NFL Man Free Coverage: New Saints, Ravens ,Colts, Lions ,Patriots, Texans and more!

 We will look at some of the different ways NFL team play man free coverage.

There are several ways NFL teams play the coverage and the rules that they have.

1. Man free with 4 man rush no blitz (lb play hook or have back their side)
2. Man free with a 5 man rush ilb blitzing
3. Man free with a 5 man rush as the sam blitzing

(2 and 3 changes the coverage rules)

4.  6 man pressure with the de having peel rules if back releases. Can be done from 4-2 , or odd looks

5. Man free with lurk concepts.

They are examples below of each concept.

Let's first look at it from a 4-2-5 or 4-3 point of view

1. Man free with a 4 man rush No blitz.

Coverage rules-

CB  #1 

Sam LB #2 strong

SS  #3 strong or middle 1/3 vs 2x2 

FS  middle 1/3 vs 3x1 or #2 vs 2x2

This allows the 2 lbs to be underneath help players with 1 player responsible for the running back should he releases

Here is what it looks like from an odd front. Ravens love to bring 4 man pressures with 3 rushers to one side. 

2. Man free with a 5 man rush- You are blitzing 1 of the 2 lb's with the other lb responsible for the rb. The Texans are notorious for bringing 2 off the edge especially when Romeo was calling the shots .

Coverage rules 3-2 dime look

1. Sam has #2 strong

mike lb has #3 strong

weak lb has the rb

fs -middle 1/3

both olb rush off the edge

cb #1 m/m

Here's another example

3. 4-2-5 ,   5 man pressure with the Sam coming off the edge

The Steelers and Saints are notorious for this. The steelers and Saints love this pressure. They bring the sam lb.

This is a very popular blitz you will see vs 11/12 personnel. Not the best vs 10 because it puts your weak lb in a bind. It also is good on early downs because it puts you in man to man which may help vs rpo/screen game etc. 

Coverage rules

Sam-blitz b or c gap

SS-#2 wr 

mike/will combo the rb and te

fs  middle 1/3

4. 6 man pressure with de having peel rules.

You will see some double a or b gap pressures out of both 4-2 and dime 3-2 looks.

Rules:
Cb #1
sam #2 strong
SS #3 strong or middle 1/3 vs 2x2

Fs #2 sweak vs 2x2 or middle 1/3

ILB- blitz a or b gap

DE peel and take rb if he releases, If he blocks rush

                                                 

Saints Vs Bucs:

The Saints  send both ilb and double Gronk with the DE not allowing an outside release. The safety has him m/m. The DE peels and takes the rb. Good coverage all around. 

The Bills go odd and bring 6 with the de having peel rules if the RB releases. He blocks so a 5 man rush becomes 6.

5. Dime Package Pressures. 

3-2 front

The Jets in dime vs the Rams on 3rd and 2.

The jets overload the left side with 2 edge rushers. The Rams slide that way but the pressure is too much for the Rams.

Nice pressure off the  edge

Man free coverage downfield

The stunt and pressure gets home as they do a good job freeing up the LB

The guard is late getting off to help.

Nice scheme

Here is the Lions version(Detroit not Nassau) of the concept from a 3-2 dime look

5. Lurk/hole Concept

The lurk or hole concept starts as as 2 man look with one safety diving to the hole to take away crossing routes rather than stay over the top as a deep half player. 

Bucs ran man free lurk/robber concept vs the Saints in the playoffs.

#1 passes off the wr to the safety and takes crosser to the single wr side. The cb will stop after he passes it off and stay in the curl area to look for a crosser coming back the other way.

the CB passes it to the safety.

Nice exchange and the CB passes it off and is in position for the te dragging across.

Here the Bengals do it in the AFC championship game vs Chiefs

The safety is waiting for the crossers opposite 3x1.

The safety reads it and makes a great play.

Often vs 3x1 you will see this type of defense.

They pass it off

The safety makes a great play on it.

They get the interception on the play.

6. Cover 2 man with a 3 man rush

Patriots run a 3 man rush and play cover 2 man vs Chiefs. 

