How many players should you rush in NFL Flag?
In NFL Flag the answer is usually nobody, because the rulebook forbids the quarterback from running the ball across the line of scrimmage and that removes the thing an unrushed defense normally gets punished for. Five defenders cover four eligible receivers, one of whom is the centre, and the spare player can simply live in the middle. Send one when he holds it, send two only inside a no-run zone on a long down, and never as a philosophy.
Your RUSH 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 NFL Flag
The patient option has had its downside deleted by rule
Everywhere else, not rushing means eventually conceding yards to a quarterback's legs. Here he is not allowed to take them. That single rule makes nought the default in this format rather than a brave choice, and it is why this page reaches a firmer conclusion than its 5v5 sibling.
One of your four receivers is the centre, and defenses forget him
He snaps the ball and is then eligible, releasing on a real route on every traced play in the official playbook. Send a rusher and your four remaining defenders have to account for him with nobody spare, and a quick throw to a releasing centre is the easiest completion available in this format.
The no-run zones hand you the only free pressure there is
Inside five yards of midfield and five of the goal line the offense may not run at all. You are no longer guessing what is coming, so a rusher is leaving against a known pass. Rushing there and nowhere else is a complete and defensible plan for a whole season.
Every rusher is a defender who is not covering anybody
That is the whole decision and it is arithmetic rather than attitude. Sending more players does not create pressure out of nothing, it moves defenders from one job to another, and the job they leave is the one where the ball is actually going most of the time.
The right number is a property of the opponent, not of your defense
A quarterback who holds the ball makes one rusher worth it. A quarterback who throws in a second makes any number of them worthless. Decide after watching a series rather than before the game, because this is the one defensive question a single drive genuinely answers.
Two is a call, not a philosophy
There are downs where sending an extra player is right: obvious long yardage, a team that only throws deep, the end of a half. There is no defense where it is right on every down, because the coverage arithmetic behind it stops working entirely.
Where he actually has to be
Same 5 defenders, same alignment. One job changes.
- The instinctWrongNFL Flag: the RUSH takes the instinctive path.
Where a young defender goes when nobody has told him otherwise.
- The jobRightNFL Flag: the RUSH 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.
Nought, one or two, and what each one gives away
Rush nobody
Where it excelsFive on four against a quarterback who cannot run. Put the spare man on the centre and you have taken away both the easiest throw and the entire ground game at once.
Exposed · the combinationA patient offense with disciplined routes eventually uncovers somebody, and this format's concepts are drawn to keep working against coverage that does not move. You lose slowly here rather than suddenly.
Rush one
Where it excelsWorth it against a quarterback who drifts behind the line looking for something better, which is what NFL Flag quarterbacks do instead of running. An angle to his outside turns the drift back into traffic.
Exposed · the flatFour defenders on four receivers, the centre included, with nobody free. The releasing centre is the player who comes open, and most coaches do not see it until it has happened twice.
Rush two in a no-run zone
Where it excelsThe offense is forbidden from running and the field is short, so the throw is both certain and quick. Two rushers arriving together can end a drive in the one place the rulebook has taken away their alternative.
Exposed · deepThree defenders against four eligible receivers. Somebody is open before the snap, and on a short field open means a touchdown rather than a gain.
Nobody, and cover the centre
Start from not rushing, because the rule that normally punishes it does not exist here. Spend your spare defender on the centre rather than on the quarterback, since that is the player a defense trained in any other format will leave alone. Add a rusher inside the no-run zones and nowhere else.
The numbers behind the decision
He stands there for five seconds and nothing happens
That is the patient plan working, not failing. A quarterback holding the ball with nowhere to go is a play you have already won. Resist the urge to send somebody, because the moment you do, the receiver he is waiting on gets his defender's help taken away.
They motion the centre out and snap from the side
Legal, and it moves your uncovered player rather than removing him. Re-declare who has the centre as the motion settles, by name and out loud. A rule about a position fails the moment the position moves; a rule about a person does not.
When not to rush
When you cannot cover with the players who are left
Adding a rusher is a bet that your remaining defenders can hold up alone for a second longer. If they cannot, every extra rusher makes the defense worse in a way that looks like effort and plays like a collapse.
When you are behind and chasing
The instinct late in a game you are losing is to send more. It is usually wrong: the offense is trying to run clock and take no risks, so the big play you are hunting is not being offered, and the one you concede ends the game.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the flag football play creator, collect them in the flag football playbook builder, and print printable play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Draw it for your own team
Open the designer at NFL Flag, 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
How many players should you rush in NFL Flag?
When is rushing worth it in NFL Flag?
Who covers the centre in NFL Flag?
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.