Las Vegas Raiders: Is Gus Bradley’s Cover 3 scheme dead?
By BD Williams
Cover 3 Adjustments to “Yankee”
As is always the case, offenses have continually found ways to force Cover 3 to adjust. The Yankee concept is one such example of a passing play that has traditionally hurt Cover 3 defenses. Yankee is a two-man route combined with play-action.
A receiver on one side of the formation will run a post and a receiver on the opposite side of the formation will run a deep crossing pattern. The deep cross is the primary read against Cover 3 because all interior defenders with their eyes in the backfield will take a step or two towards the run action and the Quarterback will hit the deep cross over their heads.
Adjustments that defenses have taken in recent years to combat this concept involves the post safety and a cornerback exchanging responsibilities late in the play. The example above shows the Raiders defense successfully making one such adjustment where safety Johnathan Abram “nails” down on the deep crosser leaving his middle of the field to be covered by cornerback Trayvon Mullen who “overlaps” to the post from the opposite side.
This adjustment is essentially only executed in the NFL and requires both defensive backs to not only have incredible burst to cover the ground required, but also the wherewithal to recognize the concept and be on the same page when swapping responsibilities at full speed.
Another adjustment against Yankee involves the cornerback to the post side of the concept to drop off and pass his man onto the safety to jump in front of the deep crossing pattern coming from the opposite side. In the clip above Seattle executes this adjustment flawlessly ending in an interception.
If you watch closely, the cornerback is gearing down to jump the crossing pattern before the quarterback lets the ball fly. While this adjustment requires less range from defenders, it is riskier and open to double moves (post-corner). The best Cover 3 defenses will have both of these adjustments in their toolbox and depending on the game plan choose to run one or the other (or neither) to continually play the chess-match against the opposing offenses.