They disrupt the crossing routes by getting a LB underneath. Tough to run mesh as the LB makes Hill #10 reroute on the mesh concept.

Hill has to go all the way around him to avoid the contact.

Here are several different examples of the major concepts discussed above. 

Dolphins vs Chiefs

Odd package. Penny front with 3 LB

Dolphins are in an odd front. They send 5 with the olb and mike blitzing. The Olb to the side of the back has peel rules. Nice design on 3rd and 6 and they get the sack.

They bring the mike right about the middle against Mahomes.

They get good pressure on the play

Good coverage down field and no place to go with the football.

2020 

Texans vs Patriots

The Texans are in dime and bring both safeties off the edge on a key 3rd and 4 late in the Patriots game. Up 27-20 with a minute to go, they bring 2 edge pressures on 3rd and 4th down to seal the game.

They blitz the edge as the safety walks up late

The free rusher is in the qb grill as he  throws with 2 off the edge.The RB goes left and the safety comes clean as he comes late.

Watt makes a great play below.

 

On the next play  4th and 4 with a minute to go, they run 2 off the edge again and get home. The safety to the 1 wr side comes clean, the rb steps into the a gap rather than picking up the blitzing safety. protection issue there. They end up sealing the game and winning 27-20

This time they get him off t he other side as the Patriots go 7 man protection. The RB doesn't see the edge rusher and they sack Newton.

Nice design and changeup from the previous play.

Also, they get a 3rd and 12 and 49ers are driving.

They run the load front and the 49ers put their tight end on Jordan, the Saints best rusher.The matchup forces pressure and a quick throw. They drop Jenkins the safety who was showing as a rat defender. Davis picks up rb m/m

Great design and get the 1x1 matchup they want.

94 best rusher vs tight end 

The Houston Texans Double edge pressure

3rd and 6. force mayfield to throw the vertical to the outside on a very windy day. Incomplete 4th down. 

3rd and  4 they play man free with 2 rats and they get off the field. Lbs do a nice job comboing the rb

The Baltimore Ravens 

man free pressures vs the Cleveland Browns

down and distance: 3rd and 4

The first blitz is a 3 man pressure vs empty.

They play man free with 2 underneath rat defenders.

The 2nd diagrams shows a sim pressure bringing the lb and dropping the olb to the bottom of the screen. It's a 4 man pressure.

down and distance: 3rd and 2 and the Browns run a good play to get Beckham open. He just drops it. 

The Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers have 2 they seem to like more than others.

The first send the sam and play  man free. They send the same b or c gap and the coverage doesn't change.

5 clips of the Steelers playing man free and blitzing the sam linebacker out of the 4-2-5 defense

Steelers vs Browns

Blitz: Strike C man free

Here the Steelers run it vs 12 personnel with trips to the strength. Get great pressure. Love the fact the Steelers do what they do and don't check their blitzes based on formation. Great call here vs 12 personnel

Steelers 2nd concept variation that they run often is to send the will lb and play man free.   The Mike and Sam will combo the #3 te if the tight end is tight and rb. If wide 3 like below they won't combo. no need to.

SS is on # 2 and the cb is on #1

The Steelers will send the will linebacker   and play man free as well. They combo if it is there are 2 wr on the weak side with the mike linebacker and the free. Safety. The will rushes b gap in the game vs the Texans.

Rule #1 if tight end releases inside the mike will take him and the free has the rb

Rule #2 if the tight end releases outside the free safety will take him and the mike has the rb. 

Steelers vs Browns

Steelers man free (free safety as the rat defender) Rat vs Man Free

Here they run man free with using the free safety as a rat. They end up getting a huge interception for a pick 6. Great changeup by the Steelers and great read by the free safety.

The Indianapolis Colts

The Colts seem to run this pressure  because Patterson is lined up in the backfield and not the best blocker in protection.. So he will be  releasing or in a mismatch taking the blitzing lb or defensive end.The bears free release him so no one blocks the defensive end. Great Scheme vs the Bears. 

