Talking dagger today, my first ever video. I'm a big influencer. Dagger's a three-man tag involving a deep dig, some sort of clear out from two, and then your third element being either receiver, tight end, back from the other side on play action, being your flat guy.
So it's a three-man, the flank's a three-man concept, right? I need three guys to complete the whole dagger concept. And timing wise, it can be a first look side.
or it can end up being a scan side depending on the coverage structure. I'll get to that in just a little bit. Same thing, based off the cover structure, I could have a hook curl stretch or I could have an outside flood stretch being one high or two high.
Yards per play, this is based off about an 80 game cut up from the Shanahan tree. It's about 7.2 yards per play, which is pretty good. That's off 64 reps with the efficiency being really high at 182. For those that you have seen other videos, Efficiency normally is about 117 on a pass plays in the NFL.
So anything over that is obviously pretty good. This is one of my just randomized formulas. So we can go through that another day.
The route distribution of where the football went when dagger was called. The backside tag. So here I just have a curl flatcher on. Backside tag got the ball six times. You can do different one high beaters back here.
That got the ball six times. The through route getting the ball six times. The dig. getting it 20 and then the flat element being either a bait or a true check release flat gain the ball 17 times with 15 times being sack or scrambles so what is the dagger concept how do you teach it how do you install it so it's a three-man flank concept as we said so i'm gonna have a deep dig for number one usually around that 18 yard mark so a deep dig speed turn it flat at 18 with i think the best way of running it is a through route from two you So we've run it in the past as a straight seam.
I will discuss why this is better, the through route. So what is a through route? So a through route is a one high or two high read from the slot receiver.
So two high, he's running an inside post, breaking at 12 yards, with the catch point being on the opposite hatch at 40, which really serves as a complete clear out in two high. So two high, it's an inside post. One high is that deep cross, that high cross, however you teach that thing. in your offense for me you're inside stemming uh to 12 yards at 12 yards just taking your foot in the ground and you're aiming to run out of bounds at 25 yards so one high it's your cross too high it's your inside post with hopefully um a bait coming from the backfield or uh number three route number three in trips so a bait um this is not quite drawn perfectly a bait is five yards on the hash um if you're matching it into uh breaking out.
So a lot of people run a flat route. I'll get to the film. We'll show you why a bait route is better than a true flat route. So looking at how this matches up against coverages, for those that have seen other videos, or if you haven't, I use a one through five grading system, which is here on the right.
One being premier look. I think double post in the quarters. Five being you don't have a shot in hell to run the football play. Okay, you're putting your kids in a really bad position.
So before I get into that, I do want to talk about the read real quick for the quarterback. It's a one high, two high, split, close, however you term that read for the quarterback. So one high, I'm going boundary tag, whatever it is here. I like the curl flat the best.
I'm going, if it's one high, I'm going boundary side. So it's one to the cross over top of it for two. If it's too high, then I really like this inside post to clear out.
And I'm going dig one to my flat. as my second look. Okay, so once again it's a one high, two high read. Two high, I like the dig side.
One high, I like the backside tag to the over route. Now you can see this on film as it opens up. So you can see the grades. I really like it against one, the one family. I like this look over here against one.
You have a curl and a runaway crosser against cover two. Obviously like the dig, we're gonna clear out the middle. We're clear out the deep safety and if it's Tampa one up clearing out the tamper on her and now putting two guys on The the curl defender right?
I'm putting a guy in the curl and a guy in the hook I'm see an out. Sorry. I'm gonna end up in outing this guy And three the dagger side can be covered the dig side can be covered pretty easily Right now you've hooked and a curl defender to take away these two options but once again i really like the curl flat to the high cross same thing in fire zone orders can be tricky based off how wide the three receiver hook defender gets um being the mike here if he drops wide enough to take with the dig it's obviously not a good play hence why the three you have to game plan that and see if the play action will suck him up if not it's probably not great play because now he can relate to the dig and send it on the hash which is the strike point generally five being man match halves it's premier right the the beater and man match halves uh is obviously one behind two if they don't drop the crease route So you're going to clear out the two runner.
The wall inside carry player of two is going to run with it, and you have to dig right behind him. Many cuts of this coming up and see how wide open it is. Not great against two man, which should probably actually be a four. You're kind of in a bad position.
