Playbooks
Breakdown
Strong Flood out of Shotgun Empty Trey stacks three levels to the strong side: the outside receiver runs a deep vertical clearing route, the inside slot receiver behind him runs a corner route, and the flexed TE or slot underneath runs a shallow flat route, creating a three level flood on one side of the field. The backside receivers run a drag and a shorter dig to hold linebackers and give the quarterback a checkdown if the flood side is jumped. This is a Cover 3 beater by design, since the deep, medium, and short routes attack the flat defender and deep third corner in a triangle read, and with five receivers out on empty there is no run or play-action element, just a pure progression read pass concept starting with the corner route and working down to the flat.
Defensive Reads
Watch for a single high safety presnap, which usually signals Cover 3 or Cover 1 and tells you the flood concept has a clean lane into the deep third. If the strong safety walks down near the line before the snap, that is a flat defender tell and you want to bait him with the vertical clear out before hitting the corner route behind him. Post snap, key the flat defender's first two steps, if he sinks with the corner route instead of squatting on the flat receiver, the underneath flat throw opens up as the checkdown. Watch for a lurking linebacker or nickel defender sitting in the shallow crossing lane, since a user controlled defender jumping the drag route can bait a costly interception if the quarterback stares down the middle read too long. Press coverage or a Cover 4 shell with two deep safeties over the top of the flood side can take away both the corner and vertical routes, so if you see two safeties rotate over that side presnap, be ready to reset to the backside drag or dig as the primary answer instead.
Usage Tips
Presnap identify if the strong safety or a corner is sitting in the flat area, since Cover 3 with a hard flat defender is exactly what this flood is built to attack. Start your read on the corner route first, because if the deep third defender opens up to the vertical clear out, the corner route will sit in the window behind the flat defender. Use this on second and medium to third and short situations where defenses are more likely to sit in zone shells rather than blitz. Pair Strong Flood with Four Verticals from this same Empty Trey set to punish defenses that key on the flood side and roll extra help there, since verticals stresses the opposite hash. If you see the corner jumping the flood route on early downs, sequence into Quick Slants or Stick next series to keep linebackers and underneath defenders honest before coming back to the flood shot.
