This is a schematic website for sickos. You know this and I know this. You might have signed up here because of it. So, let’s live up to the reputation. As you might imagine, I am paying close attention to throughout the preseason will be how Todd Monken sets up and structures his offense. I find his general approach to be fascinating and I do think it can work in Cleveland. Whether the Browns personnel, particularly the quarterbacks, are up to the challenge remains to be seen. I really enoy preseason football to understand the core concepts he prefers and Saturday in Chicago gave us a glimpse of a core passing concept he will use frequently in Cleveland.
Drive concept is a passing route combination built around a shallow crossing route run at roughly three to five yards depth across the formation, typically from a receiver on one side of the field to the other.
The core idea is simple: the shallow crosser creates a horizontal stress on the defense, dragging a defender (usually a linebacker or a flat defender) with him across the field. Meanwhile, a second receiver runs a deeper crossing route — usually a dig, a crossing route at 10-15 yards, or a corner route — working behind the first wave of defenders. The quarterback reads the two routes in sequence, with the shallow typically being the quicker, higher-percentage option and the deeper route the bigger-gain opportunity if the defense overcommits underneath.
What makes drive so popular at every level of football is its built-in answers against every coverage:
Against man coverage, both crossers are naturally working away from their defenders, creating pick-like natural rubs and separation through traffic.
Against zone coverage, the shallow pulls underneath defenders low while the dig works into the vacated space behind them.
You’ll often see it paired with a backside option route to the solo side or a check-down to a running back as the quarterback’s third read, and teams will frequently use motion or shifts pre-snap to identify coverage and stress the leverage of underneath defenders before the snap. Monken loves to pair it with those shifts and motions and he will usually have the read side split in two to get the quarterback’s eyes on the solo receiver concept first (if the look is appropriate) and then work to the drive side if things shift post-snap.
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