Can I take a stab at it?
How'd I do, Ken?
Good enough that you inspired me to elaborate on your good work, because we disagree to some degree on a few things and I'd like to give a better feel to how much is going on inside that is avoided on the outside.
1. In its simplest expression, when you are playing ILB (and in this example lets look at a 3-4 set.) there are so many more ways you can be attacked than if you are on the outside. The reads are easier, often faster, and clearer when you playing on the outside.
2, You never read from the backs thru the Gs, Jay, but the other way around. Backs lie. Its in their nature. Guards will take you to the play. more on this later
3. A key element for an ILB is keeping your outside shoulder and leg free at all times. And since the 2 LBs often swap sides due to formations, this can sometime get confusing, leading to ILBs who take on blocks with the wrong shoulders and lose that outside gap control. I saw that happen a couple of times in the Denver game. So a good ILB also has to be ambidexterous.
4. For an ILB all motions affect your reads
5. When you read your G there are only 5 things that can happen.
a. if he fires straight out you have to step up, meet the block square, but keeping your outside arm and leg free and control the G-T gap. You can't take a side until you know where the ball is going. So you end up having to control someone who is likely 60-100
lbs heavier than you. Proper leverage and hand technique is essential critical to overcome this obvious disadvantage.
b. if he tries to hook you - Again keep the same outside position, keeping your outside shoulder and leg free and controling the blocker until you can release to go to the ball.
c. if he blocks down or double teams the C or T - FILL the hole. Step up to the LOS and prepare to meet a blocker - usually a FB or a pulling G - (though the Pats often use a motioninng TE for this purpose) The closer to the LOS you meet the blocker the smaller the potential hole. Again Ideally, keeping that outside position would be the best for shedding the blocker, but with a 240 lb FB with a 5 yd start coming at you, I have to admit I often just ran as fast as I could into the lead blocker and hoped for the best. If you got there quick enough it usually worked out.
d. If he pulls - I couldn't improve on what Jay wrote on this - it was spot on. The key thing here is being aware that someone IS coming for you. Unfortunately there aren't any running plays where they DON'T assign someone to block the ILB. So if the guy closest to you blocks someone else.... don't wait for the boom to fall....because its coming, The other key thing is NOT to over run the play. Keep back shoulder leverage on the ball. RBs are faster than LBs but LBs will always have 5-7 yd head start....and I'll take that in what usually amounts to a 10-15 yd sprint
e. If he pass blocks - Then you need to get back into your primary area of responsibility, which will be based on what the offense is expected to do. As you drop you are spliting visiion between the QB and an expected pattern.
If you are in man you usually take the back coming out of backfield, however I found it better if the back never LEFT the LOS standing. I call it now the Willie McGinest technique.
Or there are times in cover 2 where the ILB upon reading pass needs to get his ass into the deep middle, becuase the seam is the weakness of cover 2 and its the LBs job to cover the deep seem from the underneath. A real flaw in the defense if you ask me, and one that usually doesn't work out well as we see every Sunday
Now this is a BRIEF description of JUST basic read responsibilities. It covers none of the myriad possible run stunts and none of blitzes. It doesn't consider any of the over formations or LB responsibilities when the DL uses gap techniques.. In other words only about 20% of what is actually going on for an ILB.....at ANY level.
Now take a kid who has ALWAYs had his hand in the dirt, now ask him stand up. Take that kid who has always gotten as close to the LOS as he could, and ask him to get 5 yds off the ball. Now take a kid who has viewed the game from one side of the LOS or the other his entire career, and now ask him to see it from the middle where blockers and keys are coming from all sides.
Now THEN ask this kid to compete for a position AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, against players who have done this for 1000's of reps and he hasnt reached double figures. And that might give you just SOME insight in how remarkable Dane Fletcher's swift development really is.