You have to win the curl, which is not great against two man with inside hard leverage, or you have to win the post. It's probably not a great play. It should probably be a four. Six being...
Man match cover three world ends up playing out just like one rat. You have to win the curl back over here. Right.
It's one high. Same thing here. Seven being man match quarters. Throwing a press man dig is not what you want, but you're hoping to pop one of these two routes in the down.
And then eight being quarter quarter halves ends up being the same thing as quarters to the field. Right. You're just playing off the three receiver hook guy. and how much depth he can get if he can cover it out. So I'm going to have hopefully one or two of each of these on the film and hopefully tie this thing together a little bit better for you.
All right, so starting a true man coverage, right? We see we're going to work the boundary side as a quarterback. Here the tag is stout, which I'm saying is you do it off duo.
You have the maybe motion coming over, stout being a stalk out. You're going to fake the stalk block and then run the out route at five yards to keep the corner down. Then you're going to hit the crosser over top of it. We're aiming for 25 yards out of bounds and one high. Obviously, you can flatten off against man.
You're not going to get the depth you want. But you see one high. We're going to try to work the boundary side. Don't love running duo protection off of dagger.
Here it makes sense because I know I'm only running this against one high. It's probably a can call, so it doesn't matter. Generally, though, you need that flat element, that bait element to sit here. NFL field, the bait will be in the divide, right?
So everything I drew up was on a college field. NFL field, you'd want a player in the divide, and the ball would be caught on the hash in the NFL. uh duo protection you're obviously gonna lose that because you're faking that way you're not gonna have an underneath player help to dig uncovering zone but like i said it doesn't matter here because it's probably purely i'm guessing here this is probably purely a man play it's too high they'll probably just run duo and call it a day so good play if you do maybe motion and block support with receivers that makes it look just like it you hold the corner down and the cross right behind him Okay, same look here. I don't like running this play against single high defenses if you don't have a route backside. Either that stout, stalk out to hold him, a comeback, a curl, something to hold the backside corner.
This is the reason. Right now the backside corner can sit in that window. You have nothing to hold him down, and the play is not as good.
Now here the dig opens up against man. That's not something I would want to depend on to happen. I think it's a hard route to win against man.
Obviously, people can hammer it. We'll see that coming up. Another thing I don't love is outside zone play action off this play. It'll make more sense when we get to the cover two cut-ups. I don't love the flat route as much as I like the bait route.
Flat route, you can run into flat defenders and pull everybody here. The intention of this play for me is to put a guy in the hook. I'm sorry, put a guy in the curl. then put a guy in the hook. I don't need a flat guy and a hook guy that doesn't stress the defense as much.
So two things. I don't like outside zone off this play. I don't like run this play without a backside element to hold the backside corner. Now if you're reading this thing purely as through to dig, it doesn't matter as much, but I am a proponent of going one high and two high side.
now the play action just based off um we're just going open field or uh open twin set calling it right you have your one high side over here same thing your two high side down here you can see the look into tampa right we've got the throughout runner here right the first two reps was one high so he's running the high cross now it's clear split split coverage right too high coverage however you want to talk about it he's breaking at 12 yards running the opposite hash at 40. You see what that does, right? It clears out the safety. It also clears out the middle hole runner in Tampa. And you end up putting two guys on this guy.
You're in out him. You see the beautiful distribution here. Five yards in the divide. Perfect. And the ball generally caught on the hash in the NFL.
Right, so this is a really good look at how this thing plays out against two family. Obviously, you don't love this straight drop back to be difficult because it does take a while. If this was some sort of one high coverage, right, they roll one way or the other, doesn't matter.
Any sort of one high, the inside post is off, ends up to a crosser. And now you're working this whole triangle they got built over here to the boundary. So pure one high, two high.
But you can see just how beautiful this is against cover two, against five wall type coverages. It would play out very similar. So this is a premier two play.
It's a premier cover five play as well. Here it is against five man-match halves. We have a different protection.
Tight end leaking out late as a shallow, which I don't love. I think he ends up stacking the zone pretty poorly for the offense. When I say stacking the zone, now you've got two guys in the curl.
I'm sorry, two guys in the hook right there. Makes the throw a little bit more difficult. People say this is a high-low concept. I think you need...
