Dig Route: Run the Square-In Across the Middle
Updated · Fact checked
The dig is the 6 in the common route tree. You push up the field on a vertical stem, then break across the middle at a right angle. You will also hear it called an in route or a square-in.
It is a workhorse of the intermediate passing game because it works against zone and man. The skill is a sharp break at the top of the stem, then finding grass behind the linebackers.
- Route tree number
- 6
- Breaks
- Toward the middle
- Play Designer break depth
- 12 yards (drawn default; your playbook may differ)
- In one line
- Stem to 12, square break across the field
- Also called
- in route, square-in
How to run the dig route
Release and stem
Push up the field on a vertical stem and sell vertical, so the route looks like it could keep going.
Pin the defender outside
At the top of the stem, make the defensive back protect the sideline so you can break back inside.
Set the break
At your depth, slow down slightly so you are in control, then give a violent hip shift away from the break on your insteps.
Cut across at 90 degrees
Break across the middle and accelerate out. Against a trailing defender you can take a couple of yards to pull over the top; if the defender is right on top of you, break flatter.
Eyes back on time
Get your eyes back to the quarterback on time and expect the ball behind the underneath defenders.
How deep to run it
The Scouting Academy's glossary puts the break typically 12 to 15 yards downfield, and former NFL defensive back Matt Bowen gives the same range for the NFL. The Play Designer draws it at 12 yards as a default, and its own concepts move the number: 7 and 14 yards for the two digs in Levels, 12 in Drive and 15 in Dagger. Those are drawings, not rules. Learn the depth your coach calls and hit it every rep.
Numbering is a system choice too. This site uses the common 1 to 9 tree, where even numbers break inside. Tim Horton's tree for Human Kinetics also makes the dig a 6, while other offenses call routes by name only. The whole tree is on the route tree page.
Pin the defender, then set the break
Bowen's key for the dig is creating separation at the top of the stem by pinning the defensive back to the outside. Sell vertical on the stem so the defender has to protect the sideline, then break back to the middle.
The cut itself is 90 degrees. Bowen describes the receiver sinking the hips and breaking back to the middle. Drew Lieberman, writing for USA Football, calls the move at the top of a dig an in-set: a slight loss of speed, a violent hip shift the opposite way, then a violent change of direction. His phrase for it is patient, yet sudden. Slow down just enough to own your body, then accelerate out. The speed cut vs sink cut drill reps both kinds of break, and its cue is to pick the cut that fits the route.
Lieberman also changes the angle based on the defender. If they are trailing you, take a couple of yards to pull around over the top of them. If they are sitting right on top of you, break flatter.
The dig inside Levels and Drive
The dig rarely runs alone. In the Drive concept, which The Scouting Academy traces back to Bill Walsh's 49ers, an inside receiver runs a deep dig while an outside receiver runs a shallow drag. The quarterback reads the underneath defender, usually a linebacker. If that defender drops under the dig, the shallow is open. If they jump the shallow, there is a big throwing lane to the dig.
Levels works the same middle of the field at two depths. In Bowen's version a tight end runs the intermediate dig while the outside receiver works underneath it, two levels for the quarterback to read; the Play Designer draws it as a 7 yard dig under a 14 yard dig. Bowen calls Levels an inside-breaking concept that can beat Cover 1 and Cover 2 or Tampa 2. Against Cover 2 his target is the underneath receiver, thrown before the seam-hook defenders can drive on the ball. With a tight end on the dig in that call, the route belongs in tight end practice as well as wide receiver work.
What the defense does to a dig
Zone defenders can sit in its path. In a Scouting Academy example from Oregon's 2014 season, the defense showed Cover 2 and rolled to Cover 4, and the inside quarter safety on the quarterback's first side squatted on the dig. The quarterback had to come off it and find the dig on the other side.
Man coverage plays it differently. In Cover 1, Bowen writes, defenders in coverage keep outside leverage and are coached to funnel receivers to the middle. The Scouting Academy adds that Cover 1's extra defender can play a robber, lurking in an underneath zone. So against man, the dig comes down to separation: if you create it on the release or at the top of the stem, Bowen says, you can work back to the middle with the defender trailing. The defensive back hub covers this matchup from the other side.
Pass concepts that use the dig
Plays in the Play Designer's concept library with a dig in them. Open one to see the whole play and edit your own copy.
FAQ
Is a dig route the same as an in route?
Usually, yes. PFF's charting describes in routes as commonly known as dig routes, and Bowen's route tree calls the dig a square-in. Playbooks name things their own way, so learn what the call sounds like in your offense.
How is a dig different from a drag?
Depth. The dig typically breaks 12 to 15 yards downfield, while the drag is a shallow route underneath it; the Play Designer draws the drag at 2.5 yards. In the Drive concept the two run together, with the drag underneath and the dig above it.
Do you slow down at the top of a dig route?
A little. Lieberman's in-set for 90 degree cuts like the dig uses a slight loss of speed so you are fully in control for the hip shift, then you accelerate out. He saves the no-loss-of-speed vertical set for 45 degree cuts like the post and corner.
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- NFL 101: Breaking Down the Basics of the Route Tree (Matt Bowen, Apr 4, 2014), Bleacher Report
- ITP Glossary: Dig Route (Mark Schofield, Mar 17, 2016), The Scouting Academy / Inside The Pylon
- NFL route analysis: The most and least effective routes over the last five years (Daire Carragher, Jul 23, 2026), PFF
- Running Backs - Pass Route Tips (Tim Horton, excerpt from Complete Running Back, Human Kinetics; July 1, 2016), Coaches Insider / Human Kinetics
- Coaching the Wide Receiver - Separation Techniques (Drew Lieberman, Jun 12, 2019), USA Football
- ITP Glossary: Drive Concept (Mark Schofield and Daniel Syed, Feb 17, 2016), The Scouting Academy / Inside The Pylon
- Playbook: Breaking down the 'Levels' concept (Matt Bowen, Jul 14, 2012), National Football Post
- ITP Glossary: Cover 1 (Sep 30, 2015), The Scouting Academy / Inside The Pylon
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