is also harder to read, and react, to what the Offensive Line is doing. Reading on the run is easy to say, harder to execute.

Slanting is about dictating to the other team. But there is an element of guessing to it.

Shade Technique Cons

When you play in a shade technique, the Offensive Line knows exactly where you’re going to be. Other than a small percentage of snaps where you stunt across the face, they’ve got you.

Playing from a shade is tough for smaller Defensive Linemen. That doesn’t mean you can’t play your even front against bigger opponents, but you do lose some of your speed advantage.

Need to decide what defense is right for your team? Download my Defensive Installation Manual and follow the 7 step process to choosing the right defense for your program.