Cover 2 Defense: Two Deep Halves and Five Underneath

Cover 2 at a glance

Coverage type

Zone

Deep defenders

2

Underneath zones

5

Rushers in this call

4

The Play Designer's base version of the call. Teams adjust who rushes and who drops every week.

Who drops where

In the Play Designer's call, the corners squat in the flats, the Will, Mike and Sam linebackers take the left hook/curl, middle hook and right hook/curl zones, and the free and strong safeties take the left and right deep halves. The four linemen rush. That is one version of the call; teams change who drops where, and some ask the Mike to run deep, as the sections below show.

That split changes what each spot needs. Per the Scouting Academy, the safeties need less range than in a one-high coverage because each guards only half the deep field, and the corners need less long speed because they aren't responsible for the deep part of the field. In exchange, the corners must be strong tacklers, re-routers and run defenders, since both safeties play deep and can't help much against the run. With five players underneath, someone is almost always close enough to drive on a short route.

The two-high picture before the snap

Cover 2 usually shows two safeties deep. Matt Bowen of the National Football Post gives the deep-half safety a landmark at the top of the numbers, and it is the corner's job to protect that spot. Corner alignment varies by system. Bowen calls the jam the top priority for a Cover 2 corner, while a Glazier write-up of a clinic clip by Ohio high school coach Jarrett Troxler says a corner 5 to 7 yards off and on the receiver's outside shoulder usually signals Cover 2 to the quarterback.

Bowen's rule for the corner is to force the receiver inside. He explains why: an outside release drags the safety wide of the landmark, and that can turn two vertical routes down the seams into a big play. Getting hands on a receiver at the line is what the press jam technique page trains.

The honey hole and the deep middle

The best known soft spot is the honey hole. The Scouting Academy describes it as deep along the sideline, behind the corner and away from the two deep safeties, and says offenses commonly attack it with a vertical route such as the go route. Youth Football Online, a youth coaching site, puts the sideline weak spot at about 17 to 20 yards deep. Treat that as a rough guide only. The hole moves with the safeties, and Bowen notes that safety depth changes by system: some NFL staffs coach 15 yards at the snap, others 12.

Bowen names the throws that test it: the 7 route, which is the corner route, and the quick fade. His fix is on the corner, not the safety. Jam the outside receiver, then sink at a 45 degree angle to take those two throws away, using a zone turn with your back to the sideline so your eyes stay on the quarterback.

The second soft spot is the deep middle, between the two safeties. The Scouting Academy calls it a vulnerable area in a traditional two-deep scheme, which is exactly the gap Tampa 2 fills by sending the middle linebacker deep. Its Cover 2 entry adds that modern offenses attack the seams between zones or overload the safeties by sending several receivers into one deep zone.

Smash and Four Verticals

Smash pairs a short route outside with a corner route from the inside receiver. Glazier's write-up calls it a zone beater designed for Cover 2 and Cover 4, and Bowen calls the Smash-7 version a classic Cover 2 beater: a 5-yard curl in front of the rolled-up corner and a 7 cut that challenges the safety. The inside receiver works toward the numbers, into the soft spot behind the corner and away from the safety. The quarterback reads the corner: if the corner sinks, throw the short route to the outside receiver; if the corner jumps the flat, drop the ball in behind.

Four Verticals sends four receivers deep at once. Bowen calls it one of the top concepts to beat Cover 2 because it makes each safety play two vertical routes in one deep half. The inside receivers bend toward the middle to pull the safeties off their landmarks. In his example against the Bears, the corner gave up a free outside release and the play went for a 59-yard touchdown down the sideline.

What it asks of linebackers and safeties

Underneath, the three linebacker zones are where offenses try to drag defenders out of position. In Bowen's version of Cover 2, the Mike runs the inside vertical seam rather than sitting in the middle hook zone the Play Designer draws. His red zone Pin concept targets that Mike: a dig makes the Mike squat in the drop, which opens a throwing lane for a post route and works the safety in that deep half. 440 trains hook and curl drops as reads in the zone drop drill.

For safeties, Bowen's base rule is to read the outside receiver, get to the landmark and play from the top down, breaking downhill on the throw. That backpedal and break is covered on the defensive back hub and in the backpedal drill.

Draw it against Cover 2

Open a concept from this page already lined up against Cover 2, then move players and routes to test it yourself.

• Smash vs Cover 2Hitch under a corner: high-lows the flat defender.Open
• Four Verticals vs Cover 2Four receivers stretch the deep zones.Open

Cover 2 FAQ