Using a Nick Bolton Film Review to Understand LB Reads
Nick Bolton's mental processing is one of his top traits, so let's dive into how that makes him a good LB.
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The Kansas City Chiefs first pick in the 2021 NFL Draft caught a fair amount of people by surprise as they selected Nick Bolton, a linebacker out of Missouri. It wasn’t so much the player that caught people off guard but the fact that the Chiefs had just spent a second round pick on the same position the year before when they selected Willie Gay Jr. So now, the Chiefs have extremely heavy investment - especially including Anthony Hitchens’ salary on top of this - in an LB group that has long been considered one of the weaker points of the team.
It’s going to be up to these two young draft picks to make strides and make them quickly. If all goes well, the Chiefs having drafted back to back second round LBs won’t be any sort of issue in a few years as they will have the second level of their defense locked up. Gay profiles best as a run-and-chase LB in which his top end athleticism shines and he can grow into the mental processing side.
The hopeful running mate, Bolton, should be working to compete for SAM reps in 2021 and becoming the eventual MIKE LB of the Chiefs to pair with Willie Gay Jr. Most people’s thoughts on Nick Bolton have been well established, so for this review on Nick Bolton the focus is going to be a little more specific and narrowed down. Operating under the assumption that Willie Gay Jr will be the future WILL LB for the Chiefs; the goal was to break down how and why Nick Bolton should be a quality running mate as the future MIKE LB of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Nick Bolton Film Review (and LB lessons)
As mentioned above, this review is going to be a little different than some of the other Rookie Film Review Series in the past. Instead of just an all encompassing look at what Bolton does well, the focus will be on arguably his biggest strength. When you really dive into Bolton’s tape it’s hard to start anywhere besides his mental processing - especially between the tackles - and that just happens to be a perfect fit next to Willie Gay.
Reading Keys
The simplest way to become a quality LB in the NFL is to be one of the 0.1% of the 1% in terms of athleticism. Once it’s accepted that a player isn’t that, the next quickest path is to understand the game from top to bottom. The most important skill for a LB to possess is the ability to process multiple moving parts in front of them at the same time.
The focus of this article is going to be on the run game and in the real world, that’s the first read that has to be made. Does the OL fire off the ball with low pads or do the step-back with a high helmet? It sounds relatively simple and something most players can do but the ability to do it immediately is what separates the great ones.
Now is where it gets slightly more complicated. A LB has to be able to read multiple things simultaneously to get the best results. Some coaches will limit a LB to just one or two reads to help them play fast and it can have some success, but once you get the NFL there will be more times than not in which the ability to read the “triangle” becomes a must. So what is the triangle?
In its simplest form, the “triangle” of LB reads is the shape formed between the three most important things they will need to see to properly process the play. So on this particular play, Nick Bolton is aligned as our MIKE LB to the left of the offense. His keys will be the nearest OG - the left OG -, the nearest RB to the football, and then the football.
There is some debate as to which order the reads should be made, with the “RB first” camp claiming it allows faster flowing LBs whereas the “OG first” camp will fall back on it being a more accurate read. At the NFL level, the latter appears to be more common as teams become better at running misdirection and the gaps in athleticism has been greatly reduced.
Then a LB has to determine what to do with these reads once they’ve made them. In most cases, these key reads are being used to determine the direction of the run, the type of running play, and the aiming point. This is why starting with the OG can be more accurate as it’s much easier for a RB to flash misdirection until the last second than it is an OG that needs to get through the gap.
This is an area that Nick Bolton shows relatively well for a college player. There are plenty of examples of him not only making the correct read but doing so based on both the OG and the RB. Especially on runs between the tackles, Bolton does a great job quickly identifying the direction, the type of run, and the aiming point. Determining all of these factors let Bolton know how to flow to the football.
Flowing to the football
After making the correct read, the next step is getting to the football. Generally speaking, there are countless paths that a LB can take but to keep it as simple as possible, here are four very common ones that should encompass most plays.
Any LB can utilize any version of these based on the reads they get in front of them. From the most direct to the least: hard flow refers to a direct and downhill path into the LoS, full flow refers to closing distance to the LOS then scraping laterally while staying square, fast flow is an opening of the hips and then working down the LoS as fast as possible, and finally slow flow is used to maintain control of cutback lanes while working laterally down the LoS.
The combination of running direction, blocking type, and RB aiming point will tell a LB where they need to get too to defend the play. Making the correct read but utilizing the wrong flow will often result in a gap left open and an easy running lane for the RB to find.
This is an area that Nick Bolton has some ups and downs in. When taking the more direct paths - hard and full flow paths - he does a great job locating open gaps early and filling them. His ability on full flow plays to close distance to the LoS, mirror the RB in either direction, and then explode into a gap results in some of his best plays.
On the other hand, Bolton’s fast flow has a tendency to be a little behind when the run is wide. He flashes the ability to open his ups and get to runs just outside the C or D gap at times but there is a significant lack of consistency. The lack of top end speed does show up from time to time when asked to fast flow from the backside of plays as well.
Putting it all together
Once the entire process is pressed together in roughly a single second, it’s hard to split it apart in different sections. This is what makes playing LB one of the hardest positions in the NFL because of how quickly all of this happens on the field just so the LB can then chase down some of the best athletes in the world.
Bolton does a good job seamlessly working from reading the play to flowing towards the ball. For this reason, he makes a really good candidate for a potential MIKE LB in the future as well as a player that could make some waves early on as a SAM. Bolton excels reading the run between the tackles and should be able to have a long career doing just that in the NFL.
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