Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
QB Zone is a designed quarterback run out of Shotgun Ace 12 personnel, showing five offensive linemen blocking a zone scheme with the fullback/H-back leaking to the edge as a lead blocker. The diagram shows no receivers running routes, confirming this is a pure designed run play with both outside wide receivers left uninvolved as decoys. The QB reads the zone blocking flow and picks a running lane based on the defensive front, making this a run-blocking scheme rather than a man or zone pass beater.
Defensive Reads
Read the defensive end and outside linebacker leverage on the play side, if they crash down hard on the zone flow the QB should bounce it outside Watch for a spy or lurking user defender sitting in the QB run lane, this is the primary counter to designed QB run concepts Stacked boxes with eight or more defenders near the line of scrimmage signal the defense expects run, consider audibling to a play-action or RPO instead Check safety depth pre-snap, if both safeties are shallow or crashing the box there is no help over the top and the QB can be more aggressive taking the edge Look for a delayed blitz or contain defender staying wide on the edge, since disciplined edge containment shuts down the cutback and bounce lanes for this play
Usage Tips
Check the box count pre-snap and only call this against light boxes with six or fewer defenders in the run fit
Use this on early downs like first or second and short to medium yardage to keep the defense honest against your pass-heavy calls
Pair QB Zone with RPO Zone Peek and RPO Peek Slant in the same personnel grouping so the defense cannot sit on the run without opening up quick throws
Motion the H-back or TE across the formation pre-snap to identify if the defense is playing man or zone, since man coverage defenders will follow the motion
Mix in Power Read and Read Option from this same set to keep linebackers guessing on whether the QB is keeping or handing off, which slows their run fit reactions
