Cutup Friday: 2023 Texans Keeper Slide

In the preseason, we usually see a lot of Keeper concepts. They are simple plays that compliment any base run scheme. They create vertical flood layers on the side of the field away from the run fake.

The Texans featured a category of what I call generically Keeper Slide in 2023. The Slide route is the first in the flat, the primary for the quarterback. Its essentially an Arrow route coming from the other side of the field. It can also mimic split flow action if it is from a tight end.

Here are Houston’s stats for it in 2023:

Houston created some big plays off it by tagging a Cop route on the front side. They attacked the Bengals single high looks where the middle safety would try and get over the top of the High Corner.

I break down the entire concept in The 2023 Houston Texans Complete Offensive Manual.

The following video is a complete 10-minute cutup of Houston running the concept: