Read option - let's talk about what it is a bit more

[Guiness]

Read option, read option, read option. Announcers love saying the word, and it's getting under my skin because I can't seem to pick out what it is.

Can anyone point me to a resource that will help me recognize it? I found this shot, and it's what I think of as a triple option formation.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Sure. We can talk about the read option. There's no reason for it to be under your skin, like a creepy crawly critter. PBmax will like to tell us all about it, and we'll feel very happy.

[pbmax]

You could run triple option out of that formation, but the 49ers tend to use that FB/H-back as a blocker not a dive back.

Read option means just three things:

1. The is a mesh point (extended handoff with QB having both hands on ball). You do not know who will get/keep the ball. This is the option portion of it.

2. One defender is unblocked (usually DE/OLB but could be DT).

3. If that monitored defender heads to the RB (or inside) the QB keeps and runs wide. If the defender stays wide or heads upfield to QB, there is a handoff. This is the read.

Right now, especially with pro football announcers, there is an expectation that the read option is run out of pistol formation (your picture). Pistol formation is Mike Sherman's short gun formation for the QB, but has a TB another 2-3 yards behind the QB. But this is not absolutely necessary. That blocking H-back does not need to be there. Could be a TE on the line or could be in slot.

There are already variations. Seattle in this Sunday Night Game has run read option action but they don't double team and they block everyone (facing seven man fronts mainly). Wilson still reads a defender, but this time reads how the defender reacts to the block.

There are college teams that do run triple option out of this action, the H-back can be the dive and the TB the pitch. Or some run it with a slot receiver being the pitchman.

The Packers run a packaged play that is read option (no pistol) where Rodgers makes like a handoff. If LB runs to cover the RB, he pulls it out and throws an inside route called a stick route. If LB stays in zone or with receiver in man, Rodgers hands off. This is called a stick-draw I believe.

[NewsBruin]

Well, theoretically, it can be done from any formation with two or more in the backfield, and you can't tell what it is until after the snap, and then you can't tell whether it was a called play or a whiffed block with a botched handoff.

In all seriousness, you have to have someone coming though unblocked and a delay on the handoff until the QB sees what the defensive player is doing.

I think in live play-by-play, any option rushing play by an athletic QB will be called "read option," because it sounds so cool.

[NewsBruin]

A read option could include a triple option, if another RB is set to trail the QB or his immediate handoff RB. I suppose it could also include a passing option as part of a packaged play. I'm sure by the end of tonight's game, we'll have seen those and 3 more variations nobody's thought of.

[packer4life]

You could run triple option out of that formation, but the 49ers tend to use that FB/H-back as a blocker not a dive back.

Read option means just three things:

1. The is a mesh point (extended handoff with QB having both hands on ball). You do not know who will get/keep the ball. This is the option portion of it.

2. One defender is unblocked (usually DE/OLB but could be DT).

3. If that monitored defender heads to the RB (or inside) the QB keeps and runs wide. If the defender stays wide or heads upfield to QB, there is a handoff. This is the read.

Right now, especially with pro football announcers, there is an expectation that the read option is run out of pistol formation (your picture). Pistol formation is Mike Sherman's short gun formation for the QB, but has a TB another 2-3 yards behind the QB. But this is not absolutely necessary. That blocking H-back does not need to be there. Could be a TE on the line or could be in slot.

There are already variations. Seattle in this Sunday Night Game has run read option action but they don't double team and they block everyone (facing seven man fronts mainly). Wilson still reads a defender, but this time reads how the defender reacts to the block.

There are college teams that do run triple option out of this action, the H-back can be the dive and the TB the pitch. Or some run it with a slot receiver being the pitchman.

The Packers run a packaged play that is read option (no pistol) where Rodgers makes like a handoff. If LB runs to cover the RB, he pulls it out and throws an inside route called a stick route. If LB stays in zone or with receiver in man, Rodgers hands off. This is called a stick-draw I believe.

Great post. Very concise.

[Guiness]

You could run triple option out of that formation, but the 49ers tend to use that FB/H-back as a blocker not a dive back.

Read option means just three things:

1. The is a mesh point (extended handoff with QB having both hands on ball). You do not know who will get/keep the ball. This is the option portion of it.

2. One defender is unblocked (usually DE/OLB but could be DT).

3. If that monitored defender heads to the RB (or inside) the QB keeps and runs wide. If the defender stays wide or heads upfield to QB, there is a handoff. This is the read.

Right now, especially with pro football announcers, there is an expectation that the read option is run out of pistol formation (your picture). Pistol formation is Mike Sherman's short gun formation for the QB, but has a TB another 2-3 yards behind the QB. But this is not absolutely necessary. That blocking H-back does not need to be there. Could be a TE on the line or could be in slot.

There are already variations. Seattle in this Sunday Night Game has run read option action but they don't double team and they block everyone (facing seven man fronts mainly). Wilson still reads a defender, but this time reads how the defender reacts to the block.

There are college teams that do run triple option out of this action, the H-back can be the dive and the TB the pitch. Or some run it with a slot receiver being the pitchman.

The Packers run a packaged play that is read option (no pistol) where Rodgers makes like a handoff. If LB runs to cover the RB, he pulls it out and throws an inside route called a stick route. If LB stays in zone or with receiver in man, Rodgers hands off. This is called a stick-draw I believe.

Ok, following it a little better. This annoys me because we ran the option in University and I feel like I should know what they're talking about.

Point 3 sheds some light. That read must be lightning fast. Your comment on the Packers running it sounds a lot like what I'd call a heads-up play action, where the decision to hand off or run isn't decided until you get a look at how the defenders are moving. And maybe that's fits with what NewsBruin is talking about with a passing option being part of it.

[Guiness]

After tonight's game I'm starting to think the read option is already fading. If it was run a lot tonight, it was not nearly so obvious. Kaepernick got some yards on the ground, but they looked a lot more like him just tucking and running, a la Micheal Vick. Maybe what got the Packers in the playoffs wasn't so much the read option as it was their surprise with Kaepernick's toolset, how well he could both run and throw. He showed tonight that he is FAST.

[pbmax]

Kap will always get yards when healthy and they probably should have let him run more last night. He is just that good in the open field.

But the read will survive even if its not gashing opponents like in the Packer playoff game because it can give an offense a numerical advantage elsewhere. The entire 49er offense is built around that concept, of forcing matchups that favor you even if its the H back who then gets the ball. Remember Nick Perry on a WR.

Plays built of those concepts, unblocked defender or option, will be the lasting legacy of this offense, even if it fades as the organizing principle.

I love that its forcing defenses to change. Yesterday I saw AJ Hawk and a Seattle linebacker play pass defense from the wide side of the field on a RB who lined up as a flanker.

[Guiness]

Kap will always get yards when healthy and they probably should have let him run more last night. He is just that good in the open field.

Letting Kap run more last night would've just got his hurt. Seattle locked down SF's offense, he was the only one who could do anything

[mraynrand]

I love that its forcing defenses to change. Yesterday I saw AJ Hawk and a Seattle linebacker play pass defense from the wide side of the field on a RB who lined up as a flanker.

Hawk actually defensed a pass in coverage yesterday. Haven't seen much of that from him in a while.

[swede]

Hawk actually defensed a pass in coverage yesterday. Haven't seen much of that from him in a while.

Yeah...he covered some ground in a hurry too.

Bad Hawk, good Hawk. He keeps you guessing.