This section is about basic defensive fronts and coverage. For the sake of brevity, I will cover the most popular fronts and coverage's, and like most of this site, these breakdowns will be a distilled version of these defense's and is meant to give the basics and be explained in a concise fashion. Everyone has their own coverage rules and terminology so I will try to keep the jargon to a minimum. You might teach these things differently and that's OK. This is a work in progress and concepts will be added as time goes on. These coverage's will be updated, especially Cover 2 and Cover 4 with more information. There are some coaches doing some really cool things with these coverage's.

Fronts

Cover 0 "Blitz Zero" Vs. 2x2

Cover 0 "Blitz Zero" Vs. 3x1

Cover 1 "Man Free"

You can recognize this defense by corners being tightened down with inside leverage with a safety in the middle of the field. Many teams will spin or rotate a safety to the middle of the field, so it wont always be obvious that the defense is in Cover 1. This structure tries to help by covering up for one of the big weaknesses of Cover 0 by putting the safety in the middle of the field and still to be able to bring a good amount of pressure. It still relies on having good athletes who can cover 1 on 1.

Offenses can attack Cover 1 with short quick routes and double moves by wide receivers. Crossing routes and vertical routes are good options as well, as long as you can pass protect for long enough. Man defenses also open up run-after-catch opportunities because all defenders besides the middle field safety is looking at their man.

Cover 3 "Sky"

You can recognize this defense by the depth of the corners who will be aligned at 7+ yards, and usually outside of their assignment. There will be a safety parked somewhere in the middle of the field. Because the strong safety is the cover down player, this is considered "Sky" coverage. This defense is considered to be a fairly "safe" defense and is great at limiting big plays down the field. This defense is about forcing offenses to throw short passes by taking away the deep ball and the run.

Offenses can attack Cover 3 with short quick passes and by throwing the ball under the middle field safety. There is a big hole underneath the middle field safety that can be exploited. Vertical concepts that attack the seam between the safety and corner are good choices as well.

Cover 3 "Cloud"

You can recognize this defense by the depth of the corners, one will usually be softer than the other and usually outside of their assignment. This defense can mess with the QBs pre-snap reads because it can look like Cover 2/4. This defense is about creating confusion for the QB and forcing offenses to throw short passes by taking away the deep ball and the run.

Offenses can attack Cover 3 with short quick passes and by throwing the ball under the middle field safety. There is a big hole underneath the middle field safety that can be exploited. Vertical concepts that attack the seam between the safety and corner are good choices as well.

Cover 2

You can recognize this defense by how tight the corners are aligned to the outside wide receivers, usually less than 6 yards. The corners will most likely have outside leverage. The safeties are aligned at each hash about 12 yards off the ball. This defense is a fairly balanced defense that tries to take away short passing lanes and to force routes inside. Corners will usually jam the outside receivers to slow their routes off the line. This is a good run support defense and defenders can rally to the ball, especially on outside runs. This coverage also allows for bracketing or double covering a single receiver. This defense relies on safety movement and recognition, so be sure to have capable players at the position.

Offenses can attack Cover 2 with vertical concepts that attack the holes on the outside corners of the coverage between the corner and the safety or the middle hole between the safeties. Outside linebackers can be manipulated, especially with quick RPO's, to take advantage of the hook/curl zone. Timing routes or concepts that teach wide receivers to sit in open spots in the coverage, like mesh, can exploit the underneath zones as well.

Cover 2 Man

You can recognize this defense by the two deep safeties sitting at 12 yards on the hash, just like Cover 2, but the corners will have inside leverage on the outside wide receivers. This defense is good in long yardage situations where you don't want the offense to bust a big play and want to have aggressive coverage underneath to prevent holes in zone. This defense needs to have two capable players at the safety positions.

Offenses can attack Cover 2 man with vertical concepts that attack the holes on the outside corners of the coverage between the corner and the safety or the middle hole between the safeties. Pick plays and crossing concepts, such as mesh and shallow, are great choices here. This takes advantage of the lack of underneath help. It's also important for players to remember to keep moving against this defense, especially on crossing concepts.

Cover 4 "Quarters"

You can recognize this defense by the softer corners, usually 7 yards deep and with outside leverage, and the safeties are aligned at 8-10 yards off the ball. This defense is effective because it is a great run stopping defense as well as a great coverage defense. Safeties can easily come up in run support, as well as bail deep if they need to. This coverage keeps the ball in front of the defense without giving up big plays downfield.

Offenses can attack Cover 4 wish short passes and screens. It's important to try and get players into the middle of the field to hold the safeties to attack the deep portion of the field./ Mills concepts or other dig concepts work well at attacking the deep middle of the field. The defense can also be manipulated by receiver splits to open up the underneath zones in the defense. Run-after-catch is important against this defense as well.