Playbooks
Breakdown
SS 2 Trap is a Cover 2 zone shell out of the Tite Leo 4-3 Base 5-2 personnel, built around trap coverage principles underneath a two deep safety look. Both deep safeties bail to their halves while the corners sit in shallow trap zones at the flats, and the underneath defenders including the Sam and Mike drop into short zone lanes with the five defensive linemen firing off the line as shown by the red arrows. This is a zone beater designed to squeeze quick outs and flat routes, with the primary read being the trap zone corner jumping any immediate flat or hitch route before working back to the deep half safety help over the top.
Defensive Reads
Watch the two deep safeties pre-snap for a clear two high shell, which tips Cover 2 style trap coverage and should discourage the offense from throwing deep outside the numbers. Post-snap, key the corner sitting in the trap zone since he is reading the quarterback's eyes to jump any quick out, flat, or hitch route before it develops. This shell is vulnerable to seam routes and deep posts run between the two safeties, so if you see twin verticals or a skinny post stacked with a flat route, expect the offense to attack the middle of the field. Beware of play-action rollouts and bootlegs that pull your trap corner up too aggressively, opening the flat route behind him for an easy pitch and catch. If the offense audibles into four verticals or a deep dig concept, the two deep safeties can get outnumbered underneath, so be ready to sink the Mike linebacker deeper into his zone drop.
Usage Tips
Call this on early downs or third and short when you expect the offense to attack the flats with quick game concepts, since the trap corners are sitting right on those routes.
Pre-snap, check for stacked or bunch receiver alignment to the trap side, then user the corner in that zone to jump the first route through the flat instead of sinking deep.
Use the flat zone defender with the white square icon as your trap key, since he is baiting hitches, flats, and shallow crossers before the QB can read leverage.
Combine this with Cover 3 Sky or Cover 3 Match from the same set to disguise your shell, since all three plays share a similar pre-snap look but rotate coverage differently after the snap.
Mix in Tampa 2 as a changeup so quarterbacks cannot key on the two deep safety picture and settle for the same throwing lanes every time.