To properly high-low somebody, you're talking about in zone defenses, period. You need like 20 yards of separation. I think it's a really high-low somebody. So the only time I high-low somebody is a corner in some sort of smash type concept.
I think when people say high-low, you look at the clips, it's really always an in-out on somebody. But just looking up top, don't worry about it down here. We have different protection on.
You can see how this thing plays against five and how it is a premier tag. You clear out the two wall player and you have the dig coming right behind him if the corner is not squeezing hard enough on it. Right.
So this is what you want to play up against. And they're running the high corner from two. He's not running the post.
I'll get into that in just a little bit. And why I like that. Another look against cover two here. important to get the third element out on this play. Protection, how you protect is very important here.
I think this play is more important than some other plays of getting the back out, the third element, whoever that guy is, to go run the bait for you. You could peek. I can't believe I just said that word, peek.
You could look at the inside post if you wanted to. That to me is more just an occupy route and too high. He shouldn't really ever be open. I'm going dig to bait.
Obviously, the bait takes forever to get out of here. They're able to run and get underneath the dig route, but you end up dumping it down and getting whatever it is, 15 off this thing. One more look at it and it's cover two. Here's why I don't love the flat route coming from the...
Backfield, this exact reason, right? I'm calling this play hopefully for cover two or cover five. The issue is when you start running the flat routes, now you're running right into the corner.
You're not putting this player in conflict anymore. He can now sink straight back, forcing a high throw, and what should have been a pick. I am a proponent of running the bait route from the running back, seeing him right here in the divide, and now putting a two-on-one on that kid. Now I realize that...
Depending on how you build your protections and all that kind of stuff, it's hard to get a bait route from the running back. If you can, that's much better than running the flat for this exact reason. Cover two, it's a much easier cover.
This play should be premier against cover two. It is now a much easier cover if you're on the flat instead of the bait route. I lied to you one more look against cover two. So here they have the tight end coming across different protection tight ends coming across to serve as the bait.
Once again you see the void in cover two and cover five that's what we're attacking here. Don't love the route from the through route like him to straighten back up. Attack this safety right it's too high. Attack the safety and then at 12 yards break across his face. He ends up running a little bit more of a kind of like a mix between a cross from a through route.
The safety is able to drop him a little bit and once again the catch point on this thing and two highs gonna be on the hash and one high I'll get that in just a little bit actually. So cover three don't love the dagger side. The dig side cover three, right?
Just thinking about it from a zone perspective, what are we doing offensively? Well, not in this play because they're running duo, which isn't as good. But really, what are we doing? We're putting a guy on the hook. We're putting a guy on the curl.
If the defense has a hook and a curl defender, right? Just base defense one-on-one. If we're putting a guy on, if we're putting two in a zone and they have two in the zone, the play's not any good. That's why it's good against cover two, right? You're draining the tamper runner.
and they only have one defender to take away those two zones. Here in cover three and in some quarters concepts, they have a curl defender and they have a hook defender. Therefore, a hook-curl conflict puts nobody in conflict. Pretty basic thought process.
By running duo, you see here again, you don't have a bait element. I don't think it would matter here based off the coverage, but you don't have the underneath element for the dig route. Runner, if you wanted to hammer the dig side in. no matter what in one high.
Here, how I'm teaching the quarterback, one high running the boundary side. So they have that same stout type look from earlier, a stock out to hold the corner. We don't hold the corner.
The corner gets depth. The through route sits for whatever reason. Now, through route to me should keep running or end up high lowing the corner. Okay. With a five yard out and a 25 yard deep cross, the corner looks like he's getting pretty good depth here.
So to me, the ball should go up top to the flat element. the five yard out from the tight end right we'll live to they covered it pretty well we'll get our seven yards catch and tackle and we'll make it second down so he ends up getting there he ends up getting there super late they look like they're really trying to hammer the dig here right well some teams will read a dig side no matter what i'm saying go one high two high on this read now look at it so same protection from earlier against the the cover two look that was premier here and they're in cover three right they buzz it down with the safety inserting and inside the nickel doesn't matter they have what they have a curl defender and they have a hook defender okay so it's able to be covered up pretty easily obviously they got kittle laying it down down here so it depends on if you think this jet could hold the corner back down here i think this is a good play call can you see in one high right or high along the corner in one high This side, I'm a proponent of now throwing this. This side's off in one high.
