Zone Shading?

[Kevin McKoy]

There is a feature that has been in the game for years called zone shading. You know like zone middle, zone left zone right. Can someone please explain to me when to use these different shades, and when not to.

thanks

[heelphreak]

Your opponent has the ball on the right hash mark and comes out in a shotgun set with trips to the left. You call cover three. You can shade left there to shift your coverage to the wide side of the field where the bulk of their receivers are.

I don't shade coverage a lot because there are plenty of plays out of trips formations that send receivers across the field. But it's sometimes effective in the situation I illustrated and under the opposite circumstances.