The Sail Route Concept
The Sail route concept is a 3-level stretch that can be run in numerous ways against a variety of coverages and always seems to make the defense wrong.
The concept is illustrated below:
The route that attacks downfield is traditionally a go-route (there are variations, which we’ll get into). The sail, which is a rounded-off out-route, attacks the intermediate level. The shallow route is generally anything that attacks the flat area. That can be done from the backfield (e.g. a flat route or swing route), via a receiver running a shallow crosser from the opposite side of the field, or from a quick out to the same side as the concept.
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This first example is from the Eagles’ 2022 season with Shane Steichen as the offensive coordinator. Philadelphia would run the concept out of a 2x2 formation. The Steelers would rotate to a Cover-3 zone post-snap:
The go-route on the outside would hold the deep-third corner and the flat route coming out of the backfield would hold the flat defender. That left tight end Dallas Goedert running his sail-route into a vacated zone:
