Brandon Marshall: Inside the Huddle

The Super Bowl becomes everything. There is so much noise.

You have 3 hours to tell everybody what you know about this game.

The game is everywhere. The huddle is one of football's great mystery boxes. Players actually spend more time in it than the ball is actually in play, and yet almost no No one knows what really happens inside the huddle. In this episode, NFL All-Pro Brandon Marshall and I go inside the huddle, not to talk strategy, but to reveal culture, to reveal its impact on the game.

Before you can get to what's happening in the huddle, you gotta understand, you know, the huddle, meaning the center, how far away he is from the ball and his back towards the ball is intentional. Where every player is intentional, where the quarterback inserts himself after receiving a play is intentional. Is he standing up? Is he kneeling down? The eye contact, like we practice the huddle. If you don't get the huddle right, if you don't break the huddle right, do it again.

Okay, let's start. Let's start at the beginning because why is the center have his back to the, to the ball?

Well, first off, we're trying to like, that's where we're communicating, right? So we have to protect that huddle. Right? And so his back is to the ball because now we're— he's a large human, the defense is behind us, so that's our wall, right? And so now we're about to get the information. We can't let them get the play. But also the reason why he's there too, it's like when we break the huddle, how quickly can we get to the ball? Can we get set? Can we get— start getting the information? Now that gets into all the other stuff. What did we receive in it, in the huddle? And there's only seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds to now we have to identify the mic, we have to put the protection in place, we have to see where the clock is. We got to bring a guy in motion. The coach is in this guy's ear. We're reading out the receiver position. I'm out here and I'm— I got my triangle. I'm looking at the corner. I'm looking— no, I'm not just listening. I got to feel that, but I got to look at my corner, my safety, and then I got my backer. That's going to tell me if it's cover 3 or cover 2 and whatever they roll to post-snap. Determines how I run my route or if my route changes. But I also got to listen and hear if the quarterback is going to go into audible, he's going to change something, right? And then the running back is in the backfield and he has to determine if this guy comes off the edge, I got to go get this guy, I have to break off my route. So there's so much going on within these 20, 25, 30 seconds.

And the other thing that happens is that a play breaks Say it's a 20-yard bomb.

Yep.

And then now the whole squad kind of has to catch up to where you just caught the ball.

That's right.

Okay, now the clock has started. You know, we have 40 seconds. Mm-hmm. The— on the sidelines, the offensive coordinator and head coach are kind of sorting out what play—

That's right.

—to get in. And then everyone's kind of scrumming around the ball, and the quarterback is outside of the huddle. That's right. And then at that point, the quarterback is listening for the play.

Now these plays, okay, trips right, let's go 11 personnel, 11 personnel, or don't forget your situation. The situation right now, you just got to the fringe area, alert, alert this right now. There's alerts in the fringe, remember 70% of the time they do XYZ. This is the conversation before they even get to the play. This is all happening. And now let's go, now we're going, I'm sending 11 personnel, 11 personnel, tell Brandon on this one he goes to the Z, stays here. Okay, we're gonna go trips right, Z zing. We're gonna go scat protection. We're gonna go, actually scratch that, let's go 385. And then let's go Z bingo X comeback. H swing on 2 on 2. And don't forget, don't forget, don't forget, remember the alerts. Oh, okay, okay, you see the quarterback saying, "Oh, I got it, I got it, I got it." Now the quarterback has to remember all that. And then there's another play they gave him too, I just missed that. Like after they do that, say, "Okay, this is your alert. If they go here, here's your second play." Okay.

So all that comes in and there's like, is it 3 segments to a play? There's like 14 front, which is like communication to the O-line. Yeah, right. And then there's another one. I'm not sure what the middle stuff is. And then there's the receivers have to listen to that end tag. That's right.

And then there's the snap count. But before you even get to that, we personnel. So personnel, who's in the huddle?

That's right. 11 personnel means 1 running back, 1 tight end.

Yep. And then we go formation where everybody goes. Trips right. Okay, then we got 3 receivers on the right hand side. And if we have a motion, we may say zee zing, but all this is formational stuff. So that's all one phase, like you're saying. And then there's the protection, right? And then there's the play to play talks about the running backs, receivers, where you're going.

So in the huddle, information is coming from you. You said be intentional. What I hear is, okay, you practice, we're going to get to that in a minute. And then I hear focused. You have to be locked on, focused. You might have just made a mistake. You just might have had a 40-yard bomb that was amazing, and you've got to ready yourself to come back to great focus. That's right.

