Playbooks
Cowboy X Dig is a man beating dig concept out of Shotgun Trey Y Iso, using 11 personnel to create a natural pick and clear-out on the X receiver's crossing route. The primary read is the X receiver running the deep dig across the middle of the field, with the isolated Y (TE) and backside routes serving as secondary options if the dig is taken away by an underneath robber or rat linebacker. This is a straight dropback pass play with no play-action or RPO elements, relying on route spacing and natural rub action at the line to beat man coverage and create YAC opportunities against zone drops that overreact to the underneath crossers.
Watch for a rat linebacker or a robber sitting in the middle of the field, since this is the primary defender who can jump the dig route and turn it into a pick six if the quarterback stares it down. Identify Cover 3 or Cover 1 shells presnap, since the dig sits in soft spots in these zones and beats man coverage cleanly off the natural rub created by the trey bunch look. Check linebacker depth at the snap, if they sink deep into their drops instead of stepping up, that signals a defense keying zone drops which invites the dig into the throwing window immediately. Against Cover 2 or Cover 4 with two deep safeties, the dig can still work but the quarterback must throw with anticipation before the underneath defenders convert their drops into wall off angles on the middle read. Beware of a nano blitz or interior pressure package, since the dig takes extra time to develop and a well timed A gap blitz can force a rushed throw or a checkdown before the primary route materializes.
Look at the safety alignment pre-snap, if you see two high safeties with the corners playing outside leverage this dig will sit down in the soft spot of a zone shell for an easy completion on third and medium.
Against man coverage, trust the dig to clear the underneath traffic since the natural rub from the trey formation bunches the defenders and creates separation as the X breaks inward.
Hot route the backside receiver into a quick out or speed out if you see the defense rolling a safety down to that side, this gives you a built in answer against Cover 3 rotation.
Pair this play with Cowboys Read Dig in the same set to keep the defense guessing between the true dig read and the option based dig read, forcing linebackers to hesitate on their drop.
Use this on second and long or third and medium situations where the defense expects a quick game answer, since the dig takes a beat longer to develop and can gash a defense sitting on shorter routes.