Playbooks
Quick Reference
Breakdown
Fade Out is a boundary attacking pass concept out of Shotgun Wing Stack with 12 personnel, using two tight ends stacked to the same side. The backside runs an out and up combo, with the outside receiver breaking to the flag while the inside stack releases into a corner route that stems outside, and on the play side the near tight end runs a flat/out breaking route to the sideline while the outside receiver climbs vertically up the numbers. This is a man beater built to isolate one on one matchups on the perimeter, and the primary read is the fade up the sideline first, working back to the shallow out underneath if the corner route or fade is blanketed.
Defensive Reads
Press man corners on the outside receiver are a red flag, if the corner presses at the line and the safety rotates late you can get beat deep on the fade so play the trail technique and trust your hips. Watch for a two high shell that rotates down after the snap, this is a classic disguise to bait the fade throw into a Cover 2 cloud read where the corner sinks under the deep route. Key the flat defender or nickel corner on the underneath out route, if he sits and squats in the throwing lane he is reading the quarterback's eyes and jumping the shallow route. Identify user controlled safeties who cheat toward the stack side pre-snap, this usually signals a lurk or robber technique designed to jump the corner route coming from the inside stack. Zone blitz packages with a linebacker dropping into the flat can confuse the quarterback's rhythm read, so spy the middle of the field for late rotating defenders before committing to the fade.
Usage Tips
Check the safety alignment before the snap, if you see a single high safety shaded away from the stack side you have a clean fade throw with time to climb the pocket.
Use the pre-snap motion or shift on the tight end stack to identify man versus zone, if the defenders mirror the stack shift it confirms man coverage and green lights the fade and up routes.
Hot route the underneath out into a quick out or flat if you are facing a hard corner blitz, this gives your quarterback a rhythm throw to bail out of trouble.
Pair Fade Out with Double Corner or Four Verticals from the same set so linebackers and safeties cannot sit on the sideline fade tendency, this keeps defenders honest over the middle of the field.
Use this play on the goal line or in third and short red zone situations where the fade and corner combo isolates a cornerback in a small area of the field.
