Playbooks
Breakdown
Bench Swap lines up out of Shotgun Tight Slots with 11 personnel and features a five man route concept designed to attack zone drops with a deep clear out and a switch release underneath. The backside receiver runs a deep dig that breaks hard across the middle while the outside receiver on that side clears vertically up the sideline, creating a natural pick and switch look. On the play side the outside receiver climbs a corner route to the deep third while the slot works an out and up combo underneath, and the inside receiver runs a short crossing route into the middle void. This is a zone beater at its core, using the switch release and crossing patterns to confuse zone defenders on their drops, with the deep dig as the primary read followed by the underneath crosser against soft zone.
Defensive Reads
Read the safety depth before the snap, two high safeties signal zone coverage and open up the deep dig route over the middle. Watch the flow of the linebackers at the snap, if they sink hard into the middle hook zones they will collide with the underneath crosser and slow the timing of that route. Key the corner on the play side, if he sits at the numbers and does not press the release, the corner route to the deep third has a clean throwing lane. Identify any user controlled defender dropping into a lurk position near the crossing route, since this play is vulnerable to a spy or rat in the middle jumping the underneath read. Against man coverage look for the switch release to create natural traffic, but be aware that press corners can disrupt the timing of both outside routes if they jam at the line.
Usage Tips
Use Bench Swap on second and long or third and medium when defenses are likely to sit in zone coverage shells like Cover 3 or Cover 4. Check the safety alignment pre snap, if you see two deep safeties with the corners playing off, the deep dig and corner route combo will have room to work against soft zone drops. Hot route the underneath crosser into a quick out if you see man coverage with no safety help over the top, since the switch release can get picked in tight man concepts. Pair this play with Bench and Bench Switch in your play calling sequence, since all three share the switch release action and will keep zone linebackers guessing on their initial drops. Look to hit the deep dig first against Cover 3, then work back to the underneath crosser or corner route if the middle read is not open by your third step in the drop.
