Q&A: Chris Lindstrom and the art of offensive-line war
Nobody plays the position better. What makes the Falcons guard special? He takes you into his world.
Here is the written transcript of our conversation with Atlanta Falcons’ guard Chris Lindstrom.
Video and audio is right here:
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What an honor to have the absolute best guard in the NFL. How’s life? You look good. You don't look like somebody that’s just been bashing skulls in the trenches for a couple months already.
Lindstrom: Well, you’re too nice and super excited to be on and, yeah, the season’s flying by. I think part of it too is just the culture we got here. It makes football fun coming to work every day and working as hard as we can. And I’m super fortunate we’ve got probably the best (offensive line) room in the world and some of the best guys in the world to work with. So the fact I get to be with them every day, I am just happy as can be.
From afar, people probably remember you getting drafted 14th overall in 2019 and we see the record-setting contract. What got me thinking more about you in-depth was sitting down with Terry Fontenot at the Combine in Indy and he referred to you as “the tip of the spear” for this entire team. He said, “You go 24/7, 1,000 percent.” It sounds like the Atlanta Falcons want to be a complete reflection of everything you represent. What is that? How do you define yourself, your game and why do you think your boss would refer to you in those terms?
Lindstrom: Everything I do, I just try and give everything I can for the guys around me. And so I know with the 10 guys in the huddle that they can look at me and know I'm giving ‘em everything and if I get beat or something like that, they know I’m giving my absolute effort in preparation and my approach to it to caring for them. So that kind of dictates the way I go about working myself — I always want to be there for the guys around me and especially with Drew (Dalman) and Kaleb (McGary) and the guys I work with on every single play, but then also the other guys in the huddle. And so that dictates the preparation and the way I go about trying to play.
How would you describe your style of play?
Lindstrom: I try to finish as much as I can and give maximum effort. I love running the wide zone. I’m super fortunate that I was able to get into a system and then also have some pretty incredible coaches and really kind of be able to master the small details of wide zone and just be able to showcase getting off the ball, getting to my landmarks and stuff like that. And I’m incredibly fortunate, too, to have a O-Line coach in Dwayne Ledford that all he does is breathe confidence into us. And it’s been really great as a player because the more confidence you can get, the more free you are mentally and the more free you are mentally, the faster and faster you can play. So I just try and play as fast as I can.
You mentioned wide zone. So you can get a head of steam. I encourage everybody to watch the mic’d up videos of Chris and you can hear that thud when you smash into somebody. That’s got to make football fun. I imagine if you’re going to play on the line — if you can get a few steps and see that bull’s eye with a running start — that’s football, isn’t it?
Lindstrom: Yeah, for sure. And Coach Ledford is the biggest proponent of the Bruce Lee quote of “One kick 10,000 times.” And so we’re in practice in individual, we practice those combination blocks on the wide zone, I mean, probably close to 50 to 100 times a week. And so, we have so many reps of that in working with each other. And so when you do get those sweet spots, you hit it and, granted, I would strike out 1,000 times over, but it has to be what a baseball player feels like with they’re timing if they’re behind a pitch or ahead of it and then they get it right. And so we do those combinations so many times that we have such a good rhythm with each other of, “Hey, I was a little wide there. Hey, I was a little tight there.” And it really is working with each other. And when you get those sweet spots, man, does it feel good? You feel the weight shift to the back of their heels and you feel like you caught ‘em. There’s no better feeling.
Can you take us through a wide-zone play, from: You’re in the huddle, a play is called, up to the line of scrimmage, looking at the defense. Start to finish, what does it really look like?
Lindstrom: Yeah, you’re in the huddle and then Kirk does a great job giving the formation cadence and everything like that. Break it up to the ball and we do a really good job in the preparation — knowing the looks we’re going to get. So always the first thing to do is kind of set up those looks, see what combination we're going to work with. And both Drew Dalman and Ryan Neuzil have been awesome all season of pointing out who we’re going to and the next thing is, “Alright, we’re going to there. How are we getting there? So I have help? Do I have not have help?” And then the way I look at wide zone, everything is angles. How are you getting to your linebacker? So do you have leverage, do you not have leverage? And the more leverage you have, the more vertical you can take the combination. So if we got a guy in the A gap and a backer’s more stacked over the center, just try and go as vertical as possible to kind of create the dent in the defense there where if I’m out-leveraged with the linebacker, you have to go a little bit thinner. So I had a coach in college who was like, “You want to paint the X.” And so you almost pick your spot. And so I kind of think in my head where the conjunction point is going to be between me and the linebacker or me and the defensive lineman and kind of try and beat ‘em to the spot.
