Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Overload 3 Seam is a Cover 3 zone blitz out of the Nickel Over set that overloads one side of the formation with pressure while dropping into a three deep, four under shell behind it. The diagram shows five rushers stacked to the same side with staggered attack angles, three deep zone defenders running vertical seams to divide the field into thirds, and underneath defenders sinking into curl and flat zones to account for shallow crossers and outlet routes. This is a zone blitz designed to disguise pressure while still protecting deep thirds, so the primary read progression for the defense is jump the shortest developing route out of the backfield first, then trigger on any receiver settling in the vacated underneath zones created by the overload rush.
Defensive Reads
Read the running back's alignment pre-snap, if he is releasing into the route concept the overload side has one less blocker and the blitz timing gets home faster. Key the slot or tight end running the seam route on the overload side, that route is designed to occupy the underneath defender who would otherwise help in coverage. Watch for quick game and RPO game against this call since the underneath zones can be light for a beat while the pressure is developing. Trigger downhill immediately if the quarterback holds the ball past two seconds, that is the sign the protection has slid to pick up the overload and your coverage shell needs to tighten. This call gets beat by hot routes and slide protection that account for the extra rusher, so avoid it against offenses that consistently check into quick out or hitch concepts on early downs.
Usage Tips
Call this on early downs or second and medium when you expect the offense to protect with a running back or use max protect against pressure looks.
Check the pre-snap formation for trips or bunch to the overload side and consider a pre-snap shift or user spy adjustment to cover the extra gap.
Bring the extra rusher off the edge that has the shortest path to the quarterback and let your zone defenders sink under any vertical seam or corner route immediately after the snap.
Pair this call with Overload Blitz and Nickel Blitz 3 in the same drive so quarterbacks cannot key blitz direction off formation alone.
Avoid calling this against empty backfield sets or heavy trips formations since the overload rush can be picked up easily and leave your underneath zones exposed on quick game.
