Playbooks
FB Zone Toss is a run play out of the Flexbone Trio Right formation that tosses the ball to the fullback lined up in the backfield, letting him work behind a zone blocking scheme rather than a designated lead blocker. The offensive line flows laterally to seal the edge, giving the fullback a cutback lane if the defense overpursues to the toss side. Your primary read is the edge defender or force player: if he crashes down hard on the toss, plant and cut inside; if he stays home, bounce it outside using the alley created by the zone flow.
Watch the edge defender or outside linebacker responsible for force, since his crash or contain decision dictates whether you cut inside or bounce outside. Check safety depth and alignment before the snap, because a safety cheating down into the box signals run support that can beat this play to the toss side. Identify if the defense is running a scrape exchange, where the defensive end crashes and a linebacker scrapes over the top, since that combo defeats the cutback lane this play relies on. Look for user-controlled defenders flying downhill immediately at the snap, which usually means they read toss action and are shooting a gap rather than playing assignment sound, giving you a bigger cutback window. This play struggles against stacked eight-man fronts and aggressive gap-shooting interior linemen who blow up the zone flow before the fullback can get to the second level.
Use FB Zone Toss on early downs when you need to establish tempo and set up defenders to overreact to the perimeter run threat later in the drive.
Check the defensive front pre-snap: if the defense is showing a heavy box with linebackers stacked tight, this play struggles since it lacks a lead blocker to clear extra bodies, so consider switching to FB Lead Toss Wk or FB Lead Toss Str instead.
Pair this play with FB Dive and FB Dive Wk earlier in the game so defenders start keying on the fullback dive action, then hit them with the toss to hunt cutback lanes once linebackers over commit to the interior.
Motion or shift pre-snap if allowed to identify whether the defense is playing assignment football on the edge or gap-shooting, since gap-shooting fronts open up cutback lanes for this toss almost every time.
On money downs, use this in combination with Tr Cntr Wk to keep the same run action but attack the opposite gap, forcing linebackers to hesitate on flow reads.