There is a lot of quickness and agility. You’ve got to get to a spot.
Lindstrom: Yeah, that’s the way I think of it. You have your landmarks. So where you’re aiming for, if you have a down lineman and you want to get to that aiming point, be past it don’t be short. And that just comes with practice and then kind of seeing that guy’s stance. And then with the linebackers, it’s kind of a guessing game. You kind of see the way they play and then you kind of paint it and then you make adjustments based off the way they play.
If you’re comparing it to baseball, it would be Aaron Judge making contact with the fastball. What is the quintessential Chris Lindstrom hit? Which one or two are you most proud of — when you had it lined up perfectly and you were able to connect?
Lindstrom: Yeah, I love our combination with the center when we have a 3-technique and a linebacker and I’m able to get the landmark, press it on an angle, stretch it, and then the center comes over and he hits it and we almost have a sixth sense with each other of I’m driving it on the angle, I feel him hit it and — at the same time he hits it — I try and lock my inside hand and you can sometimes eject those guys. Other times you try and get stretched and keep ‘em in the gap, but when you really hit it right. You kind of get ‘em on their heels and try and finish it. And then the other one I would say is on the backside, I love cutting linebackers. I know it’s still legal inside the box. And so just getting to the angle, throwing a hand, spinning that 3-technique so Kaleb can cut him off, getting the angle and then cutting those linebackers because so many of ‘em do such a good job coming downhill and hitting you in the chin. And so sometimes, it’s a lot easier to cut ‘em into slow ‘em down a little bit than it is to get chin-checked by one of these linebackers.
Can you list off a victim or two that we should go into the archives and look up?
Lindstrom: I don’t know off the top of my head any exact, but I try and do it weekly. It is just kind of a part of what we do and with Coach Ledford. We practice it a lot and the details of cutting and stuff like that.
When did you really fall in love with football?
Lindstrom: From an early age, my Dad played in the NFL and then retired and then started coaching high school football. He took a break from football for probably 10 years after retiring and my older brother’s like eight years older than me, so he was playing football and coaching him. I would always help him be the equipment guy for the high school team all growing up. So I just kind of fell in love with football, then sitting in on training camp, making forts with the pads and stuff like that. And then got the opportunity to play. In sixth grade I started and then haven’t looked back since.
You could have put on the pads in third grade. I think that’s when I did it, but maybe that’s not allowed anymore.
Lindstrom: No, I think so. I was a little late. The beautiful thing about football is you can play at a young age, you can pick it up in middle school and then you see some of these really good athletes — tight ends or basketball players — that pick it up their junior or senior year of high school and, boom, they can make it. It’s not one of those things where if you can’t wrestle, you’re not going to make the Olympics or Penn State in a year.
At the same time, there always is that moment you realize this is for me or it’s not for me. There’s a hitting drill in a dog day of August camp. Was there a turning point for you? I know your whole family was in football, but when did you realize, “Man, I love the trenches. I love the contact. I can bully people and have fun doing it?”
Lindstrom: High school football was really fun. You’re just with kids you grew up with and then you’re playing having a blast and I think that’s really the most pure version of football. You’re just with your friends having fun. But I think really when it transitioned to college at BC — Coach Addazio I loved him and he’s been so crucial in helping me in my career — we had really hard practices at BC and I was like, “You know what? I do really love this. As hard as it is, I love the approach of going to get better every single day.” Especially as a young freshman, getting your butt kicked isn't always fun, but you kind of learn the lessons from it. And I was really fortunate to have people always teaching the small details as I was growing, but I always loved the process of getting better.
You got your butt kicked in college?
Lindstrom: Oh yeah, for sure. I was 260. I came into BC at 235. I had a good program that got me up to 260 and fortunately my Dad was a stiff defensive end on the outside—a 6-7 stiff D-End. And he goes, “No, no, no, no, you’re going to play O-Line. Your defensive line dreams die in high school, you’re going to play O-Line.”
