What is the Option concept in 11v11 tackle football?
In 11v11 football a zone option leaves the backside defensive end deliberately unblocked and lets the quarterback read him: if he crashes on the back, the quarterback pulls it and gets outside him; if he sits and waits for the quarterback, the ball goes inside on the zone. He has to be wrong. The option cannot exist in NFL Flag at all, because its rulebook forbids the man who takes the snap from crossing the line.
Why Option works in 11v11
A defender is left unblocked on purpose
Every other run on this site tries to account for everybody. This one picks a man and ignores him, because blocking him would spend a blocker doing what the quarterback's eyes can do for free. That trade only makes sense when you have eleven bodies and a quarterback who is allowed to run, which is why the option is a tackle-football idea rather than a flag one.
It is arithmetic, not deception
Leaving one defender unblocked means one extra blocker somewhere else, so the offense is playing eleven against ten at the point of attack. Nothing is being disguised. The defense knows exactly what is happening and is still a man short, which is the property that has kept the option alive at every level that permits it.
NFL Flag forbids it in one sentence, and not the one people quote
Its rulebook says the quarterback cannot run across the line of scrimmage, and then defines the quarterback as the player who receives the snap. A quarterback who cannot gain yards running cannot be a threat to keep, and an option with no keep threat is a handoff. That is why the run shelf at NFL Flag has seven concepts and this one has eighteen.
It removes the defender you cannot block
Every run has a defender the scheme cannot account for. An option does not try to account for him; it reads him. That turns the hardest problem in the run game into the mechanism the play runs on, which is why the concept has survived every era of football that has tried to coach it out.
The defense's discipline becomes the offense's information
A well-drilled defender does the same thing every time, and doing the same thing every time is exactly what an option punishes. The better coached the man being read is, the more reliably the play produces, which is an unusual property for any concept.
It stretches the defense horizontally with two threats
Two runners on the same side moving in the same direction means one defender has to cover two gaps. Even when the read is wrong, somebody is usually running free, because the arithmetic of the perimeter does not work for the defense.
How to read it
- 1
Identify the read defender before the snap
One man, named out loud in the huddle. An option run without a specific defender in mind is two players running sideways hoping something opens.
- 2
Attack him, do not drift past him
The carrier has to threaten him genuinely or he never has to choose. Running wide of the read defender lets him sit and wait for the pitch, which is the whole play defended by doing nothing.
- 3
Give it when he comes, keep it when he widens
The rule is that simple and it should not be overthought in the moment. If the defender commits to the ball carrier, the ball goes outside; if he expands to take the trailing runner, it stays inside.
- 4
The trailing runner keeps his relationship
Four or five yards outside and slightly behind, moving at the same speed. A pitch man who gets ahead of the carrier or drifts too close removes the option from the option.
What changes in 11v11
A defender is left unblocked on purpose
Every other run on this site tries to account for everybody. This one picks a man and ignores him, because blocking him would spend a blocker doing what the quarterback's eyes can do for free. That trade only makes sense when you have eleven bodies and a quarterback who is allowed to run, which is why the option is a tackle-football idea rather than a flag one.
It is arithmetic, not deception
Leaving one defender unblocked means one extra blocker somewhere else, so the offense is playing eleven against ten at the point of attack. Nothing is being disguised. The defense knows exactly what is happening and is still a man short, which is the property that has kept the option alive at every level that permits it.
NFL Flag forbids it in one sentence, and not the one people quote
Its rulebook says the quarterback cannot run across the line of scrimmage, and then defines the quarterback as the player who receives the snap. A quarterback who cannot gain yards running cannot be a threat to keep, and an option with no keep threat is a handoff. That is why the run shelf at NFL Flag has seven concepts and this one has eighteen.
When not to call Option
It is the most rules-dependent call you can make
Whether the quarterback may run, and when, changes between leagues and between formats more than any other rule in the game. A playbook that assumes he can is wrong somewhere, so the rulebook has to be read before this concept is installed.
A pitch in space is a turnover waiting to happen
The exchange happens on the move, under pressure, with the carrier looking at a defender rather than at his teammate. It is the highest-risk delivery in the run game and it does not become safe with repetition alone.
Take it to your team
Draw your plays in the football play designer, collect them in the flag football playbook builder, and print printable play cards so every player knows them come Saturday.
Open Option in the designer
Opens this exact 11v11 diagram. Move anybody, change the depths, then save it to your playbook.
Open this play in the designerRelated questions
Which defender does the quarterback read?
What happens if the end does nothing?
Can you run the option in flag football?
Is this the same as a read option or an RPO?
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.