Playbooks
Y-off Power Read out of the Shotgun Deebo Package is a run play built on a power blocking scheme with a read element attached to the quarterback. The offensive line pulls the backside guard to lead through the hole while the H-back or off-tackle blocker seals the edge, giving the running back a downhill lane behind double team blocks at the point of attack. The primary read is the quarterback reading the play side defensive end: if that end sits home or crashes down on the dive, the quarterback pulls and bounces outside off the edge blocker, and if the end widens or upfield rushes, the quarterback hands off for the power run through the interior gap.
Watch the play side defensive end pre-snap and at the snap. If he is crashing hard on run reads every time, this play exploits that with the quarterback keep off the edge. Identify if the defense is stacking the box with eight or more defenders. A loaded box with safeties creeping down kills the interior power run and should push you toward the pull read instead. Check linebacker depth at the snap. Linebackers sitting too far off the line give the running back a bigger cushion to work through the power lane before contact. User-controlled defenders flying to the edge or spying the quarterback signal that the defense is respecting the read option element, which opens up the interior power handoff. Beware of scrape exchange technique from the linebackers, where the backer replaces the crashing end. This defeats both the pull and the handoff read if the offense does not counter with a different play in the set.
Run this out of neutral personnel looks so the defense cannot immediately key run based on formation tendencies, since Deebo Package can also throw off the same look.
Check the box count before the snap. If the defense has six or more defenders in the box, be ready to pull the ball on the read rather than force the handoff into a stacked front.
Use the quarterback slide or run commit control after the mesh point to speed up your decision if you are getting blitzed off the edge consistently.
Pair this with Y-off Power O and Read Option in the same set so the defense has to respect both the dive and the edge every single snap, forcing linebackers to hesitate on their fits.
Best used on early downs (first and ten, second and short) when defenses are more likely to sit in base fronts instead of loading up with extra pass rushers on passing downs.