Over my shoulder, my three-year-old son woke up from his nap. He likes snacking throughout the day. Are you saying we should encourage this? Should we steer him toward the offensive line? At some point, you’re 230, you’re going to college, there might be part of you thinking, “Man, I don’t know if I want to just put on 40, 50, 60 pounds. I kind of like how I look here.” There’s a personal element to that all.
Lindstrom: Yeah, for sure. I’ll just do our O-Line for example. Jake was a quarterback, basketball player and then his Dad’s like, “Nah, you’re going to go play left tackle. And so Kaleb went into Washington as a D-Linemen and he transitioned over. So all of us were all athletes at other spots. Then they’re like, “Hey, you’re not going to make it to the next level, so why don’t we come over to the O-Line?” And so we’re kind of like the misfit toys. But yeah, definitely love each other. Keep feeding him. Let him have fun doing all the other positions. And then offensive line is a calling. It will just come for him.
Maybe it’ll be full circle. Sonny will stretch out and then college will come around and we’ll put him on the “Chris Lindstrom Plan.” So what are you eating? How are you putting on that kind of weight?
Lindstrom: It is definitely evolved. When I was in college it was like chicken parm subs and fries at the late-night dinner.
That’s pretty sweet. You’re obviously working your ass off. You’re training. You’re lifting. But that’s nice that’s part of it all to become a lineman — chicken parm subs.
Lindstrom: Yeah, for sure. And those “f’real” shakes. But I think it’s one of those things where you kind of really learn and evolve and it’s a constant education process. And especially here at the Falcons, the nutritional. People always talk about what it takes to be a pro. And I think nutrition is one of those aspects and he’s been really evolving to calorie intake and I’m not as disciplined. Some guys are chicken and rice and broccoli every single day. God bless ‘em. I don’t know how they enjoy. I’ve got to enjoy something. But when it’s time to work hard — really hard with it. But then, I’m not denying a brownie sundae or something like that either. But I really do think it was a continuing education on it.
So you’re getting batted around as a freshman because you’re lighter than those upperclassmen?
Lindstrom: Yeah, for sure. When you go to college football, it’s almost like your world’s turned upside down. You’re doing classes harder than you ever have in your life. And then you’re doing the workouts and physically being really challenged. Then you realize that you know nothing about football when you’re a freshman in college. And so it’s really fundamental football education. You slowly start learning that knowledge and the more and more knowledge you can learn — they always say “the game slows down,” but it’s really just you kind of understand things, you see things and then you’re able to pre-play stuff a little bit.
Any guards or lineman that you would study as you’re taking this a little bit more seriously? It’s getting more serious year to year — putting on that weight, putting on that muscle, the NFL is a realistic thing. Who are you studying?
Lindstrom: The two guys I’d say I studied a lot were Zack Martin — obviously he’s going to be a Hall of Famer. Zack is somebody I love watching. I think he’s probably got one of the best pass-sets of any guard I’ve ever seen. He’s always consistent, always putting himself in a good spot. And then the other one was growing up in New England, and being at BC, I watched a lot of Patriots games and Joe Thuney was there. He went to NC State, an ACC guy. So I was kind of just following his career and seeing the way he played with New England and then now being able to watch him with the Chiefs all the time, Joe’s a really good player.
What’s the mentality that is demanded of a guard like yourself going out there for 60, 70 plays a game. Those D-Linemen, they’re cycling in. They’re fresh a lot of the time. And you’re out there for these long drives and football is really preserved at the line of scrimmage. They can change all the rules they want. They can try to make it “safe” even though football will never be “safe,” but it’s real football where you play. So mentally, how do you attack your profession play-in and play-out?
Lindstrom: Yeah, Alex Mack gave me great advice when I was a rookie and in my second year. He’s like, “Offensive linemen are evaluated on consistency. There’s no stat. There’s no flash play that you can make. Your consistency is what matters.” He really talks about how mentally, almost like RPMs on a car, you don’t want to be red-lining mentally because you’re not thinking, you’re making mistakes, you’re going too hard, you’re putting yourself in jeopardy. So he always said at a 1 to 10, your focus and intensity should really be at a 7 where you’re very physically into it, but then you’re also thinking clear mentally and kind of getting into that flow state. But then also, a lot of the habits I think are built up in practice where you’re finishing blocks, running to pick up the ball-carrier. Stuff like that are all things we drill and practice. So it almost becomes a part of your identity to where you’re not thinking about doing those things. They’re kind of naturally occurring with the way you play.
