Certain mistakes only take one time to see, before you can never unsee them.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain the most common Pass Coverage mistakes that are made, and how to immediately fix them to improve your game.

1. Not Knowing Who the ON Receiver Is

Before every single play begins, one Receiver has to be lined up on the Line of Scrimmage (LOS) on each side of the field.

This 'On' Receiver is almost always the Receiver running the most vertical route.

I’ll explain how it works.

In the below route combination, you can see the #1 Receiver (ON the LOS) goes Vertically, while the #2 Receiver (OFF the LOS) runs an Out route.

The #1 WR forces the Corner (or Safety) to respect the deep route, to make room for the out route to come underneath.

This would not work as effectively if the #2 WR was On the Ball, and the #1 WR was off the ball (as shown below) for a few reasons.

The #1 WR being off of the ball would allow the Corner to not need to immediately respect the vertical route (as it would take longer to develop), and it’d allow the Corner to be able to play both routes from just positioning.

There’s also a chance that the #1 and #2 WRs could run into each other.

In modern Football, unless you're playing against Kyle Shanahan or Mike McDaniels, who are known for being innovative and constantly breaking their own Offense's tendencies, you can bet that the ON Receiver is probably going to be the most vertical route.

Now taking it a step further, when an Offense lines up in Trips (3x1) to one side and the #3 Receiver is ON the line, this should immediately set off sirens in your head.

In Trips, there's one other common type of route that is used with the #3 Receiver ON the line aside from him running vertically, and it's some type of quick option route inside, with the receiver crossing the field immediately, or quickly turning around and expecting the pass from the QB.

This is why coaches are so adamant about getting hands on the receiver and guarding the field from the inside out, which is exactly what I'll cover next.

This isn’t strictly limited to just vs Trips (it’s just more common) as it can still happen with other formations, for example 2x2 with the TE on the line (as seen above).

2- Not Rerouting Receivers

The best Offenses in the world are timing-based Offenses.

They've repped the same plays hundreds or maybe even thousands of times on the field.

The QB knows that he is throwing the ball exactly a millisecond after his third step, and the Receiver knows that he is getting the ball after his 5th step.

What's the easiest way to disrupt their timing?

By being physical and rerouting Receivers.

Remember those hundreds to thousands of reps I mentioned earlier? Most of those reps were done on the field with just the QBs and Receivers against the air.

No Offensive/Defensive Lines, no pads, and even more importantly, no Coverage Defenders on the field that Receivers have to fight through.

Always Reroute Receivers!

Rerouting the Receiver requires making contact with them with a controlled collision within the first 5 yards.

This is crucial as it does a few things to affect the Offense including:

• Disrupts their timing.
• Disrupts their route.

Even if the Receiver doesn’t go to your zone and ends up running deep or away from your side, rerouting is a huge benefit to your teammates as at minimum it slows the Receiver down.

If you're playing Zone Coverage, you can always drop back into your zone after rerouting.

If you're playing Man Coverage, you can still reroute the Receiver and continue guarding him, you just have to be more careful avoiding lunging at the Receiver and getting yourself completely out of position.

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Walling a Receiver

For Inside Linebackers there is a specific reroute known as 'Walling the Receiver'.

Walling a Receiver is an underneath coverage technique that requires turning your body towards a Receiver, and preventing them from going inside by creating a wall between the Receiver and the middle of the field.

It’s similar to creating a “pick” in basketball.

Walling a Receiver is done to prevent Receivers from getting an easy completion across the middle, and forcing him to go around you.

3. Locking Your Eyes vs Constantly 'Taking Pictures’

In Man Coverage, you have 1 single Receiver to cover and you keep your eyes on him before the play starts, all the way through the end of the play.

In Zone Coverage you do the opposite.

Your eyes aren't locked on to one Receiver or Quarterback, but rather you're constantly "taking pictures" throughout the play.

Many young players have a tough time getting their eyes off of one player and onto another.

This is why you'll see certain players watching the QB the entire play, and never see the Receiver running right behind them wide-open.

Once the ball is snapped, you're reading the Offensive Line, once they show "High Hat", you understand it's a pass play and it's time to drop to your spot on the field.

While you're 'Spot Dropping' you move your eyes off of the Offensive Line and immediately focus on finding the nearest receiver.

If he is coming to you, you reroute him and then look for the QB for a split second.

If he's going away from you, you look back at the QB for a split second, and then go back to finding the nearest receiver while using the QBs eyes as 'information'.

If the QB is looking in a certain direction and is beginning his throwing motion, you know the ball is coming out and you can break on the ball to make the play.

If the QB is just looking but not in his throwing motion, you stay patient and continue to look at him and back to the Receiver while staying in your zone.

4. Not Passing Routes Off to Your Teammates

If you can't trust your teammates, you'll never be a great Defense. Everyone has a job to do, and you have to trust one another to do it.

Against pass plays, unless you're playing Man Coverage, you'll often have to 'Pass off routes' to your teammates when the Receiver begins to leave your Zone.

During these 'Passes,' there's always going to be a split second where the Receiver is running in between Zones where he will look to be wide open.

Inexperienced players see this and often panic and follow that Receiver, leaving their own Zone Responsibility wide open.

Experienced players and great teams, not only trust their teammates to pick that receiver up, but also COMMUNICATE IT.

Communicating what?

Communicating that a crossing route is coming towards your teammates, and then immediately finding the other route coming back your way.

If we look at the most common Zone Coverages below (Cover 2, Cover 3, and Cover 4), you can see all of the different zones that must be covered on the field.

Memorize your responsibility and trust your teammate to do their job!

This leads me to my final point.

5. Not Communicating to Teammates

You'll always notice that the best Defenses are constantly yelling on the field to communicate with one another and making sure everyone is on the same page.

They are yapping everything to one another and never shut up including:

• The Defense that they're playing to one another to make sure everyone heard the call.
• The Offensive personnel the Offense is in.
• The Offensive formation they're lined up in.
• If they recognize a certain run/pass play coming from that formation they've seen on film.

The list goes on forever.

The point is that Defenses refuse to lose by 'Shooting themselves in the foot' and making mistakes that hurt themselves and make it easier on the Offense.

Instead, they force the Offense to earn every single yard, first down, or even touchdown by needing to call the perfect play call and having all 11 Offensive players play perfect Football for the entire drive.

Always remember there is nothing wrong with over-communicating on Defense!

Worst case scenario, your teammate already knows and best case scenario, you just helped your teammate and made the Offense's job that much harder.

If you found this newsletter helpful, you'll love my Player's eBook which you can read more of below.

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I’ll see you in the next newsletter.

Til then, take care.