It’s a whole new world when rookies enter the NFL, no matter the level they played in college.
Coaches know part of the teaching process is to get rookies able to contribute as quickly as possible, while also understanding there can be anxious moments wondering how practice work will translate to games when everything is on the line.
Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said last week that “when you first get the rookies, you know the rookies don't know what's going on.”
Asked to expound on that and explain what that entails, he said, “Everything. Everything you can imagine. Coming to this league, just the speed is so different. Being in a new building a lot of the guys -- well I guess nowadays they might be in different rooms and different facilities
because of all the transfers and stuff -- but most of the time they've been in one place for a while and now it's a whole new environment. New people to work with and definitely new playbooks that are very, very intricate due to all the things that we see.”
Breaking it down to going against the defense in practice, Hackett said, “You get almost everything and more, which is great because it helps you for the season. But for a young player to have to be able to adjust and learn the basic system and then apply it to different defenses, it takes some time.
“So heads are spinning right now, especially after two days, but it'll just get better and better. That's the goal.”
Special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial was asked specifically about rookies adjusting to the new kickoff rule that is now in its third NFL season.
“I've said this before, but it's so different,” he said. “None of our game translates anymore from college to the NFL. I've always said that the purest form of football: block mechanics, block destruction, catching the ball, taking care of the football, tackling. All those things still show up.”
As for those rule changes, he said, “One of the things that we do to mitigate that is making every practice rep as game-like as possible. That's with their alignment. That's with the start of a drill. We don't do things here where we just do reps to get reps. We want to make every rep meaningful. That way, the transition once they get into their first preseason game is hopefully very seamless.”
Then, speaking generally for all rookies, Ghobrial noted that “the next thing that you deal with in your very first game in the National Football League is adrenaline. It's been a childhood dream of every one of these rookies to play in this first game. And when they get to that moment, it's like, ‘OK, I'm ready. I'm excited.’ And then you get to that opportunity, you also got to remind yourself not to make stuff up and not to resort to maybe what you have known best in the past.
“It's now moving forward saying, ‘This is how I operate at this level. These are the rules and I know I'm at this level for a reason.’ Those are all things that are good reminders for those young players to know.”
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: For rookies in the NFL, it’s usually baptism under fire
