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Quick Reference
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Breakdown
H Wheel out of Shotgun Spread 10 personnel shows a five wide look with the H back running a wheel route from the backfield area to the flat and up the sideline, the primary man beater in this concept. The three receivers to the left run a mesh style shallow cross combination underneath while the single receiver to the right runs a deep vertical route to clear out the corner and hold the safety, opening the sideline for the wheel. There is no run action or screen tag here, this is a straight dropback pass designed to isolate a linebacker on the H back on the wheel route as the first read, with the shallow cross combo underneath as the checkdown against zone coverage.
Defensive Reads
Watch the linebacker depth pre snap, if a linebacker is shaded over the H back with no safety help over the top, the wheel route wins immediately against man coverage. Key the single high safety, if he sits in the middle of the field the wheel has a soft spot on the sideline before he can rotate over. Against Cover 3 or Cover 4 zone shells, the flat defender to the wheel side must widen and stay disciplined, if he crashes down on the shallow cross the wheel route will be uncontested down the seam. User the flat or curl defender to that side and stay on top of the wheel route through its break, jumping the route too early leaves the shallow cross wide open underneath. Blitz packages that send extra pressure off the edge to the wheel side can disrupt the timing before the H back gets vertical, so a well timed nano blitz or contain blitz to that side takes away the primary read.
Usage Tips
Use this play on early downs or second and medium when defenses are not expecting a wheel concept, since it punishes linebackers who cannot stay in phase down the sideline.
Pre snap, identify if the defense is showing man coverage with a linebacker aligned over the H back, that mismatch is exactly what this play is designed to exploit.
Hot route the backside shallow cross receivers into option routes or sit them down against zone if you see two high safeties, since the wheel needs time to develop against zone drops.
Pair this play with Curl Flats or Quick Slants earlier in a drive so linebackers start jumping underneath routes, then dial up H Wheel to hit the wheel route behind that aggression.
If the deep clearout receiver on the right is doubled, expect the safety to sink and take away the wheel late, so be ready to reset to the shallow cross combo as your checkdown.
