As everyone across the planet adjusts to a new life dealing with the spread of COVID-19, people are finding different ways to pass the time both indoors and out. For many professional athletes, social media has been a favorite diversion.
Veteran quarterback – and new Tampa Bay Buccaneer – Tom Brady is certainly not immune to life on Twitter or Instagram. Recently, Brady took to Instagram to share a picture of his playcall sheet, from his first NFL start against the Indianapolis Colts back in 2001:
Well, armed with a copy of New England’s 2003, 2004 and some more recent playbooks, we can piece together some of those playcalls to see what Brady was ready to run against the Colts on that September afternoon and also break down some of the terminology in the New England offense.
As you can see, the playcall sheet is divided into plays based either on type or situation. Along the left side working top down you have “Basic Run” plays, then “Runs with Pass Alerts,” then “Check With Me Runs,” then “Sub Runs,” and then a selection of red zone plays. First up are “Red Area (20-15),” then “Red Area (15-10),” and finally “Red Area (10-5).” That piece actually bleeds into the second column where they have the “Goal Line (GL)” plays.
In the second column you see more situational plays. The first three working from top to bottom are third down plays. First is “3rd and 3-6,” then “3rd and 7-10,” and finally “3rd and 11+.” Then they list their “Dropback” plays, followed by their “Special Plays,” their “Short Yardage (S.Y.)” plays, and then the goal line section previously discussed.
The third and final column has more situations and play types. First up are the “Play Action” plays, followed by the “Play Action Shots.” That second category are the deep shot plays that the Patriots implement off of play-action. In their playbook, including the most recent editions I have seen, they illustrate that they will take shot plays each game. “At least 4 times a game, down the field throws should be called realizing risk versus reward.”
The third column then has their “300” series of passing plays plus their “500” series – more on those in a second – followed by “Openers.” Those are drive-starters. It closes out with a few more additions based on down and distance.
Now let’s dive into these a little more.
In the upper left you can see “Basic Run” plays, such as “Heavy Right Flip R 35.” You can also see a little farther down on the left side “Sub Runs,” such as “2 Out Slot A (Alert) Fip J (Jab) 36 Sub.” This is a running play out of a sub personnel package (11 offensive personnel, with a tight end, a running back and three receivers) that is designed to attack six defenders in the box:
As you can see, this is a misdirection design with the running back using “jab” footwork. He will step initially to the left, then get on the closest hip of the pulling guard and read his block. That pulling guard is taught to pull and block the first linebacker on the playside, and the running back will cut off of him.
Now as you can see, this is designed to attack six men in the box. That is why you see the notation “Possible CWM” in the upper right. That stands for “possible check with me.” If the quarterback sees an overloaded box, he will make an alert call, and the receivers will run quick routes and look for a throw from the quarterback. Chances are, you’ve heard Brady scream out “Alert” prior to the snap, and if you have, this is what he is doing.
Another word in the playcall is “fip.” This is a motion indicator for the F receiver on the play. New England, like many teams, uses motion terminology that combines the position with the movement. So “fip” stands for the F receiver making an IP move, which is “movement toward the ball from called side to block.” If, for example, you saw “fing,” that would task the F receiver with “moving toward the ball from the called side to release.” Other motions include (using the F receiver designation) “fac,” which is F moving across the formation, “fap,” which is F moving across the formation to block, and “fat,” which is movement to the tight end side from any backfield set.
In the “Dropback” section you will see the second play, “72 Ghost / Tosser.” They do not list formation or anything because they are borrowing it from the previous play “50 Hitch / Opeq,” so the full play call is as follows: 0 Near Over Hat 72 Ghost Tosser. Let’s break that down.
0 Near Over is the formation. The Patriots’ formation calls often begin with a number which is a basic formation, and is then modified in a variety of ways. For example, 0 is a two-back formation that you might call I Pro Right:
Near is the first modifier for this. It offsets the running backs with the “F” back staggered closer to the tight end:
So the F back will align almost between the tackle and the tight end, and the H back will be deeper in your traditional I alignment.
Finally, Over is the second modifier and it impacts the receivers. Specifically, for the Z receiver that looks like this:
So 0 Near Over means you have two running backs in the game (0) with them staggered towards the tight end, F in front. Then with Over the Z receiver will align on the same side as the X, outside of him. Almost like an inverted slot formation.
Then we get to motion. That is the Hat call. As we covered earlier the first letter refers to the player, and the rest of the letters refer to the movement. Hat means the H back is going in motion. The AT part of the name means he is coming out of the backfield towards the tight end. That looks like this:
This is basically the play we are breaking down, only with the Z and X receivers in a traditional slot alignment and not the Over look we are describing. But you see the H receiver vacate the backfield and run his route using that Hat motion.
