Playbooks
Stick out of Shotgun Wide Trips HB WK is a classic zone beater built around the stick concept to the trips side, combining a flat route, a stick route sitting at five to six yards, and a corner or vertical breaking route stacked behind it to hold off the safety and corner. The lone backside receiver runs a dig or in cut to give you a full field answer if the trips side is jumped or clogged by underneath defenders. Blocking is standard shotgun pass protection with the HB releasing outside to the flat, and the primary read progression starts with the stick route in the middle of the trips stack, works down to the flat if a linebacker sits on the stick, then comes back to the backside dig against zone shells that overload the trips side.
Pre snap, identify if the defense is showing two high safeties or a single high shell, Cover 2 and Cover 4 leave the stick route as the easiest throw while Cover 3 buzzes a defender into that same window so you need to be quicker with your eyes Watch linebacker depth at the snap, if the middle or curl linebacker sinks hard to cover the stick route, that opens the flat completely for an easy checkdown to the HB Man coverage with a linebacker matched on the HB is a green light to attack the stick route or flat with confidence since the leverage usually favors the receiver User controlled lurk defenders sitting in the shallow zone are the biggest threat to this concept, if you see a defender flashing toward the stick route before the ball comes out, reset to the backside dig immediately Blitz packages that bring extra rushers off the edge attack the quick flat and stick routes hard since the ball can come out in under two seconds, but watch for a delayed spy or zone blitz that drops a rusher into the exact stick window you are trying to throw
Use this on second and medium to second and long when you expect zone shells like Cover 3 or Cover 4 that leave underneath windows open for the stick route
Check the flat defender pre snap, if a corner or linebacker is sitting low in the flat, hot route the stick receiver to sit down right in the throwing lane behind him instead of forcing the flat
Against man coverage, motion or read the HB release, if he gets a clean angle to the flat with no underneath defender trailing, that is your quick answer against blitzes
Pair this with HB Angle Screen and Quick Slants from the same set so the defense has to respect the quick game before you go to Curls X Post or Deep Flood off the same trips look for explosive shots
On third and short, key the backside corner, if he is playing off with no safety help over the top, the backside dig becomes a legitimate first down conversion throw instead of a checkdown