In football defenses what are the differences in coverages? ?

Question

what are differences between cover zero, cover one, cover two, cover three, cover four, cover five

When someones says cover 1, what does that mean?

Answer 1

It defines how much of the backfield the secondary covers/shares.

Cover 1 - 1 deep saftey covers the entire backfield (usually played by Ed Reed, Ken Hamlin, Laron Landry, or any other speed safety)

Cover 2 - 2 deep safeties cover 2 halves of the backfield (most teams play this on 1st and 2nd downs)

Cover 3 - 2 CBs cover the deep sidelines and 1 safety covers the deep middle (the other safety plays closer to the line of scrimmage to play against the run)(usually played on blitzes by most teams)

Cover 4 - both CBs and both safeties drop back deep (usually a prevent defense)

A 'broken coverage' is a popular term when a player moves out of his position and the ball is thrown past him.

Hope i explained that well enough...

Answer 2

The number next to cover refers to the number of defensive players playing deep coverage zones.

So, for example, cover 2 generally has the 2 safeties playing their respective deep half of the field, while a cover 3 would have the 2 safeties plus a corner playing the deep thirds of the field. Cover 1 would have one safety having all the deep responsibilities. Cover 1 and cover 0 usually have blitzers, as it is more risky to leaver fewer defensive backs guarding the deep ball.

Answer 3

Cover 2 = 2 deep safety's playing half's Corners have flat

Cover 3 =3 deep (2 corners and free safety) SS in the strong side flat

Cover 5 = all four deep playing quarter zone, linebackers have flats

Cover 1 = 2 corners and SS play man on receivers., free safety deep

Cover 0  All four DBS have someone man to man, no one deep