Michigan Football Series: Wide Receiver Footwork, Stance & Drills

with Josh Gattis,
University of Miami Offensive Coordinator;
2021 Broyles Award recipient (top assistant coach in college football);
University of Michigan Offensive Coordinator from 2019 to 2021;
Scout.com 2015 Big Ten Recruiter of the Year;
has coached 14 All-Conference and 5 All-American wide receivers;
former Co-Offensive Coordinator and Wide Receiver Coach at the University of Alabama;
also coached wide receivers at Penn State, Vanderbilt and Western Michigan;
2x All-ACC as a player (safety) at Wake Forest University;
drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2007 and played for the Chicago Bears

Wide receivers are an integral part of any offense in modern day football. Having receivers that possess elite level footwork and body positioning can help your football team produce an explosive offense.

Using progressive warm-up drills and scenarios, the University of Michigan's Josh Gattis (from 2019 to 2021) shows you nine wide receiver drills to help build stance, footwork and body positioning. Some of the drills include Stance and Start, Head Eyes Hips, Shuffle Transition, Chutes and Circle Drill. Coach Gattis uses on-field drill film and offensive skeleton film demonstrations to show you how to develop the complete wide receiver.

Stance and Start

Learn the 80-20 stance for wide receivers. Coach Gattis breaks down how he teaches receivers at the University of Michigan in terms of technique to start their routes. You'll see how to:

• Get a receiver's pointer foot in the direction they are going.
• Get pad level low and have the receiver drive out low.
• Get wide receivers to not false step out of their stance.
• Close the distance on defenders with stride frequency and stride length.

Chutes and Pop Ups

Using football chutes and stand-up pop-ups, Coach Gattis gives two drills that help with getting receivers' positioning low to help fight off defensive arm bars.

You will see how to create a second level release for receivers and muscle memory on route running in the Pop-up drill. Within the Chutes drill, you'll see how to keep receivers low to the ground on transitions and how the drill relates to game-like situations. Coach Gattis also shows:

• How to get foot placement to come back to the football on routes.
• The benefits of keeping your foot and heel even in your route running.
• How receivers can gain releases at the line of scrimmage.

Footwork Drills

Using drills like Foot Fire- Single Jab, Short Stair BIG Stair and Lean and Break Drills, you will see different techniques such as releasing through the defender, top of the route shake and extend step to a pivot step. You'll also see how to teach receivers to keep their knees inside their ankles, how to get in-route cuts to be sharp/tight, how to teach receivers to learn their shoulders away from their defender, and how to get receivers into a rhythm/flow.

Coach Gattis gives you the tools to be able to teach your wide receivers to have the best footwork and body positioning within your league. With film demonstrations of individual and skeleton drill situations, you will see how to get your receivers to an All-American level.

63 minutes. 2019.