Okay. Yeah, you got to read the quarterback's lips. It's loud. You can't hear. You lean it in, right? You got to— yeah, you got to hear everything.

Yeah. And, and you've got to also believe that the quarterback understands.

That's right. That's right. That's right.

So, and all of this— no, I don't have to believe that.

Tell me more. That's not my job. Okay, tell me more. It's— I— whatever he says, I'm gonna do. So I don't got what he be— that's his job. He better learn all that. He gotta learn all that.

And you just really need to understand the last tag. Z Nasty, something, something, right? You just gotta understand.

Receivers is breaking the huddle first most of the time. We get— once we get— I'm out of here. I got it. I got it. I'm going with set up. Yeah, yeah.

You guys deal with the middle thing. Yeah. Okay. I'm out of here. So then talk about how you practice it and how you practice breaking the huddle. Walk us through that just a little bit.

I think the biggest thing on like perfecting the huddle is like, it's almost like making your bed. First thing in the morning is like how you do one thing is how you do everything. How you start your day is how it's going to end. How you do small things is how you do all things. Ready, break. We're all together and it's loud. It's uniform.

It's team. And the practice that I've seen is you are practicing to be in unison. That's right.

And then there's like little things about it. You know, how far the center is from the ball. So he turns around, he's set there. Where the quarterback insert himself and the positions and all that, all that stuff matters. But the biggest thing about the huddle is like, make it look good. It's like making your bed in the morning.

There you go. Right. Okay. So, so there's moments in the huddle that things are said off script. Yeah. Right. I love it. Yeah. So let's play the whole thing out. Like you've just, you just made an amazing catch.

That's right. Okay.

Team's running up to you. There's a lot of energy happening inside of you. And around you. That's right. How do you calm yourself down so that you can focus properly?

Oh, that's really good. Well, first, yeah, there is a lot happening. There's a lot happening in a huddle, which you say off script, but it's the quarterback's huddle. So a lot of times, whether it's good or bad, like, you know, that's the rule. You come in the huddle, shut up. Excuse my language, sorry. Be quiet. I should say be quiet. But that's the energy in the locker room. It's like, you know that, right? And so if you're talking or if you're, you know, chairing still, the quarterback is going to literally say that. He's not going to say be quiet. He's going to say shut up, right? And that's that respect and that understanding of that. What I love about the second part to that is like, how do you reset, right? A lot of people don't know how to reset or transition. Life is filled with, uh, filled with transition, and how you handle the transition determines the quality of the thing that you're doing— your life, the product, the game. And so there's a player that I love, George Kittle. George Kittle used to have like this red patch on someone's arm, and he would hit it after a good play or bad play, and that just triggered something in him that I'm resetting. For me, what I would do is I would take a deep breath, and now I'm on to the next play. And then I'll actually take 2 deep breaths. So it's like after the play, reset, right? And then when I'm out there lined up, right before the quarterback's about to say hike, I just like kind of slow everything down. It's like, I got it. I know.

So going from analytical into your body and so going from like processing up here to processing in here. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's just like a relax.

Like I'm relaxed. I'm not tense. I'm not fighting. It's like it's fluid. So that breath goes from, okay, I'm set, get my feet positioned. And then now I'm about to get into just like, like, like I'm about to get into almost like a ballerina, like a dancer, you know, it's like, because I want my body to flow, you know, so I'm flowing and I can't do that tense.

So there's a lot of information as we were talking about that's coming into you. You ever break the huddle and be like, damn, what is my assignment? Yeah, all the time.

No, come on. Yeah, I mean, watch it. You'll see it in Super Bowl. You'll see. How do we know? What are we looking for? If you see a guy, especially outside wide, like the receivers go to another guy like this and they communicate. Yeah, that's what I got. What I got. What I got. What I got. Hold on. A lot of times we're checking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no, you don't got the slugger.

You got the slugger. Yeah, right. So there's a lot of that. So when you see that, even a running back to the quarterback, A lot of times there's this— that's just communication, how it's supposed to flow. We're checking with each other. Yeah. But a lot of times that is like, hey, what I got? Or the quarterback saying, hey, don't forget you got that nickel.

That's right.

Yeah. You know? So because you're going up the block.

You see on the defensive side what it looks like, they break the huddle and it's out there and they do this. What I got? They look at the safety. What I got? The linebacker. What I got? So that's the tell on the defense side when those guys put their hands up, they're like, because they got to communicate. Hey, hey, I don't remember. I can't hear. What is the call?

