Football Library · Routes
Comeback
Route9-14 yd
Vertical 12-13 yards then a ROUNDED break back at ~45° toward the sideline, settling at ~10 yds depth (route tree #5). 'Comeback' refers to coming back DOWN in depth, not toward the QB — it's a sideline route. Stops the clock. Defender must drive forward — comeback wins on the cushion.
Demo rendered on @X (outside WR) at 12yd depth. Only the route runner and the QB are shown so the break stays the focus; the same route family scales to any depth a play calls for, and concepts that use this route may set a different depth.
How to run it
come back hard to the sideline, work back to the throw.
Reading it by coverage
How to run the comeback against what the defense shows.
- Cover 1:
- vs off-man — push his cushion vertical, then snap back down to the sideline where he can't recover.
- Cover 2:
- come back outside under the deep-half safety, on top of the squat corner's zone.
- Cover 3:
- stress the deep-third corner vertically, then comeback to the boundary on his outside hip.
- Man:
- win on the cushion — the harder he bails, the wider the comeback window.