Playbooks
Nickel Sim 2 is a five man pressure package out of the 3-2 Swap Dbl Mug look in Dime personnel, designed to simulate a heavy blitz look pre-snap while dropping into a two deep, underneath zone shell after the snap. The Mug alignment stacks defenders at the line to threaten a house call, but at the snap the second level bodies retreat into short and intermediate zones while the true rushers attack the edges and interior gaps. Your primary read starts with confirming the disguised rush lane, then working from the mugged linebackers to the deep half safeties to see if the sim pressure generates a quick throw or forces a coverage sack.
Watch the offensive line's protection slide at the snap, if they slide toward the Mug defenders the sim drop will bait a throw right into your zone. Key the running back's release, if he stays in to chip block the offense is respecting the blitz and you can trust your underneath defenders to sit on quick routes. Identify two high safeties pre-snap, if they stay true after the snap this becomes a strong Cover 2 style zone beater against quick game concepts. Man beater route combos like slants and quick outs get swallowed by the underneath zone drops, so this shuts down offenses that rely on rhythm throws against pressure. Watch for user controlled receivers sitting in the space vacated by your dropping linebackers, since that soft spot behind the initial Mug depth is the primary lurk area quarterbacks target against this look.
Use this call on early downs when the offense is likely to check into a quick game or hot route based on the mugged look to bait a bad decision. Show the same pre-snap Mug alignment you use on Blitz Loop 0 and Mid Blitz so the offense cannot key on personnel or depth to diagnose real pressure versus sim pressure. Mix in user control on the closest underneath defender to the boundary to jump quick outs and slants that offenses throw as a hot route beater against Mug looks. Pair this with Cover 3 Sky or Cover 3 Match on back to back snaps so the QB has to respect both a real blitz and a zone drop from the identical alignment. Save this for third and medium to third and long situations where quarterbacks are more likely to audible into a quick pass expecting extra rushers off the edge.