The Colts variation, the Colts send both ILB in this situation and put their defensive end on the tight end. The Bears are in 12 personnel but they split Graham out as the #2 wr. Patterson is in the backfield/

The rules are as follows:

CB #1

LDE takes the Tight End.

Sam LB #2 strong

Mike LB Blitz 

Will LB  

FS #2 weak rb (patterson)

PATRIOTS VS CHIEFS

2 CLIPS ARE BELOW

The Patriots play the most man free in the league. In their dime package they run it. 

 CLIP #1 -SO MANY GOOD THINGS THE PATRIOTS DO ON THIS PLAY

Here they take the safety and put him on the rb but do a great job collisioning the tight end with their defensive tackle acting as a  rat player.  A RAT player is a player looking to help with crossers who doesn't have a man in in man free coverage

                                          

                                          

Coaching Points-

down and distance 3rd and 5: Many route concepts going to the back in the chiefs offense or crossing mesh routes. DISRUPT THE TIMING! AWESOME JOB BY THE PATS.

They collision the running back with the defensive end and the tight end with the dt. They were not letting Mahomes go to his first read the rb. 

PLUS THEY HAVE 2 PLAYERS ASSIGNED TO THEM IN MAN.

TYREEK HILL IS SINGLE SIDE-LIKE I MENTIONED IN MY CHARGERS POST-TAKE YOUR CHANCES WITH TYREEK HILL ON THE OUTSIDE IN MAN COVERAGE. HE HAS A TOUGH TIME GETTING VERTICAL WHEN YOU PLAY HIM PHYSICAL AT THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE.

CB #1 man.    Sam #2 man.   Nickel #3 man.   weak cb #1      free safety #2 

CLIP #2

KNOW WHERE HILL IS- HE IS IN THE SLOT SO THE COVERAGE RULES CHANGE. AUTO ALERT CALL TO THE FREE SAFETY FOR THE DEEP CROSSER.

they play some rats underneath and double Hill with the safety. Pass the crosser off concept. Its man free but the free safety is playing the deep crosser and the sam will have hill m/m unless he runs a deep crossing route. 

The Detroit Lions 5 man pressures

Coverage: man free

Blitz: Mug A cross dog . Pressure causes Minshaw to scramble.

Right ILB on the RB. Looks like 6 rushers but really 5 with IlB 58 on the rb.

Also, on this video is a 2nd clip that  is a double a gap blitz with the Free Safety up the middle.

Great change up with the 2 def ends dropping as rat defenders

Saints Steelers 3rd and 4

Steelers run a bear look out of dime personnel. They bring the ilb and the nickel safety. They peel watt the DE/OLB to take the rb. Pressure gets home but Brees makes a great play on the mesh. Savvy qb rolls to the side the mesh is going to. Good design as the Saints were free releasing the back.

NFL wide zone and playaction, boots and screens off it.

 1. In the NFL you see the wide zone as a major component in most teams run games.They use it along with different plays off it that makes it tough to defend.

Here are the plays you see off the wide zone:

1. Boot- Sail, flood route concepts

2. Play action - Deep over game

3.  RPO's- #2 vertical or slants by #1 or #2

4. Screens- TE screens, bubbles, etc.

Wide Zone-

Coach Jackson does a great job on our wide zone. Please check his article to discuss the features of that play. But we wanted to look at some of the plays off it. 

Add caption

Rams run wide zone, against the Bears.

As Coach Jackson noted,   the reverse pivot to get the ball to the tailback deeper

The ball actually bounces outside and Rams get 11.

Washington goes trips 3x1 to the left side  with the tight end with a tight end backside. They get nice leverage based on alignment. Nice job blocking it as they get nice leverage on the defensive end.  12 personel puts them in a bind as they stay cover 2 shell vs Herbert and Oregon

Boot 

The Rams do a nice job checking the boot out of 12 personnel,depending on the matchup they like.
Here they run it at Mack, who they know is coming. 

 Diagram 2 they run it away from the ss at Adams who they anticipate is blitzing. 

