The Opening Drive 7/21: Todd Moken's Schemes to Know -- Trap Influence and False Pulls

Now the defense is in a real bind. Good luck to those linebackers.

Jul 21, 2026

∙ Paid

BEREA, OHIO - JUNE 09: Head coach Todd Monken of the Cleveland Browns looks on during the Cleveland Browns Mandatory Minicamp at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus on June 09, 2026 in Berea, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)

Just in case you have been in a football slumber — with an alarm set for next week — we have been breaking down the popular schemes we can expect from Todd Monken. As I have studied the Browns new head coach from Georgia to Baltimore, and even back to his first Cleveland stint, some very common threads stand out. We started with simple trap, a core run game scheme for his Georgia and Baltimore teams, then we advance to his usage of WHAM and CRUNCH from those same trap concepts and today we build on that once more.

We know Monken loves to use those “influence” traps where he is messing with opposing linebacker reads and defensive tackle “stick” rules on pulling lineman. This makes life challenging for the box defenders. When you think they might be running pin/pull, and you attach to the moving guard, he has the other guard coming downhill to deliver and earhole shot that springs a downhill run. It’s not fun to defend.

When Monken is really rolling in his play sequencing he will have those interior defenders so confused about who to block and how to get there it can leaving some gaping run lanes. As you saw above. Now this is where Monken tries to layer things even deeper.

Most linebackers spends his whole career being coached on one non-negotiable rule: if you see a guard pull, you trigger downhill immediately, because a pulling guard means a run is coming to that gap and hesitation gets you gashed. That rule is so deeply wired into how linebackers are taught that it can be turned into a weapon against them. The false pull screen exists entirely to exploit it — an offensive lineman shows the exact same pull step used on trap, power, or counter, sells it hard enough to get the linebacker triggering downhill, and then the ball never comes anywhere near where that pull suggested it would. The even tougher part is the natural pathway of those non-pullers in trap, working those block back angles, also naturally sells the run before sliding out into space and forming the tunnel blocking.

There are many alignment, motion, and receiver position variations but here is the general play-art concept below. Notice how it all looks like the trap variations we have studied in the last week but then those lineman out in space have the natural pathway already set for them.

Below you’ll find the latest in the BFB catalog for supporters to dig into. Click the link to become a supporter if you haven’t already, and enjoy all the latest from Browns Film Breakdown.

Latest Podcasts:

Latest Articles:

Latest Film Rooms:

The mechanics borrow directly from trap’s own stylistic approach. Trap works by leaving a defensive lineman unblocked and inviting him upfield before hitting him from an angle he isn’t watching. A false pull screen runs the same con one level back, on the second level instead of the first. The guard or tackle takes his real pulling step — same footwork, same initial angle a defense has scouted all week off actual trap and power film — and a linebacker who has been drilled to attack pulling linemen does exactly what he thinks he’s supposed to do. He hesitates a split second thinking he has to fill the gap the pull appears to be leading toward. Except the ball isn’t going to a runner following that guard. It’s either being thrown behind the linebacker’s vacated zone, or the “pulling” lineman peels off his fake track entirely and becomes a lead blocker for a screen developing somewhere else on the field. Either way, the discipline that makes a linebacker good against the run is the exact quality that gets him beaten. Monken started really perfecting this craft back at Georgia.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Browns Film Breakdown to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.