I'm looking straight here. You can see where the ball would go. They're still looking dig side here.
I mean, who am I to question the coaching? But I'm just saying how I would coach it is to work this one high side. You can see they have enough droppers to take away all the conflict.
They have a flat runner here, obviously, not a bait, but they got a tight end coming. Laying it down on the on the shallow set so cover three if you didn't want to hammer at home You didn't want to look this side no matter what the coaching point was this route and one high is caught right where it curls I mean, you're basically making a curl flat Stretch you have to beat the hook defender right and two high this ball is caught on the hash and one high Tell my NFL. I'm sorry Then one high this thing's caught in the curl area which would be like top of the numbers ish right here they caught catching the divide which is about the latest you'd ever want to throw this thing if it's one high defense because that is the defender you have to avoid is the hook defender. Same thing here I wouldn't run it this way unless it's like a two high check one high check type thing I would not run it without a something an element to hold the corner.
Because now everybody can sink back and take the cross throw away. And now you have to throw the dig, which here it's open. I would not count on the dig side being open against a one high defense, though.
It shows up, right? But it's a much tighter throw. You don't have to change the landmarks for the quarterback. You have to change a lot of things.
I think there's easier ways to make this play work and make it better by working the boundary side. One more look at cover three. Here you don't have the two player up top running the through route. He's running a straight seam which I've done in the past and you see why it's worse.
Now in cover three there's truly nowhere to go with the football. You're dunking it down and getting tackled for zero yards. Right if he was running a through route and you're reading it, one high around the crosser, he's now attacking this space over here. You can see in cover three, we don't like this play.
They have a guy for the bait, right? They have a curl defender and a hook defender take away this thing. That's a tight, tight, tight throw if you want to bang that thing in there on the dig. Rouse had the break, right?
By doing this, you're essentially making it a curl flat if he catches it right there. Like I said, you can make it work. I think there's easier ways to make this play better and more explosive than trying to jam in a dig route right out of the break against single high defense. So same thing one more look here three fire zones could play out very similar right we see the stout blocker Like the maybe motion single high stuff on duo He's gonna insert on whoever he'd block in duo and then run a five yard out to hopefully keep that corner down And now we have that space to attack with cup or whoever the three runner is lose the back protection. Okay, they're faking duo They hit this thing on somebody.
I forget who it was. Like maybe in the playoffs, they hit this thing on the run last year. It's beautiful.
He catches it at 25 yards. It's like house drawn up. But you see one high. Once again, the space created by high along the corner and one high. And not worrying about this side.
So that's the basics of it. I'm going to go through just 10 or so kind of wrinkles off the play. My favorite one being this top left chip version of the play.
This is the Rams run this a good amount. They're running on second and longs, third downs type thing. You're getting potentially a double chip based off defensive presentation up front. Here I have it as a single chip.
If all linebackers are at depth and it was really clean, you could put the running back here and get a double chip and run the check swing. But it ends up being the same thought. processes one high two high one high we want the curl to the through out of the top of it too high we want to dig to the chip bait route something to note is they will deepen this route up when they run this concept like this he's running now running to the deep pylon he's running the same stems but instead of 40 yards on the hash and 25 yards out of bounds you're telling him to run to the front pylon of the end zone So single high, same thing.
Stand to the middle of the field at 12 yards, take your foot on the ground, and now run to the front pylon. If it's too high, run around the too high safety, the near deep safety, however you want to term it, break across his face and run to the deep pylon. So that's the chip version.
That's my favorite way of running this football play. I think it's better than play action. I think it's better than all that kind of stuff.
If you wanted to run it two trips, here we're in double chip type set again. Ignore the running back in the tight end. If you want to run this thing two trips, you have two options.
You can put number three low cross, or you could have one of the two or three run the rail route, which you see at the bottom left-hand side. So you can rail one of them and still have the same three-man concept here, or you could low cross him and then still get the same three-man concept. Got a lot of stuff happening up top on the right.
And then finally, my favorite way of running it without, if you want to run this to a nub set and kill this set and not have a curl or something, you want to really protect this side, I recommend running it with a high corner and not a through route. Okay, so the issue on a through route, if it's one high, you now have nothing to hold this backside corner of getting underneath it. If you run this version, that's fine.
