Cutup Friday: 2023 Packers Pylon-Sail
The Packers kick off their season tonight against a Vic Fangio-led Eagles defense. A fun matchup of play callers.
Pylon Sail is a vertical stretch that can create big plays down the field. If you have a strong-armed QB, this concept can really hurt defenses.
This breakdown is taken from The 2023 Green Bay Packers Complete Offensive Manual.
Pylon-Sail
Pylon – Sail is a close relative of the Flood family. It attacks the same landmarks, but with a slightly different purpose. The inclusion of the Pylon allows the offense to take the top off of the defense.
Against single high cornerbacks that like to cheat driving on Sail routes, the Pylon has the ability to make the defense pay.
The Pylon route is what I call the deep corner route. The route will stem inside the numbers and break at a high angle at about 15 yards.
The Sail route is the intermediate route. The receiver will take the path of the cleanest release, work up to 10 yards and break out. The final route depth is kept under 15 yards.
This concept works well in two or three man bunches. It’s a great way to create clean releases against man to threaten the defense with two vertical stems. This also gives the concept more flexibility against man coverage when the play action element will not be as effective.
Against two high, particularly versions of cover 4, the offense wants to keep both the pylon and sail stems outside of the safety in order for the quarterback to have a clean read on the cornerback.
Against cover two, the concept becomes a little more difficult. In this case, having a back side dig combination will help the quarterback have an alternative read if the deep safety is able to stay over the top of the Pylon route.
The four strong version was called in week 3.
Why It Worked: The Packers were quite explosive with this concept, averaging over 12 yards per attempt with it in 2023.
Against the 49ers cover 2 defense, Love takes the checkdown in the flat. The cornerback gets some depth for the Sail, the Safety stays Deep for the Pylon. Although the play resulted in four yards, having checkdown answers built in is critical for the long term success of a concept.
The Packers hit the Sail route in the fast motion variation shown in the 1st diagram. The Rams appear to be playing cover 4 to the field against the Packers 12 personnel formation. The corner and safety bracket the Pylon, the flat defender gets width for the Arrow.
Why it Didn’t Work: In week 10, the cornerback takes away the Sail. The Pylon is open, as the safety is tucked inside of the route. This is a hard throw, even for a quarterback with the arm talent of Jordan Love. This can be the limitation of this concept. If the Pylon is not thrown right on time, its hard to get to for quarterbacks.
The video below is a 9-minute cutup of the Packers Pylon Sail concept.
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