Ghost Stories: The origin story of the ghost technique and those who perfected it
Examining the origin story, technical details and different versions of the hottest pass-rush move in football
The ghost technique is an artful, deceptive pass-rush move that has gotten increasingly popular over the last few seasons — to the point that it’s often used on ‘money downs’ by some of the game’s best edge rushers. I wanted to take a closer look at the technique — in both a big-picture and granular way — using a combination of player polling across the NFL, my own research, and film study. The goal was to document the history of the move and gain a better understanding of how it has evolved over the last couple of decades in the NFL.
Where did the ghost technique originate?
To help answer this question I hopped on the phone with former All-Pro edge-rusher and pass-rushing master trainer Chuck Smith. Smith has a wealth of knowledge about the intricacies of rushing the passer and has worked with the likes of Aaron Donald, Von Miller, Chris Jones and many other Pro Bowl-caliber players to help sharpen their ability to hunt quarterbacks.
Smith’s expertise helped lead to the creation and introduction of the cross-chop move that has taken over the NFL over the last half-dozen years. The ghost technique has similar beginnings, with its foundation first starting to emerge in its most basic form in the 1990s. It has gradually been altered since, with important layers being added based on the specific player’s skill-set and style, slowly making the move their own.
“Derrick Thomas is the greatest speed rusher of all-time. He laid the foundation for the ghost technique becoming what it is today and once told me to ‘fall off the corner’ when rushing around the edge,” Smith told me. Smith said that Thomas and fellow Hall of Famer Charles Haley would “drop their inside shoulders and be near waist-level of offensive linemen around the corner.”
This basic approach is what laid the foundation for the ghost move that we see gaining popularity in the NFL and college today.
In the 90s, the popularity of seven-step drops allowed Thomas and Haley to capture the corner using incredible get-offs and sheer quickness off the ball, but they were also extremely crafty at ‘falling off the corner’ by bending, ‘falling’ and dropping their inside shoulder to reduce surface area for blockers. This left tackles with nothing to grab as Thomas and Haley flattened towards the quarterback.
The next evolution of the move was initiated by Colts defensive end Robert Mathis in the early 2010s. “It started with the speed dip/duck under,” Mathis told me about the origin of his version of the ghost. This ‘duck under’ move was Mathis’ signature move during a career that spanned 14-years with 123 career sacks and an NFL record 54 forced fumbles.
The duck-under portion of this move from Mathis is what most of the rushers today have replicated and made a foundational piece of the ghost. As highlights became easier to consume via new methods such as YouTube, the duo of Mathis and Dwight Freeney were more visible than dominant rushers of other eras, bringing more eyeballs to Mathis’ duck-under and helping burn it into the minds of rushers around the NFL.
Along with changes in technology, changes in the sport have also made the ghost move more popular. As passing concepts have gotten shorter in the modern NFL, tackles haven’t had to get as deep in their pass sets as they did even 10 years ago. This has forced rushers to adapt and figure out ways to stop a blocker’s feet to create a soft outside corner, which is a key element for the ghost move to hit.
“It was in 2013 when Von Miller and I were training at the Broncos facility in Dove Valley,” Smith told me. We were discussing this move and how he was going to use it.”
”We were standing face to face and Von put his hand in my face and said, ‘Now you see me, now you don’t’ as he ducked under my arm.” Once Miller added the long-arm to set up the duck-under, the ghost move as most commonly seen today was born.
What is the ghost technique?
The ghost technique as we know it today is when you flash the long-arm move to the tackles’ face (to stop their feet and create a soft edge) and go under their outside arm around the corner. This causes the blocker to strike at air and make it seem like the rusher has disappeared like a ghost. Now you see me, now you don’t.
What started as ‘falling off the corner’ for Hall of Fame rushers in the 90s like Thomas and Haley morphed into the ‘duck-under’ phase that Mathis added in the 00s and was refined further by Miller this past decade by adding the long-arm.
Miller’s addition of the long-arm technique has bled into the rest of the league with him even teaching the move to his peers at his annual pass-rush summit.
“When you have the OL’s weight shifted, it keeps going that way,” Mathis told me about the response elicited by an effective long-arm. “Once you sink a really good long arm move you stop their feet to anchor.”
Without the ability to convert speed to power and go down the middle or through the inside shoulder of a tackle using the long-arm, using it to set up the ghost isn’t as effective.
“Usually the long-arm draws first contact since force always needs force in response, so OL will give you their hands when you long arm,” Mathis said.“ This helps set up the ghost and then you can get the long arm back later on too.
This cat and mouse game between tackles and rushers is what makes the move so great to study. It’s also a great illustration of how pass-rushers take their game to the next level — by making each rush look the same.
