Cover 3

The Cover 3 is a very demanding but very rewarding defense. It requires good
athletes at every position and a commitment by these athletes to perfect their
technique. In this defense, you have only one safety. This player needs to be your
best playmaker. This player doesn’t necessarily have to be your best athlete, but
he needs to be the player that has that “X-factor” and seems to always be making
plays. Your corners need to be your most consistent players. They need to have
the speed and height to cover deep routes by the offense. Between these three
athletes, you need to have full confidence that each one of them has the ability to
contest every ball thrown their direction. You should rethink running this defense if
you don’t have this confidence in them. Your outside linebackers need to be quick,
smart, and versatile. They will have to diagnose plays very quickly and move a lot
in coverage. These two players will make a large majority of your defense’s flag
pulls. Don’t get the wrong idea about these two defenders, they are just as
important to your defense as your corners and safety. However, their mistakes lead
to moderate gains for the offense while mistakes by your secondary lead to
touchdowns. Your middle linebacker is the black sheep of the group. He doesn’t
need to be very athletic and doesn’t hold much responsibility. A good defender
here can make plenty of plays; however, it is the last position you should think
about filling.
Basics

Three short zones and three deep. This balance in deep and short zones gives you
adequate coverage on the entire field. This defense puts your defenders in position
to make plays, but it requires that they be able to make them. This is where the
need for athleticism comes in. This defense has potential to create an abundance
of turnovers. Your single safety especially has the ability to make a huge impact on
each game. After getting the initial technique and reads down, communication will
end up being the final hurdle for your defense to overcome.
Note: The cover 3 as explained here is not a traditional cover 3 where the
defenders will drop into their zones and play independently. This defense is much
closer to a pattern-matching cover 3 where the defenders, specifically your outside
linebackers and corners, will be assigned receivers man to man based off of the
receiver’s releases.
Coverage
Corners- Your corners will align 7-8 yards deep and 1 inside the outside receiver.
They will focus on reading the two receivers on their side of the field and then base
their coverage on both receivers’ routes. If the outside receiver goes deep, your
corner will have him man to man and cover him wherever he goes. If the outside
receiver does not go deep, the corner will read the slot receiver. If the slot receiver
is going deep then he will have him man to man. In this situation, the corner will
need to immediately get to the slot receiver’s outside hip. Your safety will be there
to help on a fade up the middle. This means the corner should stay on the outside
of the receiver to take away any sideline breaking routes. If neither receiver is deep
then the corner will cover the receiver that ends up closer to the sideline.

To simplify this, the corner will cover whichever receiver goes deep man to man
(with the outside receiver getting first priority). If neither receiver is deep, the corner
will stay short and cover whichever receiver is closer to the sideline.
Outside linebackers- Your linebackers will align 6 yards deep and 1 yard outside.
They will work in tandem with the corners to cover their two receivers. If the slot
receiver goes deep, the linebacker will backpedal and immediately look to the
outside receiver. If the outside receiver is also deep then the linebacker will fill the
same basic role as the corner covering the slot receiver- he will get under the slot’s
outside hip and deny any outside breaking routes. However, the linebacker will be
less concerned about turning and keeping up with the slot receiver. He should trail
the receiver on his outside hip and take away any quick throws to the seam or
outside while the safety has the deep fade taken away. If the outside receiver is not
deep then the linebacker will immediately cover whatever short route this receiver
is running. For example, in the play “smash” (slot receiver runs a corner post and
the outside receiver runs a hitch), the linebacker will backpedal initially at seeing
the slot receiver run deep. He will then immediately run to cover the curl upon
recognizing the outside receiver is short. The initial backpedal by the linebacker on
the slot gives the corner time to get inside. Things can get complicated when the
slot receiver does not run deep. If the slot receiver crosses the middle of the field
on a slant or shallow cross the linebacker will not chase. He will expect and look for
a slant from the outside receiver on his side of the field or a crossing route from the
slot receiver on the other side of the field. If the slot receiver runs a short route that
doesn’t cross the middle of the field the linebacker will initially cover him and look
to the outside receiver. If the outside receiver is deep the linebacker will not leave
the slot receiver.
If the outside receiver and slot receiver both run short routes then the corner and
outside linebacker may switch. To illustrate this, we will look at two plays. The first
play is when the slot receiver runs an out and the outside receiver runs a post. The
linebacker will cover the slot receiver immediately on the out route while the corner
runs with the outside receiver. The next play is when the slot receiver runs an out
and the outside receiver runs a slant. The linebacker will initially cover the slot
receiver on the out, but will leave the slot receiver to cover the slant upon
recognizing it. The corner will begin by running with the slant and end up covering
the out route. This exchange is only possible with communication. The corner must
call out “IN IN IN” whenever the outside receiver runs an inside route. This notifies
the linebacker that he will drop whatever route the slot receiver is running to cover
the outside receiver.