What's the call? The thing about the Super Bowl is that the Super Bowls are not that loud, but you played in one of the louder stadiums, Seattle Seahawks. Um, it's a handful for the defense, but I don't think that the noise is probably not going to be an issue. Yeah, uh, on Sunday's game.

Yeah, yeah. What do you think about that? Yeah, both teams, Seattle, Patriots, they both travel well. So, uh, I think that, uh, there was going to be a lot of energy in the Super Bowl, and these both teams, they get loud. They get loud. But when you say, you know, you're a pro, that's not an issue. Yeah, right. It's not an issue. We practice those moments. Now we go nonverbal. It's loud. Okay, great. Hi.

Yeah, right. Do you remember the process for you to study? Yeah. So that— can you clarify how you studied to be able to prepare yourself to be automatic on game day? Because right now in our world, there's so much information coming in that we have to discern what's the important information, lock into the stuff that's going to matter most so that when the test happens later, we're well prepared. What was your process?

My process started in the offseason, and this goes to Pete Carroll conversation as well. Like, I would take all the DBs that I was going to face and I would start breaking them down then. And there are some guys I would skip over. I'm like, I ain't, right? But for the most part, I would have pages on every single guy. I got Darrell Revis this year. I got Antonio Cromartie twice, right? And so I would start then and I would just take my notes and watch all their stuff historically, right? And then once we got into the season, the week of, it started right after the game. So Sunday we play against the Patriots. Next week we got the Jets or whoever. And I'm immediately, I'm watching that game. I'm done with that. I have everything before we even talk about this as a team. And I'm always already on to the next week. So I'm breaking down the corners, I'm breaking down the team, etc. But I was also studying the defensive coordinators. I got to a place where I was studying, uh, the, uh, the coordinators and their philosophy, right? What they do and their tendencies and all those things. Uh, so I would start with the coordinator, then I would go to the defense, then I would break down the individual matchup. So I broke it down into 3 phases, and a lot of this was data, right? And then the other thing was watching film. And then there's some feel that you get on film, right? It's like, oh, if I put my foot up like this, he's going to do— and that's all I'm searching for when I'm watching film. It's more data, but you can see it.

If we knew what you knew, how would we be better parents?

Treat your kids like human beings and listen. Work with them. You're not the— you're the boss, but you're not the boss, right? A lot of times parents, we just say, do this, or we don't listen. We don't have a real relationship with them. And so I would actually, you know, my advice would be to sit down, build a real relationship with your kids, listen to your kids, um, and then also, um, be really intentional You know, our job is to help unfold our kids, and, and, and that's— that takes time, and I take sitting back and trying to figure out, like, who are they? Where's their gifts? How can I help them unlock that?

That is how the best coaches in the world have probably treated you. The, the— I call them above-the-line coaches. They saw something special, wanted to figure out how to pull it out. The below-the-line coaches are the ones that don't take the time. Yeah, yeah. They don't invest in the way. They don't maybe even know what makes you special. They just see some physicality or whatever. So if we knew what you knew, yep, how would we lead better?

We would lead better and lead in confidence because we did the work ourselves. Like, if you do the work, it's so much— it's so easier to hire the people that you need to work with those people, to meet them where they're at, to lead them, to serve them. And it starts with you.

Brandon, it is always a treat and a joy to spend time with you. You speak from the heart. You speak from experience. And you are a— you are the epitome of honesty. Yeah, yeah. And so thank you for sharing your wisdom, your insights, and like, it's gonna be awesome to watch this game. And thank you for all that you do for mental health. Thank you for all that you do to invest in the inner world so people can be their very best.

That's right. That's right.

That's right. And, you know, I really appreciate you. Thank you. Yeah. Okay, Copilot, how much time do NFL teams spend in the huddle in a game? So picture this.

An NFL team generally runs around 60 to 65 offensive plays in a game. Now, every time they huddle up, that's about 15 to 25 seconds of regrouping depending on how fast they're moving. And when you add it all up, the team might spend about 18 to 20 minutes of the game just in those huddles.

Okay, so a team spends more time in the huddle than playing.

Interestingly enough, in a full 60-minute game, the ball's only actually in play for about 11 minutes.

Okay, so when I hear that, I hear that there's a massive competitive advantage to being great in the huddle. And that's why great teams invest time to be intentional with it. That is part of the game inside the games. The huddle is not unique to football. We all have them. They're the moments before the meeting starts, before the decision is made, the moment before we act. Those moments matter more than we think. They reveal culture, they reveal the strength of our relationships, and what happens inside the huddle often determines what happens next. I'm Dr. Michael Gervais. Thank you for joining us for The Game Inside the Games.

All right.

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