Different trees

#1 Don Coryell Route Tree

By Warren Simmons — TE Coach Washington Redskins


Receivers' routes are designed to look like trees. Branches shoot off "tree trunks" in one direction or another and in ever-increasing distances from the base.

Routes go either inside or outside, toward or away from the sideline. Even-numbered routes go inside in the Redskins scheme, odd numbers outside.

The routes are numbered, 1 through 9, with 1 being closest to the line of scrimmage and 9 being a deep route toward the end zone.

"An example would be a 1 (outside) route, where our receivers run that short stop route, which we call a hitch", Simmons said. As you go up the tree, a 1 is a hitch, the 2 is what we call a "slant" at the same depth, five yards. All the numbers have different yardage corresponding to the route. When we call a number, they know the depth of the route, and whether they're breaking in or out".

A 3 route is an outside break at 13 yards ("out"), and a 4 is an inside break at 13 yards ("in"). A 5 is an outside break at 15 yards ("comeback") while a 6 is coming back inside at 15 yards ("curl"). A 7 is a "post-corner" move where, at about 15 yards, the receiver fakes inside then breaks back to the corner. An 8 is the actual "post" route. A 9 goes for the bundle in the end zone ("up").

The routes are packaged to match the number of receivers on the field and are coordinated depending on what the offense is trying to do to the defense. While it is a package, though, the routes are independent of each other.

And there are what Simmons calls "the adjustments", the multiple variations for each pattern depending on what the defense is doing from the time the huddle breaks to when the ball is snapped. Each receiver must read the defense in his own area and react. The quarterback must read the entire field, then get the ball to the correct "adjusted" spot.

"It's a memory thing first, but then it has to become instinctive for the receiver to be effective", Simmons said. "And if there's an adjustment and the receiver and quarterback aren't on the same page — well, I guess you know what can happen then".