Playbooks
Quick Reference
In 1 playbook
Breakdown
Deep Flood floods one side of the field with three vertical stems stacked at different depths. From the diagram, the outside receiver runs a deep vertical route up the numbers, the slot runs an out breaking corner style route toward the sideline underneath it, and a third route flares from the backfield or tight end alignment to the flat, creating a high low low read on one half of the field. The single receiver on the backside runs a deep crossing route that can act as a hot read against man coverage. This is a classic Cover 3 beater built to overload one deflender with three levels, and the primary read progression works flat to corner to deep vertical, working backside if the flood side is capped.
Defensive Reads
As the defense, key the single high safety pre-snap since this play is designed to attack Cover 3 by putting three receivers into one deep third. Post-snap, user the deep third defender on the flood side and stay disciplined reading corner to flat, do not bite on the underneath flat route or the corner and vertical will split you. Watch the flat defender and curl to flat linebacker, if they widen too fast to the flat route it opens a throwing lane on the corner route behind them. Cover 2 with two deep safeties can shut this down if your corner sinks and re routes the vertical while the safety help arrives over the top. Man coverage with a deep half safety rotated to the flood side takes away the vertical shot and forces the quarterback into the flat route, so jump that route with an underneath defender if you diagnose man pre-snap.
Usage Tips
Pre-snap, identify if the defense is showing a single high safety look, that is your green light for this concept since it isolates the deep third defender on the flood side.
Use the flat route as your answer against a hard corner blitz or when you need a quick, safe outlet on 3rd and short.
If you see man coverage across the board, hot route the backside crosser into a shallow drag to give yourself a built in man beater escape valve.
Pair this call with Y Stick or Smash Spot earlier in a series to condition the defense to sit on shorter zone drops, then hit Deep Flood to attack the same shell for an explosive gain over the top.
Best used on 2nd and long or 1st down when you have time to let the deep corner route and vertical develop, since the full progression takes a beat to unfold.
