Playbooks

Zone Blitz

46·Normal·Base 4-3

Zone Blitz Zone Blitz Zone Coverage

Likely unavailable in the playbook builder

This play belongs to no NFL team or scheme playbook, so it may not appear in the in-game builder.

Diagram coming soon

Quick Reference

Formation46

SetNormal

Personnel

Base 4-32 EDGE2 DTSAMMIKEWILL2 CBFSSS

Breakdown

Zone Blitz out of the 46 Normal Base 4-3 personnel sends extra pressure off the edge or through an interior gap while dropping a defensive lineman into a shallow zone to disguise the rush numbers. The coverage behind the pressure rotates into a zone shell, typically a variation of Cover 3 or Cover 2 zone drops, to protect against the quick throws that usually beat blitzes. This is a zone based pressure package, not a man beater, so the primary read for the defense is to trust the rush to affect the quarterback while the underneath zone defenders read the quarterback's eyes and squeeze the shallow crossers and flat routes first before working back to intermediate zone drops.

Defensive Reads

Presnap check the safety alignment, if both safeties are deep and off the ball this usually confirms the zone shell is intact behind the blitz and you can commit fully to the pressure look. Watch the running back and tight end release patterns at the snap, since zone blitzes are vulnerable to backs leaking out to the flat vacated by a blitzing linebacker. Key the quarterback's eyes immediately after the snap, if he looks quickly to one side he is likely attacking the zone blitz's short throw window before the rush arrives. This beats quick game and shallow crosser concepts because the underneath zone defenders are sitting in those windows instead of chasing man assignments. This gets exposed by play action rollouts and RPOs that attack the exact gap vacated by the blitzing defender, so if the offense shows heavy run action or bootleg tendencies consider checking to a standard zone coverage instead.

Usage Tips

Call this on early downs or third and medium when the offense has shown tendencies toward quick game or shallow crosser concepts that typically dice up man blitzes. Before the snap identify if the offense is in shotgun spread with fast motion, since this often signals a quick throw designed to beat pressure and this play's zone drops can rally to those routes better than man coverage blitzes. Use the defensive line hot route menu to send the extra rusher through the gap that the offensive line is weakest at protecting based on their splits and depth. Pair this with Cover 3 or Cover 3 Match earlier in the sequence so the offense sees a similar shell presnap and cannot distinguish the disguised pressure from a standard drop back zone look. If the user controls a linebacker, drop into the shallow hook or curl zone immediately at the snap to jump underneath quick outs and slants before turning attention to the rusher's pressure timing.