Washington Coverages Part 2: Quarters
The second in a three-part series looking at what coverages Washington's secondary could use this season with the new personnel.
This is the second part of a three-part series looking at how Washington’s secondary could shape out in 2021 after plenty of turnover in personnel this offseason. In the first part, I broke down the basics of Cover-3, its strengths and weaknesses, the variations within the system and how it fits with Washington’s personnel. Click here to read that part.
Today, we’re moving on to another of Washington’s most common coverage systems in 2020, quarters.
While that tweet was posted by ESPN’s Matt Bowen in December last year, and thus before the end of the season, it showed that Washington used quarters about 20% of its defensive snaps, which is a significant portion. So what is quarters? Lets take a closer look.
Quarters
Quarters coverage, in its most basic form, is almost the inverted version of Cover-3. Cover-3 is a three-deep, four-under zone coverage while quarters is the opposite, four-deep, three-under. The deep part of the field is split into quarters, while the underneath part of the field is divided into thirds.
This coverage makes outside cornerbacks responsible for the outside quarters and the two safeties responsible for the inside quarters. Underneath that, the linebackers and any nickel corner split the underneath part of the field into three. They will typically play in-to-out on underneath routes to keep the middle of the field protected from any potential yards after catch possibilities and use the sideline as an extra defender to force receivers out of bounds.
However, quarters can and often does come in far more complex variations that require defenders to read routes and adjust their coverage accordingly. That might look, on paper, something more like this:
This version of quarters is more like what you’ll see at the NFL level. Rather than just dropping to a spot and playing a zone coverage, each defender has a specific assignment within the play that can change depending on how the receivers run their routes. Each receiver is numbered outside to in, and the defenders read those receivers to determine their assignments.
The corners outside play a technique known as man on demand, or MOD. MOD means the corner has the number one receiver in man coverage unless he runs a specific pre-determined route. Typically those routes are shallow crosses or hitch routes, where they work underneath with another receiver working deeper. In the case those receivers run a hitch or shallow cross, the corner then makes a call to the inside defenders and sinks back into his deep quarter, looking for potential deep threats from inside.
The nickel corner and the linebacker with a “Wall #2” tag both have the same assignments. They’re responsible for the number two receiver on their side of the field except in certain conditions. If the receiver works vertical, they are tasked to wall the receiver off from breaking inside and then peel off and look for other receivers. If they get a certain call from the outside corner, their assignment can change too. If the outside corner alerts them to a shallow cross from the number one receiver, they have to carry that. Similarly, if the outside corner alerts them to a hitch route, they have to get out to the flat and defender the number one receiver in the flat.
The safeties have to process information quickly. They have to read the inside receiver and work outside from there. If the number two receiver works vertical, then the safety has to pick it up. Otherwise, the safety can work outside and help the outside corner.
These are just some of the basics of quarters coverage. Often defenses have multiple tweaks and variations to quarters that add more calls and responsibilities to each defender to think about. It can quickly become a very complex coverage, but also an incredibly effective one.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Quarters coverage has become more and more prevalent in college and is beginning to make its way into the NFL as a result. As more teams look to throw the ball and create explosive plays, defenses feel the need to be protected deep against those types of plays. Having four deep defenders is obviously a plus and allows defenses to match concepts like four verticals simply and effectively, from a numbers perspective at least.
A positive to having those four deep defenders is that safeties don’t necessarily have to align too deep. A single deep safety has to start deep and work deeper to stay on top of all the routes and cover from one side of the field to the other. With both safeties back and only responsible for a quarter, they can align closer to the line of scrimmage, knowing there is less area of the field for them to cover if they need to sink back.
This means both safeties can be more involved in the run game and underneath passing game too. Part of the reason why quarters has become so popular in college football is because of RPOs (run-pass option). Having both safeties split, but only at a depth of 10-12 yards means they’re not too deep to be completely out of the play in the run game or with quick throws off RPOs, which are becoming more and more common in the NFL.
Those same strengths can be its downfall too though. It can be a complex coverage for safeties that have to be able to fit the run, match a vertical route or potentially charge down to the flat on an RPO or bubble screen, all at a moments notice. It’s especially tough considering both safeties have to be capable of being so well-rounded, when the last decade of the NFL has been dominated by Cover-3, where the roles of strong and free safety are clearly defined as either a box safety or a deep coverage safety. Without the right players at safety, it can be tough to play quarters.
Another weakness to quarters coverage is the flats. With four deep defenders, there are only three defenders underneath. The corners can be carried deep by outside go routes and leave a ton of space underneath. The flats in most zone coverages have a designated defender, but in quarters the linebackers and nickel corners have to be rangy and be able to cover a lot of ground underneath. Without athleticism from those underneath defenders, checkdowns to the flat can quickly turn into big gains after the catch.