I can now eight man protect it, be really solid back here and not worry about this side because I'm running a high corner away from everybody. I think this Chiefs have made this relatively popular with the speed they have at two, running the high corner over top of it. This is how they essentially won the Super Bowl.
Now it's not at the set. They're doing it out of maybe trips open, I believe. But they just had Tyreekk Kill running full speed on the safety here in the high corner. The corner nails down on the dig.
Now you have all that space behind it. So really like this play out of a nub dead set. To me, this ball is basically always going to the corner, the hike. high equal high corner you're welcome for that so looking at some of these things my favorite way to ring is off double chip protection like i said they'll start out in this double chip if there's any sort of linebacker mug they'll bring the rain back in but still run the same protection so single high remember they're running this route a little deeper in this type of formation and set so single high what are we saying Same thing, same read for the quarterback.
We're working boundary side to the, however you want to term this, the deep over. So seeing how they get what they want. All right, we slip out of their break, not a great ball, but you can see it opening up to the boundary. To Tampa, we don't like this side.
We like the dig side, the field side in Tampa. you can see why we have a nice inside post from the through runner right as you clear out the two the the tamper runner and the d-pads right you have some sort of invert going on here so he's a pure uh influence route clear it all out they'll run this a little bit deeper too he'll get to about seven or eight yards in this set right he's at eight yards right there and the divide which is fine and you're putting a guy on the hash you're in outing this guy now he's Does a good job. You can see the sticks up top.
Good job of keeping depth and packing this thing back in. And the ball should go down to the bait. Get a little bit greedy here at quarterback, but you can see the intention is playing too high. It's right there. Cover three.
Once again, they're hammering the dig side more than I would. You're getting single high, right? Not to. to be a dead horse here but single high what do we like we like this this flood um you know you're building a flood essentially which you really like against single high defenses so i'm going curl flat to the over and the ball will probably go curl here like i said pretty easy pick up and cover three to the dig side um even with the the crow flat guy expanding way out single high i see it again which i were working boundary side crow flat to deep over once again they're trying to hammer the dig more than i would uh tough route to winning this man just in general if my guy's as good as your guy i don't love running an 18 yard dig against man takes a long time uh tough to throw tough to separate i like running this boundary stuff better premier look you're getting covered two or five wall down here right cover eight eight bank or core halves eight flip meaning running the halves to the nickel side This is a shame, right? You're getting split field coverage.
Now they're working the curl side for whatever reason. Maybe he just likes the one-on-one curl aspect. I'm not quite sure how they teach this.
You can see once again, right? We're cleaning out the two player, we're cleaning out the wall player. The three players are gonna relate to the bait and you have nobody on one coming on two in this type of coverage if they don't drop the crease or whatever cool words they wanna say, right? So no better play against halves. or cover five cloud defenses um then dagger so here's the quads look here's your first option if you want to run out of trips you have three just run the low cross right 12 yards across the field but you keep and then that keeps everybody else the same right so here we have a shag call which is the shallow and the x but you're telling three to run the crosser the low cross You have the same through route.
from two ones on the same dig and then you have some sort of flat bait element coming from the backfield so it ends up being the same thing schematically offensively one high too high too high let's still work this side right here one high right now we're going across to the crossroad top of it not a ton of good cut-ups of this um they're running it on third and you know 12 plus right it's hard to find a lot of good uh plays period in that down distance but just try and provide you options if you if you want to run this thing on trips this is one option with the railing one of the two guys being the second option so here the number two on a rail so he runs the through route he stays on the same rules um he's railing he's running a dig and now your flat bait element still comes from the backfield with solid protection backside quite honestly i'm not sure you know when this is better when this is worse i'm just trying to provide options if you didn't want to run this from different sets one more look okay they're keeping him on the through route here inside post high cross uh him on dig and now they're railing number three so same thing now just switching these two Not sure what covers are in here. It's obviously some sort too high type thing Everything's telling me quarters except for Ramsey, which is sometimes tough to tell what I don't know if he's the the best indicator Sometimes with coverage for some reason they activate the inside post here Which is extremely scary going forward to a side and having a dead nub side The safety has nothing else to do. I am NOT a proponent of activating the inside post especially with this set but who am i because they complete the ball for 30 yards to me the rails out of it it's too high you're going to basically dig the bait that's it so here is is one of my more favorite ways to run this football play is the hike with so the high corner the through uh through route is off He's taking a 12 and running to the front pylon on the high corner, and he's still running his normal dig route.