To become a Pro Bowl or All-Pro caliber rusher in the NFL there needs to be a secondary threat in the back pocket of rushers to set up their bread-and-butter move. Usually speed-rushers need to have an inside or power counterpunch to win down the middle, and power-rushers need an element of speed to open the hips of blockers.
This was echoed to me when I discussed the ghost technique with Saints All-Pro LT Terron Armstead, and what was needed for it to work.
“Guys that can do the ghost move but also have an effective bullrush/inside counter are most dangerous,” Armstead told me. “If your long arm/bull rush isn’t effective as a rusher, I’m not paying no attention to it. So I can be patient and stay in position for the real rush.”
Once Miller showed on film that his long-arm technique and ability to convert speed to power needed to be respected, it propelled his capacity to win with speed and bend using moves like the ghost.
Defeating the ghost technique
So what are some of the ways O-linemen counter and defeat the ghost? To provide some answers, I spoke with some starters around the league to get their perspective while sourcing some of the advance scouting work I’ve done for OL Masterminds.
The best practices against the ghost technique are similar to the ones used against the cross-chop and other moves designed to win around the corner.
“A lot of the same principles go for both because both moves are targeting your outside half,” Armstead said. “Patience, good eyes, [and] independent hands are all important.”
Here are the four main points I outlined in my past article breaking down the cross-chop technique and how to defeat it that are applicable to stopping the ghost:
1. Stay patient and square in your set, don’t lean into contact, and have quick, active, and ‘light’ hands2. Avoid leading with an outside strike, but if you do use it, MAKE SURE it isn’t down the midline of the rusher. Because that means you’re too late. That punch has to be on the outside number.3. Lead with an outside flash or an inside strike if you’re comfortable with it. That way you can disrupt the rusher’s timing, prevent him from having an outside strike to chop, and more easily ride him past the QB.4. Switch up your sets and hands. Jump sets are a good way of mixing it up and disrupting their footwork, and an outside hand flash or bait technique can throw off the timing of the chop.While these are all viable approaches and techniques to consider when facing a rusher with a potent ghost move in his arsenal, former Chiefs All-Pro RT Mitchell Schwartz shed some light on some subtle but important difference that he incorporated with success.
“For guys that liked to use the ghost I always thought I had to get like one extra kick, or half a kick deeper, to basically take away that spot where the move can work. And where it can work and get to the QB. If I can make that just a little deeper then I’m probably winning.”
Below is an example from an advance scouting video on Miller that I put together for the players and coaches at OL Masterminds, with Schwartz expanding his set point and taking that extra kick to deepen his position in the pocket to cut-off the angle that Miller needed to execute the ghost.
When rushers are able to get the feet of tackles stopped using the long-arm portion of the ghost move, it can result in lightning fast wins for guys that have top-end speed and bend like Miller. Like Armstead told me on this topic, “Your feet stop or shorten the edge, your finish ability at the top of the rush better be crazy or you’re in for a long one.”
Since rushers want to shorten the corner to create a more direct line to the quarterback, not stopping your feet as a blocker is crucial in defeating the ghost move.
Staying square and not turning your hips towards the rusher too early like the Cardinals RT did in the above clip is also a vital component and universal truth for blockers — to defeat pass rushers in general, but specifically the ghost move.
Former Bengals All-Pro RT Willie Anderson shared a similar sentiment from a prior article I wrote that’s pertinent to the approach blockers can take to have success against the ghost move.
“Rushers are like the receivers,” Anderson told me. “They give you ghost routes and ghost moves to give something and take it away. Staying square and not biting on these ‘ghost’ moves is critical for success on both sides of the ball.”
Part of that approach has to do with strike timing. Using the outside strike is common across the NFL for tackles, but it is becoming increasingly dangerous in today’s game with so many edge-rushers targeting the outside hand with moves like the cross-chop, ghost, and side-scissors move used by the Bosa brothers.
Rushers know if they are facing a known ‘outside striker’ that the tackle’s margin for error in that approach is slim. If the outside strike doesn’t land, the corner is theirs for the taking. It’s also why being ‘light on your hands’ is an important coaching point for OL that do use the outside strike.
Here is an example of Von using the ghost with success against Cowboys All-Pro LT Tyron Smith, who relies heavily on the outside strike in pass protection. With Smith being a little late and ‘heavy’ on his outside hand, he lost his ability to recover and protect his edge.
Here is Bucs RT Tristan Wirfs vs. Chargers All-Pro DE Joey Bosa providing a good example of how having light hands is conducive for being able to recover against a ghost move. Because Wirfs didn’t strike with too much force he was able to change the location of his strike in midair to locate surface area on Bosa, stay attached and ride him into the ground.
