Commanders Scheme Breakdown: Tampa 2 Coverage

Breaking down Tampa 2 coverage and the variations of it that the Commanders use

Earlier this week I broke down some of the basic variations of the quarters coverage schemes that the Washington Commanders use. While quarters is the Commanders go-to choice of coverage, it's far from their only scheme. Washington also uses plenty of other coverages, with one of the most frequently occurring coverages being Tampa 2, a variation of Cover 2. 

Everyone in the league will run Cover 2 and Tampa 2 at various times throughout the season. It’s a very safe coverage that teams will default to in situations like third and long where they just want to stay on top of everything, force a checkdown and then rally to the ball in order to prevent any additional yards after the catch. So what do these coverages look like, what are the differences between them and how do the Commanders use them? Let's take a closer look.  

Cover 2 is a very basic coverage that involves two deep safeties splitting the deep parts of the field in half and being responsible for their deep half each. The remaining five defenders in coverage then split the underneath part of the field into fifths, with the cornerbacks playing the flats and the linebackers playing inside. Tampa 2 is a slight variation on Cover 2 where the middle linebacker takes his underneath zone in the middle of the field and drops just a little deeper, allowing the safeties to gain a bit more width and giving them some security in the middle of the field. 

The Commanders prefect Tampa 2 to Cover 2 and used it pretty often last season. 

Here you can see an example of the Tampa 2 scheme. The two deep safeties align deep before the snap and gain depth and width once the ball is snapped, splitting the deep part of the field in half. The cornerbacks play the flats while the linebackers play the middle zones underneath. The middle or “Mike” linebacker takes his zone a little deeper than the rest, playing in the hole between the two levels of the defense. This allows the safeties to get even wider and cover more ground. 

As the play develops you can see how each underneath zone defender does a nice job relating their coverage to a specific route. The Mike linebacker opens up to the three receiver side of the field and gains depth as he reads the outside receiver running a basic cross. When that receiver breaks into the middle of the field, he’s in the perfect position to match his route. The other underneath zone defenders all play with vision on the quarterback, following his eyes while using their peripheral vision to feel the routes around them. When they see the quarterback look at a target near them, they adjust their coverage to get tight to the receiver and take him away. 

On this occasion, the coverage is strong and the quarterback is forced to hold onto the ball and scramble. The coverage breaks down slightly once the quarterback goes off-script and allows a receiver to find a hole to give the quarterback an outlet. However the initial coverage was very good and a good example of how well this coverage can work. 

While this is the most typical form of Tampa 2, the Commanders do like to disguise their coverages and thus have a number of different ways to get to that look. 

On this play, the Commanders eventually end up in the same Tampa 2 look as we saw previously, but they get to it differently. Instead of starting with two deep safeties, this time the Commanders have just one in the deep middle of the field. This suggests they’re running a single deep safety coverage like Cover 1 or Cover 3. But instead, that safety takes off at the snap to cover a deep half while the outside cornerback on the far side sinks back deep to cover the other deep half. The slot corner then has to work outside to replace the cornerback in the flat, while the linebackers and the other safety play the three middle underneath zones. 

This kind of disguise, sometimes called Tampa 2 Sky, forces the quarterback to take an extra moment to diagnose the coverage after snapping the ball. The safety doesn’t go where he initially expects, which makes him just delay his process as he reads where that safety is going. You can see that uncertainty play out in the pocket as the quarterback gets to the top of his drop and then starts taking a few steps to his right as he tries to get a full understanding of the coverage. He then resorts to taking a checkdown underneath despite having a potentially huge mismatch with tight end George Kittle running up the seam against a linebacker. 

The Commanders will often use Tampa 2 as a safe coverage behind a simulated pressure. I broke down simulated pressures in more detail last week so be sure to check out that post, but here’s an example.