You see from stack, they will outside stem it to get separation. To me, the timing of this play, the ball is basically always going in my world to the high corner. I'm doing this to hold the corner down.
You can see it here in cover three, it's premier. Because you're gonna hold the corner down the dig hopefully and ended up running away from the middle field safety with all that leverage You have so they're running this thing a little bit deeper right at 15 ish. Well, almost a 20-yard corner Depending on you how you want to run it, but I'm not quite sure how they're reading this football play But to me the ball is almost always going to the corner if I'm calling this now that being said I like this type of concept better with a curl from number one. Because now there is time to read that one to that to two.
Right? And it's still the same depth and all that kind of stuff to still hold the corner. But now you're truly high-lowing it.
You're flying it over there. To me, these routes are kind of happening at the same time. Right?
If you read this first, I feel like you'd be really late on the dig with all the linebackers coming underneath it. And then trying to read the dig first to that second. you better have like Josh Allen's arm to throw a second look deep corner route.
But you see the idea of it is something to hold the corner and the high corner from the slide over top of it. Like I said, I like this version of the play best, but you don't have anything to hold this backside corner down. So you say screw him.
He gets the play off. Let's keep the ball on this side of the field. you can be really really solid on your protection now so you don't need anything over there to leak out to hold that corner down now we're kind of combining two concepts so we have the high corner coming from two and now three is on this crosshair so kind of mixing and matching here see once again corner actually has a really good job of recognizing it Just a second late.
You can see you'll have leverage on the middle field safety. You just need that corner to take one step up on the dig, and you should be able to beat them. Super, super, super late on the corner route.
All right, we three-step it, five-step it. One, two, three. We five-step it and then take two shuffles. All right, there's about two guys in the league that can make that throw this late in the down. So to me, if I'm calling this play, I'm high corner, and I'm having him run a curl.
That's your second look. If the corner does fall off, then you have your normal curl flat type stretch to check the ball down to. Last play.
So this kind of look is popular with the Dolphins this year. To me, what they're doing, I know they're snapping the ball when he's inside, but what are they making? They're making that same stack. that I've shown time and time again.
The same stack that is here. Nope. Here. They're making this stack.
They're just making it on the run. Okay? So obviously, Dolphins did a lot of good stuff off this this year with Tyreek Kill. They would get him running full speed, and then he becomes a dig runner. Very tough on the corner.
There's some really cool stuff. And now, I mean, they have all sorts of concepts. But to me, they're making this stack on the run here. You know, the ball is being snapped with him on the hash. right now they're getting right back to stack relationship and now they're running the same dagger hike we've talked about with the deep dig coming and the high corner coming from the slot so that's sort of how i see this motion right for a long time i'll say i saw this as just a normal two by two set with the jet motion and the more i watch it they're running their stack concepts they're doing it on the run and making it stack like five yards down the field if that makes sense So if you are a stacked team, I think this is a good way to do it.
Same thing, I'm getting way off topic here, but this is how it kind of goes. Tennessee will do this with the stack, switchvert stuff. With Hyatt a lot this year, they're able to make stack on the run, as I say.
They'll snap the ball with him halfway in the apex between the tackle and the receiver, and he ends up winding up in stack relationship. So once again, how it plays out against quarters, same reason, right? I don't have a route to the nub side, so I don't want to run the through route over there and possibly activate that in single high. Let's kill that side. Let's be really strong in protection.
We have a solid call, and then let's run the high corner with a dig. Now, because of this timing, you might be able to look truly 1-2 because the dagger is coming from a little bit more depth. he has a little bit more time here you might actually be able to go one and then dagger to two that being said i still like throwing the curls a second look i think it's much safer than throwing a a dig across the field your second look right once again you see the leverage created on the safety the corner takes the dig that is about as good leverage you could ask for to throw a deep corner route on yeah so they're on this thing a little bit deeper um something i got probably look at a little bit more maybe even up to 15 i'm not sure if the depth matters a ton there's something to look at yep that's last one uh please reach out with any questions i uh i appreciate y'all staying on this thing and hopefully i'll pump out some more of these things as i keep going thank you all