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Ryan Grant breaks the huddle. He's 7 yards, maybe 6 1/2, behind the line. His hands are on his knees. He tries to relax.
"It's like the calm before the storm," he says.
Grant, the Green Bay Packers' featured running back for the fourth straight season, has run thousands of inside zone plays since being acquired from the New York Giants for a sixth-round draft choice in September 2007.
This is the story of what he sees, what he feels and what he does on an inside zone.
Let's make it first down near midfield. Green Bay is in base personnel, with a fullback in front of Grant and a tight end next to the right tackle.
Across the line, it's a standard 4-3 defense, with the nose tackle in the gap between the left guard and center and the "three-technique" defensive tackle playing on the outside shoulder of the right guard.
There's a weak-side linebacker stacked in the B gap to the left and a middle linebacker stacked off the A gap just to the right of the center.
Mike McCarthy decides to run an inside zone to the left, with Grant carrying off the weak side of the defense.
"I move my head all the time," Grant says of his pre-snap routine. "They can read my eyes but they don't know where I'm going (because) I'm not staring there. I'm reading the defense. I know the blocking scheme, so I know where bodies should be and where to look maybe for a free hat (defensive player)."
Grant has been a running back since his junior year at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J. He spent five years at Notre Dame, and this is his sixth season in the National Football League.
In 2004, Grant scored 29 and 26 on the Wonderlic intelligence test, well above the overall NFL average of 19 or 20. He earned degrees in sociology and computer science. Not many running backs bring the intellectual capacity to the workplace that Grant does.
Some of what makes for a successful running back is God-given. Grant, an excellent basketball player, readily acknowledges that.
Yet, as Grant reflects upon his livelihood, he attributes a good level of his success to tape-room study.
As Grant gazes at the defensive alignment, the play about to be run has been simulated in practice all week. Joe Philbin, the offensive coordinator, actually stands behind the scout defense to ensure that the look is as representative as possible of what the opponent has shown on tape.
The Packers will have run the inside zone against the team's various fronts many times in practice, and then watched tapes of those plays. However, what's diagrammed onto cards to assist the scout defense isn't always what foes present on Sunday.
"The thing about football, players move," Grant says. "As a team we do a really good job of scouting. We block plays on what we think is going to work. A lot of times in games we say they're doing the same thing we thought they would. But sometimes they play it a little differently."
Vision critical for Grant
Armed with four years of experience running the same inside zone play, Grant then has as many as 10 seconds before the ball is snapped to scan the defense.
"Initially, I'm looking at the front four," he says. "Then the linebackers, then where the safeties are. Whether that safety's down strong, or down in the box on my (weak) side."
Grant also glances to see how the cornerback on the play side is lined up in relation to the wide receiver across from him.
"Where that corner is determines whether the wide receiver is going to block him or go to the safety," he says. "Being comfortable with Greg (Jennings) and 'Drive' (Donald Driver), I know a lot of times. I want to be on the same page as them."
Everyone on offense has been given an aiming point on the inside zone, even Aaron Rodgers. He has handed the ball to Grant thousands of times. The handoff must be precise and secure.
"Then when the ball's snapped, your first read is the (defensive) tackles," says Grant. "It depends on the block. They might reach-(block) the (nose) tackle, or he might try to shoot across the face. If he gets reached and washed down, chances are I might keep the play play-side.
"Then I read the next guy, the play-side D-end. Because if he gets washed down, it might be a double bounce (outside). Then I'm reading the linebackers."
Grant is trying to "create a play," in his words, in what he describes as his "option one-cut" directive. Grant snaps his fingers. These instantaneous decisions before contact are critical to the result of the play.
In a worst-case scenario, one of the interior linemen misses his block, giving Grant unwelcome and immediate company in the backfield.
"Make the first guy miss. Regardless," he says. "It doesn't make a difference. My job is to not necessarily worry about whether or not they're blocking. In the game of football, I've got to trust. For a team to work you have to rely on your teammates. We hold each other accountable. Sometimes things happen."
Decisions must wait
If the blockers prevent penetration, the carry at worst should make it back to the line. Many factors will determine the extent of the gain, but the cat-and-mouse game that Grant plays with the linebacker is as crucial as any.
Edgar Bennett, the club's running backs coach, teaches his charges to "press" the hole.
"That means I am running in that direction as long as possible before I make a decision on my line," says Grant. "You've heard people say he makes a cut at the heels of his linemen. That's pressing the hole. It brings the linebackers whatever direction you're running, which helps the linemen because it engages them. It brings the linebackers up."
In both the inside and outside zone runs - the other staple of the Packers' ground game in which Rodgers stretches the handoff to Grant as he moves toward a wider aiming point - Grant has the freedom to make his one cut and then veer to the other side of center. Many of his long runs have come on cutbacks.
"I study linebackers," says Grant. "Some are fast-flow. If I look at a particular linebacker and I know that he likes to run side-to-side, and initially when I take that step they fly over the top, then I'll try to make them fly over the top and cut back and make it easier on myself.
