Greg Cosell's QB Study: Carson Palmer and the Cardinals' route concepts

Earlier this week, we looked at a Pittsburgh Steelers offense with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger that doesn’t use many route combination concepts. They focus on individual routes and expect their receivers to win those routes.

The Arizona Cardinals are the complete opposite.

Cardinals coach Bruce Arians is masterful at using route combination concepts to get his receivers open. And as I studied all of quarterback Carson Palmer’s drop backs on third-and-long from 2015, what stood out play after play was that Palmer knew exactly where to look based on the coverage. That’s something to keep in mind and watch as the Cardinals start their 2016 on “Sunday Night Football” against the New England Patriots this week.

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I want to look at a few plays that illustrate how the Cardinals use route concepts to get their receivers open, and Palmer’s ability to diagnose where to go with the ball and get it there.

The three-level stretch concept is something the Cardinals use effectively. It’s a concept that has three receivers running routes and the short, intermediate and deep levels. It can force a defender to make a choice and cover one of two receivers in his zone.

A great example of this play came against the San Francisco 49ers’ “2 man” coverage. Palmer threw it off seven-step drop timing, and that’s something the Cardinals do a lot too. You’ll see five-man pass protection and seven-step drops on third-and-long, and that’s the value of having a quarterback who is nuanced in his understanding of defensive fronts, pressures and coverages. Palmer will also stand in against the pressure and make the throw, when necessary. This play gained 27 yards to John Brown on third-and-10.

Here’s another three-level stretch play against the Seattle Seahawks. With seven-step drop timing out of an empty set, the Cardinals attacked the deep safety with inside slot receiver Brown’s vertical release. They played to cornerback Richard Sherman’s aggressive tendencies with the Brown intermediate corner route. And then not many quarterbacks could make the 27-yard touchdown throw to Michael Floyd on the far hash.

This is a simple route concept, and good diagnosis by Palmer. The Rams had a disguised a five-man rush with “Cover 3” zone behind it — the Rams showed a two-deep shell initially, then safety Rodney McLeod had late movement to his underneath “Cover 3” responsibility. Palmer looked to the Larry Fitzgerald on the hot slot route, then threw to David Johnson in the flat. McLeod was late to his responsibility on the curl/flat combination.

And you can see on this 18-yard touchdown by John Brown how the Cardinals took advantage of coverage tendencies with route combinations; you can see how the safety comes up on Larry Fitzgerald’s short route, opening up the post route for Brown.

The Cardinals’ route concepts put a lot of stress on coverage responsibilities, especially zone coverages. Arians understands zone coverages and how to break them down. As you’ll be able to see in Sunday night’s game and the rest of this season, all of the Cardinals’ routes work together to get receivers open.

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NFL analyst and NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell watches as much NFL game film as anyone. Throughout the season, Cosell will join Shutdown Corner to share his observations on the teams, schemes and personnel from around the league.