Football concepts library.
Editorial breakdowns of the concepts and coverages that show up on every modern football vault. Read the primer, then watch the cuts.
Offensive concepts
- Bubble Screen — The RPO Cure-All
The bubble screen is the easy answer to a light box. A coach's guide to the read, the timing, and the run/pass conflict it forces.
Read primer - Four Verticals — The Air Raid Staple
Four verts is football's most-installed downfield concept. How the read works against 1-high, 2-high, and pattern match.
Read primer - The Glance Route — Football's Most Copied RPO
The glance is the inside slant that beats single-high looks. A coach's guide to the read, the tag, and the ways defenses are answering it.
Read primer - Mesh Concept — The Drive Pass That Won't Die
Mesh from Holgorsen to high school — why the crossing route concept beats man, zone, and everything in between.
Read primer - Pop Pass — The RPO Variant That Burns Linebackers
Pop is an RPO seam shot that punishes a fast-flowing linebacker. Read, tag, and tape from college and HS.
Read primer - RPO: The Run-Pass Option, Explained
What an RPO is, how the read works, and the cuts every coach should study. Glance, bubble, pop, peek — with real D-I tape.
Read primer - Smash — The High-Low That Beats Cover-2
Smash puts a corner route over a hitch and forces the cover-2 corner to choose. The classic high-low.
Read primer
Coverages
- Bear Front — The 46 Defense's Pressure Look
Three down linemen covering all three interior O-line gaps. A primer on the Bear and how modern defenses use it.
Read primer - Cover-1 — Man Free, The Pressure Bedrock
Cover-1 puts every receiver in man with a single deep safety. Bedrock for blitz. How offenses beat it and how defenses disguise it.
Read primer - Cover-2: Two Safeties, Five Underneath
The split-safety zone that gave us Tampa-2. How modern offenses break it, and how defenses keep it relevant.
Read primer - Cover-3 — Three Deep, Four Underneath
Cover-3 splits the field into deep thirds with four underneath defenders. The most-played NFL coverage. How the rotation works and how to attack it.
Read primer - Cover-7 (MOD/MEG) — Pattern-Match Quarters
MOD, Rip/Liz, MEG. The pattern-match quarters family that's beating modern spread offenses.
Read primer - Palms (2-Read) — Man-Match In A 2-High Shell
Palms (sometimes called 2-Read) lets the corner squat the out and trap routes that break flat. A coach's guide.
Read primer