Playbooks
Quick Reference
In 1 playbook
Breakdown
Stick out of Shotgun Wing Stack Wk with 12 personnel shows a classic Stick concept to the closed side of the formation. The diagram shows two receivers running vertical stems that break outward to the sidelines (the corner and flat routes), a middle read breaking vertically up the seam, and a receiver on the opposite side running a deep vertical clear-out. This is a quick game man and zone beater designed to attack underneath zone defenders and hook/curl areas, with the primary read progression working from the seam breaking receiver to the flat route underneath, using the outward breaking routes to stretch the defense horizontally and clear space for the shorter option against zone coverage.
Defensive Reads
Look for Cover 3 or Cover 2 zone shells pre-snap, since Stick is designed to sit defenders down and throw behind linebackers dropping into the hook and curl zones. If the defense shows man coverage with a slot corner pressed on the seam receiver, expect the seam route to get jammed early, so be ready to work the flat route immediately. Watch for a user-controlled linebacker sitting in the shallow hook zone, since this is the primary threat that can jump the seam or flat throw if you stare down your first read too long. Blitz packages that bring extra rushers off the edge will collapse the pocket quickly, so identify pre-snap blitz looks (safety creeping down, extra defender walked into the box) and get the ball out on rhythm to the flat route as a built-in answer. Against Cover 4 or quarters looks, the outside corner routes can get taken away by deep-half safeties, so key the safety depth post-snap to decide whether to work the underneath stick combo instead of forcing the ball outside.
Usage Tips
Use this on early downs or third and short since the routes are all quick breaking and designed to get the ball out fast against pressure.
Pre-snap, identify if the defense is showing zone by looking for off man alignment on the corners and linebackers sitting at depth over the slot, this tells you the flat and seam combo will have room to work.
Hot route the backside vertical clear-out receiver into a quick slant or drag if you see man coverage with no safety help over the top, since that clear-out route rarely gets targeted as-is.
Pair this play with Four Verticals in the same set to keep defenses honest, since Stick punishes teams sitting in zone shells while Four Verticals punishes single high man coverage.
Combine Stick with RPO Read Bubble or RPO Alert Bubble in your play-calling sequence to force the defense to respect both the quick game pass and the perimeter run threat, keeping linebackers hesitant to jump the underneath routes.