To simplify all of this, if both receivers run deep then the linebacker will cover the
slot receiver. If one receiver is deep while one is short then the linebacker will
cover the short receiver. If both receivers are short then the linebacker will cover
the inside most receiver. Putting the outsider linebacker and corner rules together,
both receivers will be covered man to man by each defender except for one
situation. If the slot receiver runs inside and crosses the middle of the field the
linebacker will not chase. Other than this situation, you are essential playing
modified man coverage. The difference comes in that you are matching your
corner to deep routes and your linebacker to short routes.
Middle Linebacker- Your middle linebacker will align heads up with the center and
7 yards deep. There are several ways for this defender to play and throughout a
season you may have to adjust him in game depending on what the opposing
offense is doing. Normally, you want him zoning up and taking away the middle of
the field. He does not want to chase the center around. His main goal is to take
away quick inside routes by the slot receivers and be the second defender to the
ball. I always allowed some leeway for this player to venture outside his normal
positioning. If the linebacker is reading the quarterback’s eyes and believes he can
get a jump on something that isn’t in his normal responsibility then I was fine with it
to an extent.
There is one read that he must be aware of. If a single slot receiver crosses the
middle of the field he must run with him. This is because the outside linebacker
does not cross the middle of the field to chase him. When both slot receivers cross
the middle of the field the middle linebacker does not need to chase because the
outside linebackers in this situation will pick up both crossing receivers. This is how
the defense will handle “Flood” by the offense. In this play, the outside receiver will
run deep, the slot receiver will run an out, and the opposite slot receiver will run a
shallow cross. The corner will man the outside receiver, the outside linebacker will
man the out receiver, and the middle linebacker will man the opposite slot as he
crosses the middle of the field. The one thing that is not taken into account here is
the center running routes. Personally, I rarely, if ever, saw offenses consistently
throw to their center. He usually is their worst athlete and is mainly running very
short outlet routes for the quarterback. Giving up short throws to the center and
getting immediate flag pulls is okay. You are denying the offense’s athletes and
forcing them to accept short gains. However, there may be a team that puts a very
good athlete at center and use him as a normal receiver. In this situation, you may
want to have your middle linebacker chase the center like he would a slot receiver
crossing the field.

Safety- Your safety will align 13-15 yards deep and heads up over the center. This
player is going to be your turnover machine. He is given only one responsibility. He
must take away any fade/seam throws up the middle of the field. As explained
previously, your outside linebackers and corners will be getting underneath seam
routes to take away the shallow bullet passes. The safety’s job is to take away the
deep throw to this receiver. Other than this duty, your safety is left to read the
quarterback and make plays. Your safety should attack when a single outside
receiver goes deep. He should be there to help out the corner and make the play.
When two outside receivers go deep your safety should look to the quarterbacks
hips to see which one he is going to throw to and attack that receiver.
Trips

