Wide receiver is one of the most involved positions to coach because so many little things can make a receiver successful or a bust. There are intricacies to running routes that receivers must know to be effective at any level of football. For this reason, coaching wide receiver routes can be challenging. If you stick to a plan, and repeat it often, then you can turn your wide receivers into dependable route runners.
The first thing you must teach your wide receivers is to explode off the line of scrimmage the same way regardless of the route. Many receivers will by instinct come off the line gingerly when the route is a short one. This is a surefire sign to defensive backs that the route is a short out or curl, and the route will not be effective. The wide receiver should come off the line hard on every single play. To a defensive back, the receiver should appear the same on every play, even when it is a run. This will keep them from cheating up on the run, and will also force them to respect the deep route.
Another key to running effective routes is to sharpen the cuts. When you are running an out route for example, the cut must be quick and sudden or it loses the separation that leads to a completed pass. You can coach this talent effectively by having the receivers run these routes full speed, and have the defensive backs in practice know the route ahead of time. If they can complete the out route under these circumstances, then you can easily complete them in a game where the defense does not know it is coming. Sharp cuts in a wide receiver route will lead to success in the passing game.
Knowing the playbook inside and out is the number one way to improve route running, especially on the high school level. The vast majority of wrong or ineffective routes are due to a wide out not knowing the playbook and being uncertain of his route for a given play. That said, you must make absolutely sure that your receiver knows his responsibility on each and every play that is called in the huddle.
Likewise, the receiver and the quarterback must be on the same page with audibles and hot routes. An audible is when the quarterback changes the call at the line of scrimmage, and the receiver must know what signals change their responsibility. Also, they need to know what each audible signal represents so they know what they are supposed to do.
A hot route is similar to an audible, but it is more specific to the wide out and the quarterback. When the quarterback sees a specific defensive set up, they may call a hot route to the wide out. This is a quick delivery of the football to the receiver, and is designed to pick up quick yardage.
All of these things are vital for a wide receiver to learn to run great routes. If they are lacking in any of these areas, then the passing game will suffer accordingly. Football is a thinking game as much as it is physical, and never is that more obvious than when playing wide receiver. Spend time on the playbook and audibles, running sharp routes with quick cuts and make sure you look the same coming off the line regardless of the play called. If you do these things, then the passing game will be successful in most cases.
