3 Simple Coverage Reads To Teach Your Quarterback

One of the first things you’ll want to your quarterbacks when it comes to reading coverage, is understanding rooflines. At the lower levels

especially, when teams haven’t yet begun to stem their coverages.

When your quarterback has the ability to scan the play pre-snap and get an idea of the coverage they’ll be seeing on the upcoming play, whether that be cover 2, cover 3, or some kind of man coverage, they give themselves a distinct advantage over the defense.

The important thing for them to remember is to always begin their scans from the strong side to the weak side. If you’re playing a balanced formation, start the scan from the side with the longer field.

Cover 2 Roofline

The cover 2 roofline is fairly easy to recognize, with the two safeties up high, and the corners low on the edges.

With the corners in flat zones, and the safeties responsible for the deep ball, your quarterback can find weak spots about 10 yards in along the sidelines. If the safeties are splitting apart to cover those soft spots, there is also a seam available right between them.

Cover 4 Roofline

The cover 2 roofline is very similar to the Cover 2, however the corners are raised

just slightly higher. In the cover 4, the safeties and both corners will be dropping back into deep zones, leaving the flats wide open – a quick hit screen can work wonders against this kind of coverage.

Cover 3 Roofline

The cover 3 roofline is a little bit different, with the strong safety up about 6-8 yards off the line on the strong side. Here he’ll be coming up to play a middle zone, with both corners dropping into deep zones along with the free safety. This is a coverage designed to stop the deep ball, and is soft along the sidelines from about the 5-10 yard mark.

Coaching Tips

While it’s important to learn to read the coverage pre-snap, you have to remind your quarterbacks that it’s possible that the defense could be disguising the coverage, and that they can’t get locked into a certain read.

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