📞 RING RING.

This is what it feels like.
The idea calls.
You see the play. You hear the instinct.
But you hit decline.
Because that’s what you were taught to do.

I used to hit decline too.
Until I watched every lateral from the 2024 season.

📊 And the numbers?
They changed everything.

"I get it, Coach. Even if you wanted to run it, no one’s listening. Not the staff, not the players, not the parents in the bleachers."

But here’s the thing:

You don’t have to overhaul your system. You don’t need to turn your offense into a rugby team. You just need one sentence in your install:

“If the defense drops eight and we hit a screen, trail it. If the ballcarrier gets sealed to the sideline, find the pitch lane.”

That’s it. That’s the start.

I’m in no way advocating chaos. I’m advocating for prepared and designed improvisation if you're paying attention. In 2024, 15 designed laterals were run in the NFL. Not one resulted in a turnover.
Six of them came from one team: the Detroit Lions.
Why? Because they repped it. They didn’t treat it as a trick. They treated it like a throwback screen or a checkdown.

You’re not crazy, Coach. The system really can’t hear you.

You ask about laterals and it reroutes you to “screen game.”
You ask how to teach trail discipline and it offers hiking apps.

The play isn’t broken. The ecosystem around it is.

In 2024 among nfl teams:

15 designed laterals.

0 turnovers.

8 improvised laterals.

Still 0 turnovers.

6 came from one team: the Detroit Lions.

4 total Touchdowns

The real risk isn’t the lateral.
It’s ignoring 20 free yards—because the system coached players not to see them.

When planned… or when they emerged in rhythm…
Laterals worked.

Why?

Because players knew what to look for.
Because reps beat risk.