Here the Rams check Boot out of 12 personnel away from the drop down safety.

They see the safety down and they check it to the short side

The Jets run boot and hit the te who blocked and released for  a nice 6 yard gain.

Boot comeback

Here the Rams keep the TE and go max and run boot comeback off the wide zone. and hit the wr for a 14 yard gain off the wide zone action.

2. Playaction

Here is the Bears playaction, qb stays in the pocket and hits Robinson on the post corner. Can be thrown into the boot throwback category as well

The Rams do something similar, Difference here is they go max because the Dolphins were killing them early with edge pressure.
They went wide zone, max protected and hit the deep over, (dover route)

Wide Zone boot with max protection and the dover concept. more of a quarter role. The Rams hit it for 18.

TE Screen 

Here the Rams  run a tight end screen off the wide zone. They see Adams prowling and anticipate him coming and run screen at him.  All off the wide zone action

The 49ers run the wide zone as good as anyone and here is the tight end screen they run to Kittle

RPO's 

Here is the Bears running wide zone rpo to Allen Robinson.  Colts are in a cover 3 look and Foles makes a good read to Robinson on the lb and hits the 14 yard rpo. 

Here's the Bears version of the wide zone rpo. Similar play from Matt Nagy, Andy Reid's former qb coach. Here's the wide zone rpo, that the Cardinals run vs the Dolphins out of 12.

Running it off wide zone action allows for more of a vertical passing game

As stated earlier the Browns are a top wide zone team. Here they run 2 boots below out of different formations. Te 1st one you see a lot of but they do it with the Z coming across rather than the tight end. Great execution and 24 yard game. After that they run it out of 13 personnel and catch the Jags 2 plays later. All well designed plays off their wide zone.

The jets love the boot game under coach Mike Lafleur. They motion the wr in return motion, he goes left then comes back rt. Dolphins are in zone coverage, and the Jets execute nicely. The tight end blocks and then released to the flat for a 16 yard gain. 

]

On the next example they run it off their power game. They sell power and hit the tight end dragging across.

Hope you enjoyed the wide zone and plays you are seeing run off it.

Please keep an eye on some of my posts, more to come!

Jets Dolphins Recap-Jets defense vs the Dolphins week 11

 The Jets  vs Dolphins week 11 game was  a quite entertaining game. The Dolphins won the game 24-17. The Jets played a tough first half and had a good plan going in. The Jets went into the game with a different game plan than weeks past, mixing in more cover 2 and 4 concepts, flipping Bryce Hall at times and really played the Dolphins tough. 

A few noticeable adjustments defensively:

1. The Jets flipped Bryce Hall  a few times which they haven't done all season.  They used him to the backside of 3x1. The rcb position has been an issues and they tried to compensate by flipping him.  Interesting usage because it was at times against a te. It didn't seem to be personnel based.

2. The Jets played some more 4 deep concepts which everyone has been asking for but it hurt them in the 1st series with 3 blown coverages. They really had a bad 1st series to start each half.

3. They played a ton of man free concepts on 3rd down and seemed to help defensively.

4. They  benched Jarrad Davis for Williams, who was more active in the run game and really played well in the first half. CJ Moseley still looks lost. He is really struggling in the run game. 

5. Used Davis as a hole defender at times in man free which helped on some key 3rd downs. He did a nice job on a few occasions and seems more comfortable in the box. He did have a pick but that was more of a bad throw in my opinion.

6.Philips at DE gave them a much needed boost in the run defense. 

The Jets 1st drive was their worst: 

The Dolphins got 4 big plays against them in the pass game.  3 blown coverages and a soft coverage on 3rd and 11 on the goal line really hurt them on the Dolphins 1st drive.

The first play was the 2nd of the game. On 2nd and 7, the Dolphins go condensed and run bootleg with the TE running a basic out cut with the other te flashing across. The CB gets caught with his eyes in the backfield and they get a 25 yard gain.

On a key 3rd and 1 the Jets go man free, the Tight end fakes blocking and then releases. Michael Carter gets fooled and the Dolphins hit the tight end for an 18 yard game. 