If you’re a known double-hand puncher or two-hand striker, then know that rushers are targeting you early for some version of the ghost move. Because if you miss with two hands, it’s likely curtains. Mathis told me he went with the “Speed and duck-under for double-hand punch O-linemen first,” before anything else.
Another approach is leading with the inside strike, which Bengals LT Jonah Williams, Rams LT Andrew Whitworth and others advocate. Williams told me that he tries to “Punch as hard as I can with my inside hand on their near shoulder point to create enough space to get my hips back in position.” Williams went on to say that “It’s always going to be hard to not give up a soft edge to an elite bender like Von, but the only chance you have is to buy a little of time by punching their shoulder (or the back of their shoulder) with a low inside hand to buy a second to get your hips back to intersecting their rush angle.”
This example from Whitworth in Week 10 against the 49ers helps illustrate a similar method that Williams explained — leading with the inside hand and punching the near shoulder point of a rusher when they attempt the ghost. This allowed Whitworth to get his hips back to intersecting the rush angle like Williams was referring to.
Top practitioners of the ghost technique playing today
There is an ongoing list of pass-rushers who incorporate the ghost technique into their game, but the “master-list” of names — in no particular order — are listed below.
1. Rams edge-rusher Von Miller
Miller is the standard-bearer for the current iteration of the ghost move used across the NFL, and he is credited with adding the long-arm as a tool to set it up. Miller’s ghost shows what the teach-tape version looks like and is studied across the league for that reason.
2. Panthers edge-rusher Brian Burns
Burns’ version is the closest thing in terms of style and potency to Miller’s and it was on full display during the 2020 season, when he used it extensively on money downs. When I asked Mathis to name the best ghost move in today’s game outside of Miller the first name he mentioned was Burns.
3. Bears edge-rusher Khalil Mack
Mack’s adaptation is my personal favorite while also one of the most overlooked. This is at least partly due to Mack primarily winning as a power-rusher, although his speed and counters are on par with any edge-rusher in football too. Mack is also the only player I have seen use the ghost move going inside both as a pass-rusher and against the run, which is remarkable.
4. Bears edge-rusher Robert Quinn
Quinn is one of the few players in the league that can match the bend of Miller so it makes sense that he would have the ghost technique in his toolkit as a rusher.
5. Chiefs edge-rusher Frank Clark
Clark is a regular attendee at Miller’s annual pass-rush summit and has seemingly picked up the move there. He’s used it with as much success as anyone on this list, outside of Miller himself and Burns.
Another regular at Miller’s pass-rush summit, Ford’s version is pretty unique in that he almost flippantly throws a hand in the air to mimic a long-arm before using his excellent quickness and bend to turn the corner.
7. Steelers edge-rusher T.J. Watt
Watt’s signature move is a cross-chop and he has counters off it to win inside. But a version of the ghost without the long-arm has popped up when studying his film. It is something that he has the traits to execute more often if he decided to. Right now it serves primarily as a change-up to catch blockers off guard.
8. Browns edge-rusher Myles Garrett
Garrett has every other move in his bag so it makes sense for him to also have a variation of the ghost move too. He rarely uses it and when he does it usually is without the long-arm, opting instead to just run underneath the strike of a tackle around the corner.
9. Eagles edge-rusher Josh Sweat
Sweat is one of the more explosive and bendy edge-rushers in the NFL, so naturally he has experimented with the ghost move as well. Notice how the example above was used against the two-hand strike, one of the ideal scenarios we outlined for rushers to sprinkle it in.
10. Falcons edge-rusher Dante Fowler
Another frequent guest at Miller’s pass-rush summit is Fowler, who has picked up the move and used it fairly frequently with mixed success.
11. Raiders edge-rusher Maxx Crosby
Conclusion
When a move has success in the NFL, it catches fire given how quickly and widely it can be seen on platforms like Twitter, Instagram and other social media outlets — not to mention how efficiently film is shared in the NFL community. Once players see it work for others with similar styles, body types or skill-sets, it starts getting workshopped into their own games. The ghost move is the latest example, thanks in large part to Miller making the current iteration so popular with the help of today’s technology that wasn’t available in other eras.
Part of a new move being adopted into the NFL comes with the coaching community accepting the idea and buying into its effectiveness to allow players the freedom to experiment. Coaches tend to be resistant to change, but when the production matches the excitement for a new move, it’s harder to resist.
“This move made coaches have to compromise and adjust,” Chuck Smith told me about its rise in usage across the NFL. “Initially they didn’t want to hear anything about flashing a hand and bending underneath the arms of a blocker, but when players got sacks the coaches couldn’t argue as much anymore.”
They say the proof is in the pudding, and the ghost move is another example of a technique gaining traction in the NFL and spreading down to the college and high school levels because of its undeniable success. What started out as a way to build on what past Hall of Famers were doing has become another chapter in the storied history of rushing the passer.