But how do you stay consistent and composed and levelheaded when it’s a fist fight? When you really zoom in and listen to those collisions and you’re going against somebody, there’s going to be some animosity that builds throughout the course of a game. Like I mentioned Richie Incognito before we hit record, he has a few screws loose. He’d be the first to tell you. I’m thinking back to the old days of Kyle Turley ripping a helmet off and tossing it down the field. You’re so measured and composed out there, that cannot be easy when you’re brawling with somebody and you’re going to get pissed off at this guy.
Lindstrom: Yeah, for sure. Definitely there’s a violent intensity and an urgency that you’re playing with, and I think that’s part of the job. You’re trying to finish guys. And there’s a couple of times where you talk about hearing those hits. There’s several times where you feel that hit and you go, “Oh my God, that guy is…” You see power on tape and usually you can kind of judge and then there’s sometimes when a guy puts his hands on you, you’re like, “Oh my, this guy is bringing it.” There’s a baseline of, you really make me think about it. There really is a violence and an explosion and a power and a style of playing where you are playing with that anger. You’re playing with that passion. But then in the same sense, you’re naturally that and then you try and pull that back a little bit because you don’t want penalties, you don’t want to make mistakes. You kind of train that explosion and ferocity. And then you’re able to also think where if you don’t train that way and then you go out there and go and play and you’re trying to do that different? I think that would lead to more mistakes. And it’s the same way in individual in practice. We’re attacking with that same mindset. Obviously, you’re not trying to put guys to the ground and hurt anybody. But the same way in practice, you’re playing with that intensity.
Have you always been able to control your emotions and your intensity and just not lose it? Have you ever just gone ballistic in football or otherwise?
Lindstrom: Oh, for sure. And it’s something you learn. I get fired up. It’s not like I’m a robot out there. Especially if you get one of these drives where Tyler Allgeier has one of these big runs where he’s finishing guys. You can’t not get excited. You love football and you watch Tyler or Bijan make a guy miss or — as a unit — we have one of these drives where, “Hey, we’re moving the ball down the field. We’re running the ball at our will. You get fired up. And our O-Line coach is awesome. We’re pushing each other on the sideline and screaming and yelling. And so there’s definitely a passion and an energy there.
But you harness it. You’re not kidding. You didn’t have a holding penalty in your career until the 16th game of your fourth season and it was a bullshit penalty. You shouldn’t have got flagged. It was a phantom flag. I’m not just saying that. I went back and said, “Where’s the flag here?” That’s insane. Especially you watch football today and there’s just flags after every play. How did you go that long without a holding penalty?
Lindstrom: I have no idea. It kind of just happened. And then I feel like once the dam broke, I’ve gotten three since then. Just trying to refit my hands constantly — hands out of the framework and then just try and constantly get him back in the chest. And then knowing it’s almost an art form when you feel a guy disengage and you feel him, you try and keep everything in the cylinder. And so when that guy gets out of there, your hands drift out of here, you got to let him go, or he’s trying to disengage, you’ve got to push. You can’t pull. And then there’s kind of that fine balance with it.
Who’s the hardest to get underneath and get your hands on. Who’s the toughest D-Lineman that you’ve ever tried to block?
Lindstrom: Yeah, there’s a couple that come to mind. Aaron Donald, obviously. I know he’s retired now, but he was one of those guys where I felt like he was working a second move before you reacted to his first one. And he always had those counters. He was powerful, explosive, and could really twitch off the ball. You can’t say enough great things about him. And then Chris Jones and then Dexter Lawrence and Derrick Brown I think are the three other guys that kind of really come to mind. Chris is such a good pass rusher in the way he uses his hands. He’s so long and big and strong. But on top of that, he can really work your edge. He can dip his hips and kind of get around and he’s so long he can really affect the quarterback. And then Derrick and Dexter are just both so powerful and explosive in what they can do and disruptive in the way they are as players. There’s big powerful guys, but those guys are playing almost every single snap, which is a testament to them and them being able to chase down the ball and stuff like that.
