Curl Route: Push Deep, Stop, and Turn Back Inside

How to run the curl route

1. 1

   Vertical release

   Come off the ball as if it is a go route and make the corner start backpedaling.

2. 2

   Push to the break

   Drive upfield to your break depth on a straight stem, without drifting toward a defender early.

3. 3

   Sink and rotate inside

   Drop your hips, plant, and rotate your hips and feet back inside toward the quarterback at an angle.

4. 4

   Present, catch, secure

   Face the quarterback, catch the ball with your hands, tuck it tight to your chest and turn upfield.

Curl or hitch: depth is the difference

A hitch and a curl share a shape. The Scouting Academy describes the quick hitch as similar in design to a curl, with the curl being the deeper route. Bowen puts the NFL curl at 12 to 15 yards, breaking back downhill at 45 degrees toward the quarterback. The Play Designer's default stems to 12 yards and settles back toward the quarterback, and its hitch sits at 6. Your coach sets the real number, and it varies by system.

Size helps. Bowen ties the curl's steady use on Sundays to the size of today's NFL receivers.

Push the stem, then sink

The curl only works if the corner believes you might be going deep. Bowen's coaching against an off corner is to take a vertical release, push the corner up the field until the corner has to open their hips, then break at 12 to 15 yards with a clean, sharp angle back to the ball.

The stop is a sink cut. Monmouth coach Kevin Callahan lists curls with his hard breakpoints and makes a point about rotation: you will struggle to get out of a curl if your body is still facing the old direction. Turn your hips and feet back to the quarterback, and line the instep of your last plant step up with your new path. Prairie View A&M coordinator Chris Buckner's curl and comeback drill focuses on pad level, and his cue across his receiver drills is chest over knee, knee over toe.

Reading the curl-to-flat defender

Bowen calls the curl essential against off-man coverage and zone defenses, and he says there is a reason defenses have curl-to-flat players in Cover 3 and Cover 4: the route has to be stopped. In his curl-flat breakdown against Cover 3, that safety or linebacker drops at 45 degrees to 10 to 12 yards, holds off the curl, then drives to the flat. If that defender hangs on the curl, the quarterback throws the flat. If the defender jumps the flat early, the curl is open.

That is why the curl usually has company. Bowen says it is often paired with a flat route, the curl-flat combo, and the Scouting Academy's Hank concept puts a tight end sit route next to the curl and flat to add a horizontal read. In Hank, the tight end runs that sit while the outside receiver runs the curl.

How defenders squeeze it

In Bowen's Cover 3 setup, the corners play off from an outside leverage position and drive on the curl, while the curl-to-flat defenders are taught to sink into the throwing lane before widening with the flat. His Bleacher Report Cover 3 primer shows Seattle's corners squeezing the curl routes and forcing the quarterback to dump the ball underneath. The curl is open in a window that closes from two sides, so the timing has to be right.

After the catch, protect the ball. PFF found hitch receptions averaged only 2.8 yards after the catch from 2021 to 2025, because the receiver almost always catches it facing back toward the quarterback. Former 49ers receiver Josh Morgan's tip for young players fits: once the ball is in your hands, keep it secured tight to your chest so it cannot be stripped. Rep the stem and the stop in the route tree drill on the wide receiver plan.

Pass concepts that use the curl

Plays in the Play Designer's concept library with a curl in them. Open one to see the whole play and edit your own copy.

• Curl-FlatCurl over a flat: simple high-low on the flat defender.Open

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