Now we get to the meat of the play: 72 Ghost / Tosser. 72 refers to the pass protection on the play. New England, like many other teams, uses a numbered naming convention for protections. Their 72-73 series is a five-man protection scheme where the running back has a free release and is not responsible for protecting the passer. (But Mark, you might ask, there are two running backs here on the play. Yes, and remember one is going in motion pre-snap. The other, the F back, has a free release):
You’ll see in there the notation to a “hot strong” and “sight adjust weak” built in. With five men in protection the quarterback – Brady – is responsible for the sixth potential pass rusher. If that player comes off over the tight end’s side of the formation, the tight end is the hot read:
As you can see, if both the Sam and the Mike linebackers blitz (S and M), the offense cannot block all four players to that side of the formation. So the QB will throw quickly to the tight end off his release from the line of scrimmage.
With the protection outlined, now we get to the route. You’ve seen it earlier, but Ghost Tosser tells four different receivers on the play what routes to run. The Patriots use an Erhardt-Perkins naming convention, that is different from other teams. For example, teams rooted in the Coryell passing system use a numbered convention system. 989, for example, tells three receivers what to do. Two of them run 9, or go, routes while the middle WR runs a post. In New England’s system, names are used. For example, this is Ghost:
At its basic core, Ghost has the inside receiver run an out while the outside receiver runs a go. Now in this specific play, the outside receiver is actually the H back. So the running back, when he hears this play call (0 Near Over Hat 72 Ghost Tosser), has to know what his responsibility is in Ghost.
Then there is Tosser:
This is a pair of slant routes.
So putting it all together looks like the play diagrammed above.
Now the play above it, 0 Near Over Hat 50 Hitch Opeq, is run out of the same formation and movement convention, but it uses a different protection scheme and different routes. 50 protection is a seven-man protection scheme where both the running back (in this case the F back) and the tight end have to slow release, and if a defender they are responsible for (usually the Mike linebacker and the Sam linebacker respectively) blitzes, then they need to stay in and protect. If not, they can release.
Hitch is the first route convention, which pairs a six-yard hitch with a potential release to the flat from the tight end. Opeq looks like this:
So, put the pieces together, and 0 Near Over Hat 50 Opeq Hitch looks very much like this:
Now to be exact, in the 0 Near Over Hat design the X receiver would be inside, and the Z receiver would be outside (Over). As you can see, the H back motions (Hat) and runs the hitch, and the tight end potentially releases to the flat. The running back does have the ability to convert this to a go route versus press coverage. The F back scans for the potential inside blitz and then releases into a route, either sitting down over the football against zone coverage and running away from man coverage across the football. On the Opeq side of the play, the inside receiver runs an option route while the outside receiver runs a Q route, and breaks his route off based on the coverage.
In case you’re wondering what those conversions are, here is the description of Q from the playbook:
So the outside receiver on Opeq knows he is running this Q route, and knows that it could be one of three different routes based on the coverage he sees.
That is just two passing plays on one call sheet from Tom Brady’s first start. We put almost 1000 words into describing them. Now think about how fast a 40-second play clock really is…
Now remember that the quarterback – that Brady – has to know every bit of this information. So you wanna play quarterback?
It makes sense to mention a few more things before calling it a day. You often hear about how difficult the Patriots’ offense is to learn for new players, especially receivers. The naming conventions are part of this equation. For example, the outside receiver on Opeq has to know that he is running a Q route, but it is really three different routes. Versus off coverage, he is running a comeback. Versus press coverage he is running a wiggle route, where he gets inside, breaks outside for a step or two and then back vertically angling towards the outside. Finally, versus rolled coverage (think Cover 2 with a cornerback in your face but a half-field safety shaded your way) you are running the stem bow route, angling inside before breaking to the outside. That is a lot to decipher. Again, it took me almost 300 words and a diagram to reference to get it done. Now imagine running through it in your mind with Richard Sherman across from you and arguably the greatest quarterback of all time ready to ice you out from the offense if you make a mistake.
The other thing to mention is this. You often hear people talk about teams rolling their coverage at the snap, showing the offense one coverage before the play and then rolling it into a different coverage at the snap. It is easy to think that the defense is trying to confuse the quarterback, but in reality, you are trying to confuse everyone. Take this Q route for example. If the wide receiver sees press coverage before the snap, he might think he has to run that wiggle. Brady might see the same thing. But say the cornerback bails into off coverage right when the ball is snapped. Brady might see that and expect the receiver to run a comeback. He might even throw that route expecting him to break off at 14. But if the receiver misses it, and runs the wiggle, that could be six points going the other way. Rolled coverages are aimed at just confusing one player, and not necessarily the quarterback.
So there you go. One call sheet, endless plays to break down and diagram. If you’d like to play around with this, I’d highly recommend downloading the 2003 and 2004 New England Patriots playbooks, which you can find at footballxos.com. Happy charting.