The coaching on trips remains simple. Your defense should shift over one player.
Your outside linebacker to the single receiver side will play 6 yards deep and 2
outside the center. He will treat this center as if he was the slot receiver. The
difference is now he will not switch with the corner to the single receiver side. This
corner will be man to man no matter what with the single receiver. This corner
should align 7-8 deep and 1 yard inside. He should be extra conservative because
he should not expect any safety help. However, one thing offenses love to do is
throw quick slants to the single receiver.
 This is possible because of the large amount of space between this receiver and
the center. To counter this, we have the linebacker play 2 yards outside the center.
This isn’t perfect to take away the slant but it discourages it. Your safety will align
13-15 deep and heads up over the first slot receiver towards the trips side. He will
play like he does in normal cover 3 save for 1 exception. No one will have the slot
receiver he is aligned over covered when he goes deep. To account for this, the
safety will cover this receiver man to man if he goes deep. If the inside slot does
not go deep, he will play like normal. Your middle linebacker will align over the
inside most slot receiver 7 yards deep. Like in normal cover 3, there are multiple
ways for the middle linebacker to play. The main difference is now you are
worrying about a slot receiver running free instead of a center. I would personally
coach him only to chase this receiver if he runs an out route. This is because your
trips side outside linebacker and corner are playing dot for dot the same exact
coverage as in normal cover 3. For example, if the outside trips receiver runs a
streak, the outside slot runs a deep out, and the inside slot runs an out. The corner
will cover the streak man to man, the outside linebacker will drop with the deep
route and maintain outside leverage and break underneath the deep out, and the
middle linebacker will chase the inside slot on the out.

Double Pass

Perfect execution is required to cover the double pass in the cover 3. Like in the
cover 2, we are going to attack the double pass immediately. Before the snap your
defense should be aware the running back is detached from the quarterback. The
outside linebacker to this side is going to be the one covering the second
quarterback. You may want him to creep towards the line of scrimmage before the
snap. On the snap, the first quarterback will have very little time to throw with no
blocker. The only realistic routes he can throws are slants, outs, or hitches.
Therefore, your outside linebacker only needs to hesitate a moment before
attacking the second quarterback. A huge coaching point that must be hammered
down is that your linebacker can’t leave his feet when he gets to the second
quarterback. Upon catching the ball, the second quarterback is going to see the
linebacker in his face. The quarterback is going to have no time to read or make a
throw downfield. His first instinct is going to be to pump fake the linebacker and
take off. This linebacker must trust the coverage behind him and only go for the
flag pull.

Occasionally, I have seen a triple quarterback system. In this system, the running
back is split to one side behind two receivers. On the other side, one of the
receivers is aligned 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Once again, the first
quarterback in this play will have no time to make downfield throws. Your defense
to the side of the field with the running back and two wide receivers will play the
same as explained before. Your defense to the side of the single receiver and
second quarterback will play slightly different. The big trick here is that the offense
will make a quick read on your linebacker. They will try and sneak a slant behind
your linebacker if he cheats and immediately attacks the second quarterback.
There are two ways to combat this. Either have your corner get exaggerated inside
leverage of 3 yards or make your defense read the receiver. Because there are two
defenders for one receiver, you can make the offense decide which defender
covers and which attacks. For example, if the receiver runs a slant then the
linebacker would cover the slant while the corner attacks. On the contrary, if the
receiver goes deep your corner would cover while your linebacker attacks.
Option

The option is covered identically to the double pass. Your rusher upon recognizing
the option will repeatedly call it out. This will trigger your outside linebacker to drop
his coverage responsibility and attack the running back. The same coaching points
for the rusher remain the same as the cover 2. There is a unique twist on the
option I have seen a team or two run. The offense would have one of the slot
receivers run a jet motion in front of the quarterback. They would time the snap
with the motion and the quarterback would make a read on the rusher. If the rusher
attacked straight towards the quarterback then they would hand it to the motioned
receiver that was moving at full speed. The rusher had no chance of catching him
at this point and it would force another defender to come up. At first, our outside
linebacker was slow to react and the offense was getting easy yards on the play.
However, you can’t have the rusher take away the handoff. If he does, the offense
would have an option the other direction with only an outside linebacker to take
away the pitch. This forced us to keep the rusher on the quarterback to force the
handoff. Instead, when we recognized the motion before the snap we would call it
out repeatedly. This triggered a reaction from the outside linebacker that was the
same as the double pass. He cheated towards the line of scrimmage and
immediately blitzed the motioned receiver. What ended up happening was the
quarterback was forced to hand the ball on every play and the receiver would have
a defender in his face immediately.