Concept Cutup: 2022 Lions Dagger (Drop Back)
The following breakdown is taken from The 2022 Detroit Lions Complete Offensive Manual.
Dagger is a concept found in many NFL play books. The offense is trying to create 3 level vertical flood over the middle of the field. The Dagger, the deep dig route, being the intermediate layer and primary option on the play.
The short route was most often a Grab route from a tight end. This route’s landmark is about 5-7 yards deep, just outside of the hash.
The route(s) on the weak side of the play help round out a full-field read for the quarterback. The Lions liked to pair a deep curl/flat read to this side. As you will see later in this section, this concept pays off well when defenses choose to rotate to the middle of the field.
The concept is great against two high. The vertical route will clear out the near safety, and the Grab/Dig combination will put the Mike in a high-low.
Dagger was a situational play call for the Lions in 2022. They called the drop back version of Dagger almost exclusively on third downs.
The Lions made great use of Dagger on 3rd and longs. They converted a whopping 64% of their 3rd downs with Dagger, on 14 attempts.
The 5th diagram shows the version called in week 18. The Lions switch the “sandboxes” for the receivers in this version. It also pushes the high-low window further to the weak side of the field.
The 6th diagram shows the 2x2 version called in week 17.
Why it Worked: In general, the Lions were very effective with this concept. Goff had a strong feel for it with the Rams, and that carried over to 2022.
In week 5, Goff hits the deep Curl for a first down on a 3rd and 13. The Patriots play single high, leaving an extra robber/hole/hook defender in the middle of the field. Goff reads the coverage post-snap, and gets to the 1 on 1 singled up on the outside. The next image shows the play.
In week 7, Goff hits the deep Curl against another single high coverage. In this clip, the weak safety rotated to rob the area between the hashes. This leaves a void for the Curl route. The next image shows the play.
In week 9, Goff makes an incredible throw to the Dig route against single high coverage. He fits the ball in before the weak hook defender can help on the route.
In week 10, Goff hits the Dig against what appears to be a version of cover 4. The next image shows how the empty version plays out against cover 4 in this case. The Mike plays down on the Grab route.
Why it Didn’t Work: The first clip in week 17 shows a dropped pass. This clip shows Goff throwing the Dig route against single high.
The video below shows 12 minutes of Dagger (drop back)
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