While quarters is a relatively safe coverage against deep shots down the field, there are ways to manipulate it and open up certain deep route combinations. Communication in the secondary has to be perfect and everyone needs to be on the same page, or explosive plays can be had. NFL offenses love to attack quarters with the same route combination all the time.
This combination is often referred to as “Pin”, meaning post and in. The inside receiver runs an in route, or more commonly known as a basic cross. In quarters coverage, the safety is responsible for any vertical route from the inside receiver. So, with the tight end running vertically beyond the depth of the linebackers, the safety breaks down and attaches to that route. However, with the safety occupied inside and underneath, suddenly the protection in the middle of the field is gone. The outside receiver runs a deep post behind the in route. The cornerback on the outside is taught to play with outside leverage with the assumption they have safety help inside. That allows the outside receiver to run into open space behind the occupied safety, while running away from a cornerback playing outside leverage.
While there are some weaknesses, as there are with every coverage, quarters is one of the most versatile coverages because there are so many variations that go along with it. Because of the two deep safeties, defenses can use quarters as a base to branch off into triangle coverages, with three defenders over two receivers, and box coverages with four defenders over three receivers, along with numerous trap coverages. It’s a very effective red zone coverage, one which Washington used well last year.
With the condensed space in the red zone, quarters can really shine. The versatility it provides allows teams to make adjustments to their coverages depending on opponents. Here, the Giants worked out of an empty formation with two receivers to the right and three receivers in a bunch to the left. But in quarters, Washington is able to match up well, with three defenders over the two receiver side and four defenders over the three receiver side. From there they use some pattern-matching principles, where defenders match their coverage to the most appropriate route instead of just dropping to a specific zone. Washington executes this particularly effectively in this example and the quarterback has nowhere to throw before the pass rush gets home.
Pattern-matching quarters coverage is some of the most effective coverage available, with defensive backs passing off routes to each other and matching their coverage to different receivers patterns, rather than just playing a zone. But again, this requires excellent communication and a lot of football intelligence, with breakdowns in coverage easy to have and often extremely costly.
Fit with Washington’s personnel
Like with Cover-3, Washington played plenty of quarters last year, but had both cornerbacks playing off the line of scrimmage. Lots of quarters teams prefer this because it allows the corners to play with a wider vision, so they can see and feel other routes rather than just the man they line up across from. This is needed in any type of pattern-matching form of quarters, where the defensive backs have to read different routes to figure out which route to match. For Kendall Fuller, this is a perfect system for him. He’s excellent when playing off and with vision, and his football IQ to understand and recognise route combinations is fantastic.
However, free agent addition William Jackson III and third-round pick Benjamin St-Juste have different skill sets to Fuller and are more suited to playing press coverage, where their length can make it difficult for receivers to release off the line of scrimmage and get into their routes. Both do have experience playing off coverage, and indeed quarters. Jackson played off and quarters with the Bengals, while St-Juste played plenty of quarters in college at Minnesota, who often used quarters as the base defense. But in my opinion, both are better suited to playing up on the line of scrimmage in press coverage.
There are press coverage adjustments available to quarters coverages. Plenty of college teams have their corners play press coverage as part of a quarters system, Minnesota being one of them. After all, quarters coverage can play out a lot like man coverage for the outside cornerbacks.
As we’ve already covered, the general rule for the outside corners in quarters coverage is to play man-to-man on the outside receiver except for when that receiver runs underneath on a shallow cross or a hitch, at which point they make a call to their nearby defenders and sink back into their zone. If the outside receiver runs anything else, the outside cornerback is in man-to-man coverage.
So it’s not a tough adjustment to move them up to the line of scrimmage and let them play press. In fact, by allowing the corner to play press coverage with inside leverage, offenses often have pre-designed adjustments for receivers. It’s hard to run a shallow cross against a press corner with inside leverage, same goes with a hitch route. So often the offense will see press coverage and convert those routes into vertical routes, resulting in the corner playing man coverage anyway.
This could potentially be an option for Washington if it wants to adapt its version of quarters coverage last year to accommodate the newly acquired skill sets of Jackson and St-Juste. But where would that leave Fuller and how would the safety spot play out?
Kendall Fuller could be an option for Washington at free safety in quarters. Fuller has the intelligence and understanding of both the defensive structure and route combinations to play the free safety role in quarters. He’d be excellent at anticipating route combinations and matching his coverage to various receivers if Washington wanted to be a little more complex with pattern-matching quarters. I suspect Fuller would stick to playing outside cornerback if Washington plays zone coverages, but he did get a few reps as part of a two deep safety look last year.
Despite Landon Collins’ struggles last year, he’s perfectly capable of playing well in a quarters coverage scheme. He was often asked to do so in college at Alabama under Nick Saban, and ran it plenty with the Giants too. Similarly, Curl played plenty of quarters in college and was actually the free safety at Arkansas. If Washington wants to get both Collins and Curl on the field, Curl could shift to free safety in a quarters scheme and be just as effective.