One of the staple concepts of the new wave of Kyle Shanahan coaching tree offenses is the 3×1 dagger concept. It’s a concept that Matthew Stafford and the Rams have perfected and it’s a concept that Jared Goff brought with him to the Lions after he was traded away. Head coach Matt LaFleur, off the Shanahan tree, naturally gravitated toward the concept after the Rams had so much success with it.
It’s a concept the Green Bay Packers run with regularity, whether it’s the 2-man version or the 3×1 version. It’s great against nearly all coverages and has answers for each. But to be clear, every/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68724230/1298238131.0.jpg)
offense in the NFL runs dagger. In the 3×1 variant, it’s just a new wrinkle that the coaching tree uses put defenders in conflict and give the quarterback better answers.
The dagger concept is usually run off of play action, currently one of LaFleur’s preferred play action pass calls outside of drift/strike. It’s a two-man route concept with a deep crossing route and deep in-breaking route behind it. The play itself is primarily a cover-2/split safety coverage beater and secondarily can be a single high safety coverage (cover-1 and cover-3) beater depending on the variants.
However, the way the Packers run the 2-man version is almost never a good call versus cover-3 unless there is a defender that can threaten the hook defender to the dagger side of the concept./cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71792083/1243847830.0.jpg)
With nothing to occupy the weak side safety, the dagger route is an automatic no-go due to the safety sitting in the throwing window. However, the built-in answer on dagger is the intermediate crossing route if the corner on the backside doesn’t fall off the go route. The result is wide open space across the field away from the safety.
They’re in shotgun here with Christian Watson on a motion from right to left where Love snaps the ball when Watson gets to his landmark outside of Jayden Reed on a deep through route.
