Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley has a wide range of tools at his disposal that he can use to generate pressure on opposing quarterbacks. One way he can generate pressure is through the use of a concept called “hot quarters coverage.” It’s seldom used, and according to Sports Info Solutions, it has only been a tagged play call four times over one and a half seasons.
Nonetheless, it is a unique and interesting way to generate pressure because of how it forces offenses to add an extra
layer of communication to their process before the snap. The goal for the defense is to get the offensive line to slide away from where the pressure is actually going to come from so that they can get a free rusher at the quarterback.
The pressure concept was made famous by Brian Flores, former Dolphins head coach and now the defensive coordinator of the division rival Minnesota Vikings. The defense has given opposing quarterbacks and offensive lines nightmares to deal with.
The front is designed to get the pass protection slide set to one side in the hopes that the defense can free up a pass rusher away from the overloaded side. Typically, there will be two defenders who pop out to underneath zone coverages by locating the second and third receivers inside in the pattern (the “hot” element).
With so many defenders stacked at the line, the offense is typically forced into full-slide protection, guaranteeing that one edge defender comes free. Any miscommunication up front—especially failing to account for a mugged linebacker—puts the quarterback in immediate danger.
With the idea being to stress an offense’s communication, this refers to a crowded pre-snap picture. The traffic the defense creates near the ball can disrupt blocking assignments and trigger mistakes as offenses try to decipher the front.
The coverage borrows from split safety/split field coverage principles. Instead of a traditional two deep/four under, the coverage defenders play match quarters principles and match receivers based on the route distributions, with the corners playing first out and vertical, and the safeties playing the first inside and vertical.
The pop-out defenders are looking to match #2 and #3 underneath. Here, Micah Parsons and Karl Brooks are the pop-out defenders with Brooks hot to 2 and Parsons hot to 3.
The defense gets Edgerrin Cooper upfield as the free rusher, as the left tackle is occupied by the inside rush. The offensive line slides left as Brooks and Parsons pop out, taking the eyes of the linemen with them, and getting Isaiah McDuffie nearly free inside to get a hit on Winston. Winston ends up getting the dump off to the flat in time to avoid the sack, but the defense was there to limit the gain to three yards.
Here are all four clips since the beginning of 2024.
