Who should your rusher be in 5v5 flag football?
In 5v5 flag football your rusher should not automatically be your fastest player, because your fastest player is almost always your best cover defender and you only have five. The job needs discipline rather than speed: somebody who arrives under control, stays in front of the quarterback, and does not chase him out of bounds. Picking wrong is why the quarterback keeps escaping, and it is a personnel mistake rather than an effort one.
Your CB ends up here. It is the instinctive place to go and it is the wrong one, which is why this keeps happening to teams who are trying hard.
When rushing is the right call in 5v5
Taking your best cover player away costs a fifth of the coverage
With five defenders and four eligible receivers, removing the one who can actually stay with their best receiver means somebody else gets that matchup. In a format this small there is no depth to absorb it, so the rusher decision and the coverage decision are the same decision.
Seven yards rewards control, not top speed
The rusher is not running a race, he is covering ground and then arriving at a player who may move. A child who sprints flat out arrives with momentum that carries him past the quarterback, and past is the same as absent. The player who can slow down at the right moment is the one you want.
He is also the player who will not be there to pull a flag
Whoever you send is seven yards from where most 5v5 plays end. If your surest tackler is the rusher, the completions you do give up go for more than they should, and in a five-player defense there is nobody covering for that.
Not automatically your fastest player
The job needs discipline far more than speed, because a rusher who runs past the quarterback has done less than one who never left. Your fastest player is usually your best cover defender too, which makes sending him the most expensive version of a decision you have not thought about.
The right player keeps his feet under him and his eyes up
What actually beats a young quarterback is somebody arriving under control, in front of him, while he is still looking downfield. Sprinting flat out at a moving target is how a rusher ends up behind the play with his momentum carrying him away from it.
It should be the same player most weeks
Rushing is a skill and it improves with repetition, so rotating the job around the team means nobody ever gets good at it. Pick one, coach him, and let him own it. A defense with one competent rusher is better than one with five occasional ones.
Where he actually has to be
Same 5 defenders, same alignment. One job changes.
- The instinctWrong5v5: the CB takes the instinctive path.
Where a young defender goes when nobody has told him otherwise.
- The jobRight5v5: the CB takes his actual landmark.
Where the job is. Say it out loud before the snap and most of this page stops being a problem.
This is the landmark. Give it a name your players can repeat back to you. A spot with a name gets occupied; a spot described in a sentence does not.
Three candidates, and what each one costs you elsewhere
Your fastest player
Where it excelsGets there soonest, and against a quarterback who holds the ball that is the whole job. If he is also disciplined, this is simply the right answer and there is nothing to debate.
Exposed · the combinationHe is usually the only player who can stay with their best receiver, so sending him hands that matchup to somebody who will lose it. You have traded a possible sack for a probable completion.
Your most disciplined player
Where it excelsArrives under control, stays in front, does not chase. The quarterback's escape route closes rather than merely being run at, and this is the version that actually changes what the offense can do.
Exposed · the flatHe is often one of your better underneath defenders, so the short throw to his side gets easier all afternoon. It is a smaller bill than the first option and it is still a bill.
Your weakest defender
Where it excelsHonest, and more common than coaches admit. It hides a player who struggles in coverage by giving him a job with one instruction and no reads.
Exposed · deepHe will not get there, so you have spent a defender for no pressure at all. You are effectively playing four on four while pretending to rush, which is the worst of both decisions.
Your most disciplined player, and the same one every week
Rushing is a skill and it improves with repetition, so rotating the job means nobody ever gets good at it. Pick the player who can stop when he needs to, coach him for a season, and keep your fastest defender on their best receiver where he is worth the most. One competent rusher beats five occasional ones.
The numbers behind the decision
He keeps running past the quarterback
Almost always a speed-without-brakes problem rather than an angle problem. Have him approach at about three-quarter pace and gather his feet at five yards. A rusher who arrives balanced ends more plays than one who arrives fast.
The quarterback keeps escaping to one side
Your rusher is taking a straight line, which opens both sidelines. Send him at an angle from outside so the only place left is back into your other four defenders.
When not to rush
When he cannot be trusted to stop
A rusher who chases the quarterback out of the pocket and keeps going has opened the sideline behind him. If a player cannot be coached to pull up and mirror, he is the wrong player for the job whatever his forty time is.
When he is also your only tackler
Sending your surest flag puller seven yards away from where most plays end is a trade most coaches make without noticing. Somebody has to finish the play, and pressure that produces nothing has cost you the player who would have.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the free flag football play designer, collect them in the flag football playbook builder, and print wristband play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw it for your own team
Open the designer at 5v5, put your defenders where this page says, and print it so everybody shows up on Saturday knowing the same thing.
Open the free play designerRelated questions
Who should rush the quarterback in 5v5 flag football?
Should you change who rushes each play?
Why does my rusher keep running past the quarterback?
Related guides
Coach Ray Carroll
Coaches 5v5 flag football from kindergarten through 7th grade in San Mateo and San Carlos, California, and built RC Football to design, teach and print the plays his own teams run.