Flexbone

Flexbone is a strong offensive formation in American and Canadian football. It includes a quarterback with five offensive linemen, three running backs. The number of tight ends and the receiver varies according to the play task.

This formation derived from wishbone. It transferred some lining as QB under the center. One of the running backs, fullback, is lined directly behind QB. Two smaller RBs are slotbacks taking position behind the scrimmage line – one per each offensive side. Slotbacks are often confused with wingbacks. The wingbacks require at least a pair of tight ends and a tackle in the middle of the field. Not in this formation.

The flexbone is a basement for the veer play. Sometimes QB delivers the ball to FB who takes it and runs through scrimmage to gain some yardage. If the fullback decides to fake that it has the ball, the QB sprints parallel to LOS with slotback trailing it. This method is called triple option as FB plays role number one, QB takes the second position and slotback is a third important participant.

Flexbone forces the defense to spray their attention to the quarter-, full- and slotbacks. To succeed it, the offense must have a fast fearless quarterback with significant arm power. Fullback must be strong enough to break defensive tackles and have speed qualities. As this formation has less offensive players than other variants, the offensive linemen must work together to help the receivers open the ways for scoring.