Playbooks
Stick out of Shotgun Wide 5wr is a five man route concept built around quick stick routes to both sides of the field, with the inside slot receivers sitting down at five to six yards while outside receivers work flat and corner routes. This is a classic zone beater designed to attack the underneath voids in zone coverage, though it holds up against man coverage too since the stick routes create natural picks and rubs at the top of the route stem. The primary read progression starts with the near side stick route, then works to the flat route underneath it, and finally to the backside stick if the initial side is capped, giving the quarterback a fast triangle read with an outlet check down if the pocket collapses.
Read the middle linebacker depth at the snap, if he sinks into the stick window immediately this concept gets tight so be ready to check to the backside route. Watch for Cover 2 shells with corners sitting on the flat routes, this jumps the underneath throw and forces you to work the deeper stick option instead. Identify user controlled lurk defenders sitting in the shallow middle zone, since a smart user player will jump the inside stick route and bait a pick six. Against man pressure looks, check cornerback alignment on the outside receivers, tight press man with no safety help signals a blitz is likely coming and you should get the ball out fast on the flat route. Blitz packages that bring an extra defender off the edge or through the A gap tell you to trust the quick stick and flat reads immediately rather than waiting on the backside route to develop.
Use pre snap motion on one of the outside receivers to bait linebackers into revealing man versus zone before the snap.
Against Cover 3 or Cover 4 shells, target the stick route in the seam between the underneath zone defender and the deep third safety, since that window opens fast.
Hot route the backside flat receiver into a shallow drag if you see man coverage with no safety help over the top, turning this into a quick man beater against Cover 1 or Cover 0.
Run this on third and short to medium distance since the stick and flat combo consistently gets the first down against both blitz packages and standard zone drops.
Pair Stick with Quick Slants or All Hitch in the same drive to keep linebackers guessing between stick sits and vertical breaking routes, then dial up Fake Bubble Slant or RPO Bubble QB Draw once the defense starts crashing down on the quick game.