I group reading a defense and going through progressions together, as you need one with the other, I think most people would.
I would just call it reading the defense and not really going through progressions, I think that's the main difference I have.
Usually a play is drawn for a primary route, with the other routes taking coverage away from that player so they are more open, but that depends on the defense.
I disagree somewhat. Some plays are like that like screens and such where you are going to throw it to the primary receiver almost without fail. That's not really what we are talking about here. What we are talking about are plays where the receivers have multiple route combinations depending upon how the defense plays them. That's the typical pass play where the QB is taking a 3 or 5 step drop and reading the defense.
Yes, a QB has to be able to read a defense which in turn gives the QB the opportunity to read who is open, i.e. progressions. Man vs. Zone, a different receiver will be open depending on the defense, which I agree is very important.
I somewhat disagree again. I don't think a QB is looking at who is open, he's determining who is GOING to be open and when. He's doing that by looking at the defense, not looking at his WR's. He knows the receivers routes already, he doesn't need to look at them to determine if they are going to be open, rather he's looking at the defensive players and reading those players and what they are doing. Do they have their back to the QB? Are they taking away the inside or the outside? Do they have help or on an island, etc etc. Based on that information they know which WR SHOULD be covered and which WR SHOULD be open at some point in the route tree and when that will be and that's what makes their decision as to who they are going to throw to. If they wait till they see the receiver open, it's too late by then, the ball already has to be gone so that it's arriving at the time and the place where the reciever is open.
There is a progression of reads though, say your primary is doubled, you need to go to your second or third receiver.
This happens at the snap or shortly thereafter and honestly the QB doesn't really need to look at his receivers to know this, they know based on the coverage and they can see that by scanning the whole field, not by looking at one receiver.
A good QB can read a defense, where the safeties will be and such, and go through their reads in a second, basing that off of the defense.
Exactly. There's no progression looking at their own receivers, they are reading the defense with their eyes and they don't need to look at their receivers. This is why I say progressions is not really what they do. The only time they really need to look at the receivers is once they have read the defense and decided where to go with the football, they need to make sure the receiver read the defense the same way and is on the same page and is running the route they expect, hasn't fallen down or been knocked off their route, the throwing lane isn't blocked or something like that because sometimes that happens and THAT'S the only time they need to adjust where they are going with the football. Everything else has already been decided at that point.
In my opinion a QB who has to go through progressions is not really reading the defense and picking the optimum player to throw to, he's looking to see which one is open because he really hasn't diagnosed the play and doesn't really know which one is gonna be open based on the coverage. That's not a strength, that's a weakness in my opinion. The guy that has to go through 2 or 3 receivers to find the right guy to throw to is not really the guy you want. You want the guy who's able to pick out the right guy without having to go through the WR's 1 by 1. In my opinion Herbert is better at picking the right guy more often then Love is which is why you don't see him moving from receiver to receiver. In my opinion Herbert is better then Love at reading the defense which is why he seldom has to go away from his read. That seems to be confirmed by higher completion percentage and lower interception numbers.
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