Playbooks
Jets Crosses is a man beater built around a double crosser concept out of the Shotgun Y Off Trips Pats set, sending two receivers on deep crossing routes that sit high to low across the middle of the field while the trips side works a shallow drag or flat route underneath. The blocking scheme is a standard five man protection designed to hold up long enough for the crossers to clear traffic and separate from man defenders trailing across the field. Your primary read progression starts with the deep crosser breaking away from the trips bunch, then works down to the intermediate crosser coming from the opposite side, and finishes with the underneath drag as a checkdown against a hard blitz.
Watch for man coverage defenders trailing the crossers with no help underneath, that is the green light to trust the first read Identify a lurking linebacker or safety sitting in the middle of the field who can jump the crossing routes and force an interception if you telegraph the throw Cover 2 and Cover 4 shells with two deep safeties tend to shut this down since the safeties can rotate over the top of both crossers A hard inside blitz with man coverage on the outside is where the underneath drag becomes the answer, so keep an eye on the box count before the snap If the defense shows Tampa 2 or a deep middle robber, expect the crossers to get squeezed and be ready to check down quickly rather than force the throw
Check the pre-snap alignment for man coverage indicators like a corner shading outside or a linebacker cheating toward the trips side before snapping the ball
If you see Cover 3 or Cover 4 shells with defenders sitting in zones, hold the ball an extra beat and let the deep crosser work into the void behind the linebackers
Hot route the backside crosser into a deeper route against soft zone shells to stretch the field vertically and force safeties to choose between the two crossing routes
Use this play on second and medium or third and long since the crossers need time to develop and clear underneath defenders
Pair this play with Pats Cross or Mesh Y Out earlier in a series so defenders start jumping the shallow crossers, then hit them with Jets Crosses when they overplay the underneath routes