3. On 2nd and 11, they play cover 4/2 read down on the goal line. Tough to tell from the camera angle. Carter never plays the out cut, for a 7 yard gain. His eyes never leave the qb and he doesn't get under the out route.

4. On 3rd and 4 they bring the strike,  and #2 wr is wide open. Tua misses him and takes the check down to the running back. After 2 missed tackles, they get the first down. It should have been  a touchdown. 2 plays later the Dolphins score.

After this series the Jets play good defense in the first half.

On the next drive they get the Dolphins into a key 3rd and 5. They go 5 man pressure, play man free and get a nice interception with man free coverage.

Nice scheme and gives the offense the ball in good position. 

On the next series, they get a 3 and out and come up big on a 3rd and 5. They go man free, get good pressure on Tua and get off the field with a nice defensive series.

In the next series, the Dolphins tried to run the ball. You saw the immediate impact of Kyle Philips as he played the run on a few plays. On a key 2nd and 6 he made a great play that stifled the Dolphins. 

Here he defeats the trap block, gets underneath it and makes a nice play for a 1 yard gain. 

Welcome back Mr. Philips!

The defense played exceptionally well the rest of the half and it was 7-7 going into halftime. 

Now to start the 2nd half on 2nd down, they run a very similar concept ast they did earlier and hit #1 on the vertical. The CB reacts and stays in the flat in what looks like a cover 3  concept with the Jets rolling with motion. They set it up with the earlier flash motion play(see my above clip) and they hit it for 40 again. 

It gets called back, but after 2 big gains in the run game in which CJ Moseley gets eaten up, the Jets run a 3 under 3 deep 5 man pressure. #2 just runs a sail route, the cb, it looks like jumps the short route and 21 davis is late to get over the top. Big 60 yard gain and touchdown. 

That was a bad way to start the 2nd half. Absolutely, no reason for the cb in cover 3 to not stay over the top of #2. 

On the next series defensively, they  are still only down 14-7.  After a 9 yard gain, Nathan Shepherd makes a great play on 3rd and 1 and really stuffs the qb sneak. He forces the punt and the Jets hold.

The Elijah Moore show ties it up and they make it 14-14.  Its a close game but the Dolphins then go on the offensive. 

On first down they steal a play from the Colts playbook and run a variation of playaction/same side boot and hit Waddle on the drag. They get 15 yards. (see video below)

On a key 3rd and 7 the Jets go man free and put Pinnock on Waddle. Tua sees the mismatch and throws to Waddle for a big 1st down. Tough matchup for Pinnock against an elite wr.  (see video below)

On the same drive to start the 4th quarter, they run a trick play and hit Giesecki for a nice 20 yard gain. 

The Jets actually stop the Dolphins on the goal line on 3rd and 4 but Franklin-Myers takes a really dumb penalty and gives the Dolphins a td after a great play by Bryce Hall. Just a game changing play and one that was pivotal. 2 plays later, the Dolphins score and they go up 21-14. The Jets change the coverage and go zone on 3rd and 4 which was surprising because their man free concepts were working great. 

The Jets give up another late field goal after a very questionable 3rd and 3 call. They get a sack but are called for defensive holding. It keeps the Dolphins drive going  and end up falling behind 24-14. That late score ends up giving them no chance of coming back and fall to the Dolphins 24-17.

Game Notes:
1. The Dolphins caught the Jets a few times with their best WR Waddle lined up in the slot and got favorable matchups vs the Jets safeties. 

2. Quincy Williams played really well at Linebacker and should start the rest of the season.

3.  Bryce Hall had an excellent game, both against the run and in the pass game. 

4. RCB is a major issue and needs to be addressed.

5. Michael Carter is excellent in man but needs to improve with some zone coverages.

6. Lack of discipline in a few situations caused some big penalties that really hurt them defensively.

7. CJ Moseley has been surprisingly struggling and hopefully his injury is not too severe.

I hope you enjoyed this article and look for some more in the near future.