Training Camp: News, Notes & Updates

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(08-02-2019, 03:04 PM)Au165 Wrote: I mean, no one plays a "soft zone" scheme. There are times and coverage where guys will play off, but that same thing goes for man too. In most cases off coverage comes based on offensive alignment, down and distance, as well as what coverage shell you have behind you. Very few people are up in press man all the time because it's boom or bust, and in the NFL too many busts costs DC's their jobs. My belief is most people think of zone as middle school spot dropping where your responsibility is places not people. In high level college, and especially in the NFL, most zone teams run pattern matching zone coverage. You have special checks that can convert zone to man either across the board, or just on one side of the field, based on alignment. 

For instance a real popular cover 3 check is "Rip/Liz" which allows teams to run cover 3 against spread looks (mainly 2x2) that hadn't been able to be done with the old spot dropping concepts because the ability to get your inside receivers vertical. With Rip/Liz checks the play can convert to man coverage if the 1 and 2 receiver on the same side both go vertical, the back side however could still be running cover 3. 

If you are in a 3 x 1 you probably have a "Mable" check on, so you have cover 3 on the trips side while the back side CB who would normally be a deep third coverage is now playing Man. There is also a Skate call that similar to Mable the safety would still take the 3 receiver but instead of rolling to the strong side he'd roll to the backside to provide a little support against a deep post, which is what a team will usually run if there is a Mable check on against their trips set. 

Even man defenses have their own checks which, often confuse people because they think a guy blew coverage because he didn't take the man lined up across from them. For instance, bunch formations get used a lot to beat man because one receiver will get a free release plus it creates some self picking actions depending on the route combos. Because of that a common check is "Banjo", which basically sets rules for how you handle the traffic. This can result in guys taking players that don't look like preplay that they are their man, you'll sometimes hear it referred to passing off a receiver. 

Bottom line, Zone isn't bad and man isn't bad. No team runs either more than 65% or so on average so it comes down to what you are comfortable with your guys doing in certain situations. Just remember next time you see an open receiver a lot more went into it than just a guy not following his guy, or not covering his area.

Side note: this wasn't specifically aimed at you Ocho it just seemed like a good place to put it haha