A Great Four Vertical Adjustment

Since this play seemed to interest the fine folks on twitter, I shall elaborate:

This play is taken from page 41 of my book. Click here to see what it is all about. The play is a version of four verticals with a few twists:

1: The importance of using two TE’s. This encourages the defense to roll a safety down to help defend the extra gaps created in the run game.

2: The option route from the X receiver. This will give the quarterback a quick option against the blitz. The wheel-snag combination will place the flat defender in a bind, and can be especially lethal against a fire zone blitz.

The pass protection component of this play must be carefully considered. Using a 5 man protection with a long developing concept can often spell “S-A-C-K” in many coordinators heads.

There are two ways I would go about accounting for this:

1: Using a man protection scheme, and call out the Mike (defender on #3) as the 5^th rusher. 

2: Half man, half slide. Have the left side of the line in man, and the Center, RG and RT slide to their right gap.

Either of these pass protections will leave the Will unaccounted for (or a third rusher to the left of the center). This third rusher will be accounted for by the option route of the X receiver. When this player blitzes, they will vacate the area that the snag route will settle in. If the corner comes down on the snag, the wheel will have outside leverage on any defender trying to find him.

The rest of the play centers around 4 verticals, and can be adjusted to fit how you teach it. Having #3 curl over the ball at 10 yards, or bend horizontally at 10 yards on a crossing route are both good adjustments against two high safety looks.

My book has many other plays like this diagrammed and broken down. I wanted to give a glimpse of my thought process when I see a play on film. Get your copy here!