"If I know a linebacker is a downhill type, I'm going to set him up. Make him come downhill and engage with my fullback.
"I'm known as a quote-unquote cutback runner, and teams scout that."
Physicality is a big part
Thus far, playing running back in the NFL must seem to be a fairly clinical exercise.
Now comes the fun part.
"You're almost guaranteed contact on every play," Grant says. "Whether it's getting hit because you have the ball or pass protecting. Even when you fake sometimes you get hit. There are times I get hit by five, six, seven guys. And you take that the whole game.
"Being a running back is not for everyone. A lot of people are high school running backs and a few are college running backs. Not too many people want to continue doing it.
"You've got to be a different type of person. I think people do trivialize the position we play. When was the last time you saw somebody turn into a running back? Think about it. It doesn't happen. You're either a running back or you're not. People don't want to get hit."
What do scouts talk about seeking in a linebacker? They want players with a "nose for the ball," those who "pack a punch" and play with "reckless abandon."
Boil it down and the best linebackers are those that hit running backs the hardest.
Finally, Grant is in and among the scrum. He packs 224 pounds on his 6-foot-1-inch frame, with size 13 feet and about 4% body fat. His high white socks stretched tightly over the green ones provide a distinctive marking.
Fitness makes difference
If Grant isn't the best-conditioned player on the roster, he says he'd rank among the top five.
"My body's my job," says Grant, who hasn't missed a game for the Packers. "Being able to go out there every day and work is important to me. I think that separates different backs. . . . I think sometimes people take that for granted."
Grant isn't any more padded up than most running backs. His Douglas shoulder pads are standard for the position. Extending down beneath his jersey is a flap to protect his back.
He inserts knee and thigh pads into his uniform pants but they aren't custom-sized. After suffering a concussion Aug. 14 against Cleveland, he switched to a new air helmet manufactured by Schutt.
As for hip-butt pads, which are mandatory in college football, Grant doesn't wear any. He would never play without a mouthpiece, but there's nothing protecting his ribs.
"The way I figure it, if I'm getting hit in my ribs, I'm running too high," he says. "You're going to take shots in your hips, but I don't know anyone who wears hip pads. As football players we might sacrifice protection for movement and speed."
The worst hits, according to Grant, are the ones he doesn't see coming. He's occupied trying to beat one tackler when another might slam him from the blind side.
Before the blows begin to rain, however, Grant makes one final assessment.
"You're looking at angles," he says. "What angles do I have on people, and what angles do people have on me? Are they playing downhill, or are they sitting back on their heels?
"Can I run through? Can I make them miss? Can I set up a block on somebody?"
The safety dance
If Grant's brain is going as fast as his legs and feet, it's just part of how a running back must do business.
Now let's assume the play has been blocked the way it was diagrammed, Grant is on the proper path and he has broken clear of the front seven. More times than not, the deep safety now has come up and is the last man capable of turning a 40-yard gain into just 8 or 10.
"I know, for the most part, safeties don't want to tackle," says Grant. "I don't know if they're afraid of me, but I think I'm in their head. I'm a big guy and also, I've done it. There are a few safeties who do a good job but, for the most part, they like to play with angles."
When he finds himself one-on-one with the safety, Grant remains as patient as he can in hopes the safety will commit first.
"No different than pressing the hole," he says. "It's much harder for him to tackle me and react to what I'm doing if I do it closer to him. If I decide 15 yards back to cut right, he can play me to the right. But if I run at him, put him in a bind and then I cut right, he's got to decide fast. The safety might decide to go low before I even do something."
Sometimes on an outside zone Grant will circle wide and turn the corner. Almost always, a defender, often a safety, will be coming across to knock him out of bounds.
On the one hand, Grant is cognizant about ducking under some shots and "getting skinny" to avoid some others. The average life span for an NFL back is 2.6 years, and Grant hasn't doubled that figure by absorbing shots frivolously.
He draws the line, however, when it comes to collisions near the boundary.
"The approach I've taken is I don't run out of bounds," Grant says. "I'm not an Earl Campbell, someone who likes to just run over everybody. I just like to play from an attack mode.
"If I can get to them first it wears on them more than it wears on me. When you have guys come up to you after games and say, 'Whoa. I didn't think you were going to do that,' that lets me know I got them."
The aftermath
Now the grueling game is over. Like most of his peers, Grant wants the ball 25 times each week. The physical toll that it takes on a back's body doesn't register until the adrenaline rush of Sunday wears off.
Anywhere from an hour to two hours later, Grant crashes. Sleep is his only desire.
The next morning Grant slowly begins moving different parts of his body in a weekly self-examination. Within a few hours he will have worked up a sweat just to get the blood flowing.
"I just put my body through serious trauma and I've got to do it again in another six days," he says. "Part of being a pro is knowing your body."
The passing game places an entirely different set of demands on a running back. That's a story for another time.
"At the end of the day I know my worth," Grant says. "As a back, you take it one carry at a time. It's football. You get your bell rung."