You would’ve had Chris Jones last month? It does seem like he can play possum, too. You might not hear from Chris Jones for a quarter or two. And then it’s third and long, he’s sliding along the line. How do some guys like that just have that ability — game on the line — to turn it on and make a play?
Lindstrom: Yeah, we always talk about it, too. The got-to-have it situations. And that’s part of being an O-Linemen. You’ve got to be aware and not get lulled to sleep. And those guys, they always, everybody’s go-to move is different. Some guys swim over. Some guys will pull you and push-pull and some guys can do it all. You can sometimes feel the intensity in guys when they put their weight in their hand, you go, “OK, this rep’s going to be a little bit different than the others.” But I think that’s what makes them great, what makes them special. Those impact moments throughout the game, they’e always there.
Can you describe your personal “flow state?” I love hearing athletes dive into that world. Your subconscious. You’re playing out there but you’re not thinking, you’re not over-analyzing. It’s like your mind is outside of your body in a way, kind of controlling it.
Lindstrom: Yeah, for sure. I think it’s almost being in a rhythm and I think you slowly… obviously you’re not showing up to the first play of the game in a flow state. So part of it is team success and I think with offensive line play, it’s consistently moving the football first. Keeping the chains manageable. Always being in good situations. You’re never going to be in a flow state if you're constantly in third and 11 as an offensive line. So I think really that’s the first part of it. And then just being assignment sound. The technique. And then you feel like you’re feeling it. You’re hitting the combinations like we talked about earlier. You hit those combinations one, two, three times in a row where you’re like, “Man, I really fit that good.” The communication’s good, and then you have a sense where as offensive linemen, we do so much preparation for pressures and blitzes and line movements. And I think part of that flow state is you can see it, you can see it happening and you don’t even know. It just comes to your brain. Small things. Like a guy’s hand or a little bit of weight or he’s a little bit tighter than he normally is and you can make those calls and I feel like that’s really kind of that moment or you feel a twist game where the 3-technique’s working out and you can really tell the difference subconsciously of “Is he rushing me wide or is he working out to the tackle and there's a blitz coming the other side?” and you can kind of make those split decisions pretty quickly and have it be right. And so, I’d say that’s really the flow state.
Is the flow state something that you’ve read about? Researched? How do you get to that place?
Lindstrom: I just read the Angela Duckworth book on grit and so kind of the grit and determination and working on things and she kind of talked about it in there. And then you kind of feel it and you see other athletes talk about the visualization of what it is. That’s really what it is for offensive linemen. When you’re seeing things, you’re hitting your strides, you’re hitting your landmarks. Obviously you’re playing well and you’re being violent in your technique and stuff like that. But then also the game really kind of slows down.
When you became the richest guard in NFL history — five years, 102.5 million — how many people did you hear from? Your phone had to have been a disaster. Is everybody coming out of the woodwork? People you didn’t even know from your seventh-grade biology class?
Lindstrom: No, I have great people in my life and I’m incredibly fortunate for how this all shook out. I never in a million years could have imagined that I’d at one point be the highest-paid guard in the league for a year. And it was like, it doesn’t feel real. I just have incredible people in my life who are really happy for me. The guys in the building were amazing. Talk about it organizationally, to be able to stay here in Atlanta, to be here with Terry and now Raheem, it’s really great. I love this organization. I love being a part of this team and our offensive line unit. And so it really is a dream and something that I absolutely never take for granted.
I think you said that you bought a tractor, right? A John Deere? Was that the first big purchase?
Lindstrom: Yeah, I did. Yeah, for sure. I was renting down here in Georgia. I didn’t know where to live my first two years, so I was renting. And then I was like, “Alright, I only have two years left for my deal.” So finally, I bought a house down here. Stayed here in Georgia. And then, yeah, I bought a tractor. I always wanted one and I was like, “You know what? Now’s the time I’m going to get that, throw the snowblower on it next week when the bye week comes on and be ready to go for the offseason.”
I loved how you put it, too: There’s not a better place in the world than having those headphones on and you’re mowing a lawn. Isn’t that the truth? What do you love about that world when you just got the headphones in and you’re mowing a lawn?
