I thought I'd show one throw from each game of the 2019 season where I felt Jimmy made a good coverage read and good throw. There was a Greg Cosell post SB interview where he wanted the 49ers passing game to be independent of the run game - meaning pass plays that succeed on their own and not because of the system. This was my inspiration to making this series of cutups.
None of these throws are plays where there is a clear predefined read. Most of them will be basic play designs that are in every NFL playbook, but it's up to the QB to read the coverage and make the correct decision. The reason I chose plays like this is it eliminates the plays where Kyle's great play design works to get a receiver wide open, or plays where there is a very clear, defined read that makes it easy for the QB to determine the target.
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Week 9: 3rd & 11
Dwelley lines up inline to the left side of the offensive formation, then motions into the backfield. The purple safety follows Dwelley. This gives a man coverage presnap read.
This is the presnap picture just before the snap. With the purple safety following Dwelley, the weakside CB pressing Sanders, and a single high safety (blue) in the middle, this looks like Cover 1 man coverage.
The 49ers are running a 'Hank' concept. This is a horizontal stretch to the underneath zone defenders. The orange, red, and yellow routes look to create a 3 vs 2 situation. 49ers use a reduced split (WRs lined up inside the numbers). This will cause the CBs to play with outside leverage - this plays a role later.
This is usually a 5 step rhythm passing concept. With the 49ers needing 9 yards, they modify it to 7 step timing (shotgun snap = 2, plus a 5 step drop)
At the snap, the purple and blue safeties both run into a Cover 2 position. The yellow Mike LB faces the strongside and quickly gains depth - it's Tampa 2 coverage.
Jimmy's read is the two red hook/curl defenders (red) and how they react to Bourne's route. Whichever of the red LBs cheat towards Bourne, throw it to the Curl route on that same side of the field. The 3 vs 2 here is Bourne/Deebo/Sanders vs the two hook/curl defenders.
As soon as the weakside hook/curl defender (red) cheats toward Bourne, Jimmy sets his eyes on Sanders. The spacing between Deebo and Bourne is too close, that's why Jimmy didn't target Deebo.
The two Curl routes from Deebo and Sanders both give a head fake to the outside, to attack the leverage of the CBs that are playing with outside leverage. This gets those outside CBs on their heels, to set up the curl towards the inside
Although the CB on Sanders is playing it tight, Jimmy reads the leverage and knows that there is room towards the inside of Sanders due to the weakside hook/curl defender cheating towards Bourne.
With pressure in his face, Jimmy locates this ball to the inside to that Sanders can push off and win the position battle.
+16. Even with the CB all over Sanders, Jimmy makes a good leverage read and throws it to an area that only Sanders can get to.
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