Outside Trailer

Description

Outside Trailer is designed to get the inside flanker open in isolation by running him underneath the routes of the other three left side receivers. The flanker can usually make an easy catch in the flats after turning upfield and then has to rely on making moves in the open field to get by defenders to gain yardage. The other routes tend to be used mostly as decoys, but are still useful in situations where the primary outside route cannot get open.

On a typical execution you can expect from 5-15 yards from the outside trailer route. The other routes are either more difficult to throw consistently or difficult to gain many yards with. The tight end runs a straight outside slant route typical in the 4 Left formation, which stretches the defense and punishes overcommitment to the left side. The middle flanker runs a short hook route which is intended to keep defenders from moving into the left flats, and also serves as a good target when pressured or when no one can get open downfield. Post and streak routes run on the outside are primarily to open up the left flats for the trailer route but are effective against defenses concentrating on the short zone.

Player Assignments

See the Madden Playbook Guide for a description of these symbols.

Read Progression

1. TE slant out
2. Middle flanker hook
3. Inside flanker after turning upfield
4. Left flanker post
5. SE streak

The progression is simple, mostly just working right to left with the inside flanker adjusted because of the outside route. The toughest part of the read is the outside trailer route. In man coverage it's a fairly easy read, but if a LB or DB is lurking in zone you need to wait for the flanker to run past them and try to squeeze the pass in before he reaches the deeper safeties. If pressured the inside hook makes a nice safety valve.

Analysis

Pros:

• The outside trailer route will run away from almost any man coverage
• The hook route works well as both an easy, short yardage target and fairly safe throwaway late
• TE, left flanker and SE stretch the field horizontally and vertically

Cons:

• The primary route is a little slow developing, and does not work very well with defenders in zone
• Missed throws on the outside trailer route are somewhat more common than would be expected, probably because the WR changes direction in his route twice in a very short time span
• Downfield throws (post and streak) are somewhat dangerous because of the number of DBs usually in the area