Lindstrom: Yeah, between the lawn mower or working a leaf blower, you just have that vibrating noise probably causing hearing loss, but we’ll worry about that later. I think it’s so peaceful. You just sit there, relax, you’re kind of in your own world, have your thoughts, throw in a good audiobook or a podcast and really kind of just relax and sit there. And that’s why I love it. I know Jake, I’m going to throw him under the bus, too. I know he sits there in the offseason. He’s got his ranch down in Texas and he’ll get in his tractor and go and just mow the lawn and just have the best day. So I don’t know what it is, but there’s got to be something subconsciously where you’re just at peace there. Almost meditating.
What audiobooks or podcasts have really kind of captivated you of late?
Lindstrom: If I do the reading, my favorite author is doing the Ryan Holiday series. Drew Dahlman got me into — he’s a massive reader and I’m very new to reading — but he got me into the Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot series. So I read all those books. And then with podcasts, mostly the comedy ones. I’ll do 2 Bears, 1 Cave. Kill Tony. Something like that, just to get a couple laughs and relax.
With the Falcons, you’ve been through so much. Different coaches, quarterbacks, regimes. Does it feel like everything in 2024 is finally coming together with Kirk Cousins at quarterback, Raheem Morris as head coach, Terry. What kind of structure do you have in place to finally get over the hump?
Lindstrom: There’s so much belief in this team. There’s adversity that we’ve had to go through in games this season and we’ve come through on the other side in believing in one another. We get in those situations, I think there’s a real confidence that we can win and that’s really reassuring. And then you see guys like Kirk, the preparation that he puts in week-in and week-out to be at his best only makes everybody else better. And he’s kind of had those experiences across the league. Same thing with Raheem. He’s won a Super Bowl with the Rams. He knows what it looks like and all he does is breathe confidence in the guys, breathe confidence into the team, and when things don’t go right, he’s the same person day-in and day-out. And so that’s something you don’t take for granted. We have so many people who are just genuinely themselves every single day. And so that makes it great. We’re not riding. We’re not up and down. We are who we are and that doesn’t change. And so we’re just constantly working to get better at as a team.
How has Kirk elevated things when this offense is humming? That Thursday night game was one of the most fun games we’ve seen all year because you’re scoring at will. What makes him special as a quarterback that has gone underappreciated through his career?
Lindstrom: His communication and detail and the preparation that he goes through for these play calls feel like a paragraph sometimes. And he is on it. He almost never makes a mistake with it and it’s so incredibly impressive with the work he puts in that. And the same thing is, he understands the challenges that we face upfront. And so he’s not saying the snap count once. He’s saying it twice in the huddle. He’s really reemphasizing those little details that sometimes might go to the wayside when you’re tired and you’re on the 10th play. So he really kind of focuses you in. Dials you in on it. And then also he sees things as a veteran quarterback — getting it right, making great decisions. And that’s when people talk about the leadership and experience. It’s all those small things. What he did with the 2-minute drill vs. the Eagles, he came in there right away with a confidence and a plan and was like, “Hey, they’re going to rush hard. I’m going to get this ball out.” And he did the first couple and then we were just efficient and you could really see as an offense, we were just moving the ball and really dialed in on the cadence.
Something like that, he plants it in your mind to know, “OK, here’s how they’re going to rush, here’s what we’re going to do. No panic, no stress. Let’s go.”
Lindstrom: Those are the things where he’s learned it over time and learned it through experience. And we know it and we have full confidence and trust in him that he’s getting us right. And so we’re ready to go.
Everybody points to you: We want everybody in the building approaching this job like Chris Lindstrom. So what are those little things that you’re doing that can become contagious behind the scenes as you guys kind of head down the stretch?
Lindstrom: One, that's always really nice to hear. But I just try and do what’s asked of me and then just focus in on the details of what my job is. And so for the run game, try and be as dialed as I can be. For the pass, make sure I understand all the looks and preparation and work through those with guys. And then those guys know — when we step to the line and step in the huddle — that they’re getting everything I got. They know I’m finishing as hard as I can. Playing as hard as I can. And will do anything for those guys to watch them succeed and to have us win.