The Yankee Route Concept

The “Yankee” route concept is a 2-receiver route combination: a post and a deep crosser coming from opposite sides of the field. It’s a shot play, predominantly called on early downs when the defense is anticipating a run. As a result, it’s often called out of bigger personnel groupings and paired with play-action.

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This first example from a game between the Ravens and Bengals during the 2023 season gives a pretty clear-cut view of the play. Baltimore came out in “21” personnel and tight splits on 1st down. You can see the route combo illustrated below:

The personnel, formation, and down (combined with the fact that the Ravens were a high-frequency running team) got the Bengals into a Cover-3 look:

This is an ideal coverage to run this concept against. The quarterback reads the deep safety. If he bites on the over-route, throw the post. If he stays deep to take away the post, throw the over.

Here, the safety bit on the over-route:

The idea is to hit the post somewhere between the numbers and the hash marks. This keeps the cornerback on the other side of the field (who is replacing the safety) from being able to make a play on the ball.

Here, Lamar Jackson was a little late with this throw. But he made up for it by putting the ball right on his receiver:

As you could see, the route combination takes some time to develop. Which means the quarterback needs time in the pocket. This is one reason why it’s often paired with play-action. Just look at the impact that the play-fake (and the split-flow action by #42 Patrick Ricard) had on the pass rush here. You can see the D-line moving sideways and/or hesitating. Lamar had all day:

On this next example from a 2023 game between the Jaguars and Bills, Jacksonville’s offense didn’t need to see single-high coverage to have success running the Yankee concept.

Instead, they saw a 2-shell look (quarters to one side, 2-man to the other):