Football Route Tree: All 9 Routes, Numbered and Explained

All nine routes

Depths are the free Play Designer's drawn defaults: break depth is where the route breaks; drawn extent is where the drawing ends (flat, slant and go). Every playbook sets its own; your coach's depth is the right one.

What the route tree is

Picture a trunk with branches. The stem is the trunk: the straight part of the route before the cut. The branches are the breaks you can make off it. The Scouting Academy's glossary describes the route tree exactly that way: branches for the breaks, and the stem before the break is made.

The numbers are a shorthand. Former NFL defensive back Matt Bowen describes the NFL route tree as a numbering system used by both the offense and the defense to identify a route's stem, break and direction, and wrote in 2014 that every offense in the league uses it as a core system or guide. Defensive backs learn the tree too: Bowen writes that they read a receiver's release and stem to eliminate routes and get a jump on the ball.

How the numbers work

In the common version on this page, odd numbers break toward the sideline and even numbers break toward the middle of the field, and the 9 goes straight up: 1 flat, 2 slant, 3 comeback, 4 curl, 5 out, 6 dig, 7 corner, 8 post and 9 go. That is the tree Bowen lays out for the NFL, and the Scouting Academy's glossary describes the route tree as a group of basic routes traditionally numbered 1 to 9.

It is not a universal standard. In the tree printed in the coaching book Complete Running Back, even numbers still break inside and odd numbers outside, but 0 is a crossing route and 5 is the corner instead of the out. The same book notes that some systems give only the names of routes and some combine names and numbers. So treat the numbers here as a way to learn the shapes, then learn the numbers your own coach uses. The shapes are what carry over from team to team.

Quick, intermediate and deep

The tree also sorts itself by depth. The flat and the slant are quick-game routes: Bowen calls the flat a three-step route and says the slant can be thrown off a three-step or a one-step drop. They come out fast, and Bowen notes the one-step slant also works as a hot read against a blitz.

Bowen writes that in the NFL, every route outside the three-step game breaks at 12 to 15 yards, and he gives that range for the comeback, curl, out and dig. Treat it as a rule of thumb, not a law: the Scouting Academy's route stem entry breaks down an 18-yard comeback by Julio Jones. Bowen calls the corner and post the top of the route tree, and the go is the deep shot straight up the field. The free Play Designer breaks the curl and dig at 12 yards and the comeback at 15, but draws the out, corner and post shorter, at 10, which you can see in the table above. Your playbook decides the real number, and good receivers hit it the same way every rep.

Where you line up changes the route

The same number can look different depending on your split, meaning how far you line up from the ball and the sideline. Bowen points out that the out needs room to break and still catch the ball in bounds, so receivers either line up at the bottom of the numbers or stem to them before the cut. In his example of a receiver split wide of the numbers, the only routes that receiver can run with an outside release are the comeback and the fade. To run the out, the receiver has to take a hard inside release back to the bottom of the numbers first.

The corner needs the same room. A receiver lined up outside the numbers has to take a hard inside release to make room for the 7, Bowen writes, and the corner often comes from the slot. The flat, he notes, is usually run from inside the numbers by a slot receiver, tight end or running back. When your coach moves you from outside to the slot, the tree stays the same but your landmarks move, so rep each route from every alignment you play.

Stems, breaks and the two kinds of cuts

Every route is won or lost in the stem. When you stem a route, the Scouting Academy says, you attack the defender's hips and manipulate them into a poor position. A comeback that looks like a go for 12 yards is hard to cover. A comeback that slows down at 10 yards is not.

Then the break has to fit the route. On stopping routes like the comeback and the hitch, you sink your hips to come to a full stop; the Scouting Academy calls that most important on full change of direction routes and less important on full speed routes like posts and go routes. The speed cut vs sink cut drill trains both kinds of break off the same stem.

Routes against coverage

Routes are chosen to attack a coverage. Bowen calls the corner route, paired with a flat, one of the top beaters of Cover 2. Bob Davie, the former Notre Dame head coach, describes the principle behind it in his ESPN breakdown of the coverage: the most common way to attack Cover 2 is to high-low the cornerback who has the flat, with one receiver breaking to the corner above that cornerback and a tight end or running back releasing into the flat zone below. Bowen also lists the post as a top vertical route, run against single-high coverages like Cover 1 and Cover 3 and against two-deep looks too.

Some routes adjust on the fly. On an option route, the receiver decides the direction of the cut at the top of the stem based on the nearest defender's leverage and the coverage, breaking away from a man defender or settling between zone defenders. That is the next step after you know the basic tree cold.

Who runs the tree and how to practice it

Receivers run the whole tree. 440's wide receiver plan has a route tree on air drill, all nine routes against no defense, two sets of every route with 30 seconds of rest. Tight ends rep a shorter menu of seams and stick or option routes in the tight end plan, and athletes run the tree on air too. Running backs run their own routes out of the backfield, like the flat and the wheel.

Start with the route tree drill: same speed on every stem, a clean break, eyes back to the quarterback on time. Then draw full plays in the free Play Designer, where every route on this page is one tap away.

Route tree FAQ