Proper stance, 2,3, or 4 for Ends in the 4-4

In my opinion, 4-man-front DE's should be in a 3 pt stance. My rationale is that they need to be able to hold the line, and for most HS kids, they can't do it as well from a 2 pt stance. That being said, there are definately exceptions, and if you have a couple of those, then certainly play them up. But in my experience, unless there is more support inside, I keep my ends in a three pt stance, attacking the man across from them, and reading the block from there. I don't want my DE's ever reading backfield action. All they need to read is downblock, baseblock, pull and/or hook, pass.

I prefer a 2 pt stance to the weak side, and 3 pt vs. the TE because we play a 7 tech vs the TE. I teach my DE on the weak side to read from OT, to OG(for pull) to Near back. In our defense the the DE is responsible for the QB on options and QB read plays.