You start in cover-3 and finish in an inverted Tampa-2. That’s “Cover-3 Robber,” a great disguise, and a less-conventional way to get from single-high to a two-deep look. Like all robber coverages, it’s especially effective against passing games and concepts that target the middle of the field.
Let’s go back to the 2018 season to a game between the Patriots and Titans and take a look at some great examples.
Back when the Patriots were the Patriots, they had a passing game that was at its most dangerous in the short-to-intermediate middle of the field.
Titans Defensive Coordinator Dean Pees was aware of this and wanted to take away the middle (He seemed to know a thing or two about Tom Brady and the Patriots after spending 6 seasons in New England). 3-Robber was one of the ways he would do this.
Below, you can see the coverage illustrated. The defense starts in a cover-3 look:
At the snap, the free safety creeps up to the intermediate level of the field. The cornerbacks on the outside drop deep and squeeze towards the middle of the field, both becoming the deep-half defenders you normally see in Tampa-2 coverage: