The dagger concept is a major concept at the NFL level. It has great value because it is an excellent route vs man and zone. It is highly effective vs. both coverages. Some great qbs such as Rivers, Brady, Mahomes, Wentz and Stafford have made a nice living off this concept.
First the route concept
The route concept is a play side dig by #1 and a post by #2 to run the safety out. The shallow cross comes from the other side with the other wr with him usually running a vertical corner/deep out route followed by the shallow cross. You will often see teams stack the 2 wr to help get an off man situation like the Eagles do below.
Advantages of the concept:
1. It is good against any zone: cover 2, cover 4, 6 or cover 3 variations. The read is the same, read the alley player(curl, flat defender. You read the dig to the shallow. It is also effective vs cover 1 defenses.
2. The safeties and cb are taken care of by the post or skinny post by the #2 wr and this opens the dig window.
3. It is excellent vs man as most teams will run it vs some type of stack formation. This usually creates some type of soft coverage and again the reads are the same.
4. It is a great route to run with 6 man protection. You can handle most 5 man pressures and the shallow cross is a great man beater if it's a 5 man pressure with man principles. There is no sit down and he usually can get open on the crossing route.
5. When you hit the shallow it allows the wr to catch the ball full speed with room to make more plays in the open field.
Again the route concept below
The reads are the same for both which makes this route so hard to defend.
VS COVER 3
The Patriotts come out in 12 personnel and the Raiders go cover 3 with the single high. The great playaction opens the window for the shallow cross.
Lbs are playing the run off the play action
Easy read on the shallow
Here's another example of the route vs cover 3.
Rivers loved this concept with the Chargers, you can see it opening up.
Nice call and the dig is open so he throws it off the alley defender.
Here's 3 clips from The Chargers vs cover 3
Rivers and the Chargers run it vs the Falcons. Nice design, good spacing and easy read for Rivers.
Dig window is closed so he throws the shallow off the curl flat defender.
Nice read and completion.
Here's a few clips of the concept vs cover 3
You will see some completions on the dig as well as the shallow.
VS COVER 4
The Eagles vs the Vikings.
Eagles in 11 personnel but split the TE in a flex alignment. They do a nice job running the safety out of there with the #2 wr which opens up the dig window. Again sane read for the QB.
Nice job as the dig is open as well as the shallow but makes the right read.
Here some clips vs cover 4
vs cover 2
Again the route concept doesn't change and the reads are the same. That's the beauty about running the dig, it's great vs all zone coverages.
Here Tom Brady and the Bucs do a nice job on it.
Same read as it's a universal route.
vs cover 1(man)
There are 2 nice options as I see it.
1. When you run the shallow with the tight end because he will often get outside leverage by the nickel db. This puts him in great position leverage wise to beat the Nickel or safety inside.
Cover 1
TE is getting open.
Good concept as the TE wins the battle on the crossing route.
2. When you get man, you will see teams stack their wr which often leads to off man and you can run your shallow and all your other routes as well from the stack look, (mesh is another common one) This is a great man beater because if the front man runs a good route, it is very hard for the cb to get thru the traffic and be a factor on the shallow crosser.
Again man coverage
WR gets a great release.
Dig isn't there so take the shallow.
good concept and completion.
Here are some man clips
Jaguars variation of Dagger out of 3x1
The best thing you can do vs 3x1 is take advantage of the cover 4 and 2 read variations where they want to jump #3 vertically.
By rule that happens below
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