Playbooks

Flanker Dig

Shotgun·Spread Dbl Flex·11
DigPass Play
Play diagram for Flanker Dig from Shotgun Spread Dbl Flex in Madden 27

Quick Reference

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Breakdown

Flanker Dig is a five man route concept out of Shotgun Spread Dbl Flex that isolates a dig route on the right side while clearing space underneath with a flat route. The three receiver side to the left runs a corner and a wheel/post combo off a crossing mesh point, dragging coverage vertically and horizontally to open up the middle of the field. On the right, the flanker breaks in on the dig at intermediate depth while the underneath receiver runs a flat route to hold the corner and any underneath zone defender, giving the quarterback a clear high low read against zone or a natural pick against man. This is primarily a zone beater built to attack Cover 3 and Cover 2 hole defenders, with the dig as the primary read and the deep left crossing routes as the alert if the defense rotates away from the intermediate middle.

Defensive Reads

Pre snap, identify the free safety depth and alignment to determine if this is a one high or two high shell, since the dig sits right in the honey hole of Cover 3 Watch the flat defender at the snap, if he sinks with the underneath route it opens the dig, if he sits flat footed he can jump the throw Key the middle linebacker or hook zone defender, a slow or shallow drop leaves the dig wide open, a fast deep drop closes the window and should push you to the flat or the wheel route on the other side This play struggles against Cover 4 or Cover 6 with a hard flat and deep quarter defender combo, since both the dig and the flat routes get squeezed by disciplined zone drops Man coverage with underneath help such as Cover 1 with a lurking linebacker can undercut the dig, so watch for a robber defender sitting in the shallow middle before committing to the primary read

Usage Tips

Use this play on second or third and medium when you need a defined intermediate throwing window against zone coverage

Check the flat defender pre snap, if he sits underneath the dig throwing lane will be tight so consider hotrouting the flat route to a shallow drag to widen the window

Against Cover 3, key the flat foot of the middle linebacker, if he drops deep into the dig lane look immediately to the flat route for a quick checkdown

Pair this with PA Dig or Inside Cross earlier in a series so the defense has to respect both the play action dig shot and the pure dropback dig, forcing linebackers to hesitate on their drops

Use motion or a hard count to bait safeties into declaring their shell before the snap, since the dig timing depends on knowing whether you are throwing into one high or two high safety help

Other Plays in Spread Dbl Flex