A lot of coaches put the jet sweep in because it looks easy. Snap the ball to a kid running full speed, let him get to the edge, and pick up chunk yards. Then they run it a few times, it gets stuffed for a loss, and they decide the jet doesn't work for their team. Almost every time, the play didn't fail because of the motion or the speed. It failed because it wasn't blocked right.
The jet sweep is a fast play, but it's still a blocked play. If you treat it like a gimmick and don't teach the blocking with the same care you'd give your base run, it will let you down when you need it. Get the assignments clean, though, and the jet becomes one of the best edge plays you've got, and it makes everything else in your offense hit harder.
The jet is an edge race, so win the edge
The whole play is a race to the corner. Your motion man is trying to beat the defense to the edge, which means your blocking has to do two things, seal the inside pursuit and turn the corner defender out. If either one of those fails, the play dies. The back either gets caught from behind by inside pursuit or he gets strung out and shoved out of bounds by the edge defender.
So before you worry about anything fancy, make sure you've answered two questions on every jet call. Who's kicking out or reaching the man on the edge so the ball can turn up, and who's cutting off the backside so nobody chases the play down from the inside. If those two jobs are covered, the jet has a lane. If they're not, it doesn't matter how fast your kid is.
Reach the edge, wall the inside
The play-side blocking is about reaching and turning. Your play-side linemen and any wing or tight end to that side are trying to reach their man, get their body between the defender and the sideline, and turn him so the ball can bend up off their block. The key coaching point is the first step. A reach block that starts with a false step or a step upfield loses the race, and the defender crosses your blocker's face to make the tackle. Flat first step, get the outside arm across, run the feet.
The backside blocking is about cutting off pursuit. Those linemen aren't chasing the play, they're cutting off the defenders who would. Their job is to seal the inside so nothing crosses their face to run the ball down. On the jet, the defenders that kill you are the ones who come flat down the line from the backside, and disciplined cutoff blocks are what stop them.
Handle the edge defender on purpose
The one defender you can't leave to chance is the man on the edge, the end or outside linebacker who's responsible for containing the play. You need a plan for him on every call, and it usually comes down to one of two things. Either you reach and turn him with the man outside him, or you kick him out with a puller or a wing and run inside of that kick.
The mistake is leaving that edge defender unaccounted for and hoping your speed beats him. Good defenses set the edge on purpose, and if you don't have a blocker assigned to him, your fast kid runs right into a defender who was coached to keep the ball inside. Assign him every time.
Build in the answers off the jet
Here's where the jet stops being a play and becomes a series, and where the blocking really pays off. Because the jet forces the defense to fly to the edge, you get a built-in counter, the fake jet and give it back inside, blocked like an inside run while the defense chases the motion. You also get the jet pass off the same look. When you block the jet honestly and rep it enough that the defense respects it, those complementary plays open up on their own.
That's the payoff. A well-blocked jet doesn't just get you edge yards, it stresses the defense so hard that your inside runs and your play-action get easier. A poorly blocked jet gets you nothing and teaches the defense they don't have to respect it.
What to drill this week
To get your jet blocking right:
- Assign the edge defender on every call, reach-and-turn or kick-out, never leave him to chance.
- Drill the play-side reach block with a flat first step, on air, every day.
- Teach your backside linemen to cut off inside pursuit instead of chasing the play.
- Rep the fake-jet give and the jet pass off the exact same look so the series comes alive.
- Run it at full speed against a scout team, because the jet is timing and walk-through speed will fool you.
Blocked with care, the jet sweep is a weapon. Treated like a gadget, it's a turnover waiting to happen. The difference is entirely in the teaching.
If you want the full jet package, blocking rules, formations, and the plays that come off it, the Jet Sweep Series PowerPoint breaks the whole series down for five dollars. And to make your in-game decisions easy, the Jet IF/THEN Card gives you a simple call sheet for what to run off the jet based on how the defense is reacting to it.