With the innovation of the spread offense, slot receivers have become more significant. A slot receiver can often be mixed with other types of receiving positions.
A slot receiver is a player who lines up in the slot position between the offensive tackle and the wide receiver. This player is often the smallest and quickest receiver on the team. The role of the slot receiver is to catch the football or take a handoff from the quarterback.
On the defensive side, the slot corner covers the slot receiver. Slot corners are often quicker players who are fast enough to run with slot receivers.
This article will look at both the slot receiver and the slot corner.
What Does A Slot Receiver Do?
When it comes to the alignment of an offense or a defense, you may hear the term “slot receiver” or “slot corner.” If a player is in a “slot” position, they’re not far from the boundary at their position.
There can even be multiple slot receivers or corners on one side of the field.
If you’re looking for a more detailed breakdown of receivers, we’ve created a Complete Football Guide to help you here.
Slot Receiver Roles
As mentioned above, the slot receiver is a receiver between the nearest player on the line of scrimmage (Tackle or Tight End) and an outside receiver. The slot receiver was prominent in pass-heavy offenses such as West Coast systems.
The circled player below represents a player who is lined up as a slot receiver:
Slot receivers can line up on either side of the offense, even next to the offensive line.
There can be as many as three slot receivers on the field at once, and they can be aligned all on one side or mixed between both sides.
An example of multiple slot receivers is below from high school football:
When there are multiple slot receivers, they are referred to as the “Inside Slot” and then the “Outside Slot,” moving from the center of the field to the boundary.
As you can see, tight ends, as well as speedy receivers, will line up as a slot receiver. In most slot formations, the slot receiver is responsible for running precise routes and blocking outside linebackers.
Wide Receivers
The difference between a slot receiver and a wide receiver is their positioning. The slot receiver will line up in the slot position. Meanwhile, wide receivers will line up as the widest receiver.
Wide receivers are often taller players who have better straight-line speed and can catch balls easily. Every football team will have a wide receiver and slot receivers in their slot position.
Players like Robert Woods and Juju Smith Schuster are good examples of wide receivers who play the wide receiver position.
What Does A Slot Cornerback Do?
A slot cornerback is also referred to as a “Nickel” cornerback.
The slot corner is also dubbed the “Nickel” corner because Nickel is the package that brings the extra defensive backs to the field.
Slot corners are tasked with covering the slot receiver. Slot receivers catch footballs all over the field, so the slot corner must be well conditioned and have athletic ability to cover them. This third corner (or safety), is tasked with covering the third receiver on offense.
This also means there are 5 defensive backs (nickel = 5 cents) on the field.
To learn more about defenses and offensive packages, see more in our Ultimate Football Guide.
The extra defensive back will often cover DB lines up in the slot.
Below, we highlighted who the slot cornerback is on the field:
Like slot receivers, they are lined up inside a boundary cornerback. They typically are lined up to cover the slot receivers.
Slot corners must play both press coverage, which is extremely hard to do from the slot and off-man.
Importance Of The Slot Receiver
Slot receivers emerging as a big piece of offenses forced defenses to adjust by adding slot cornerbacks. An offense using playmakers in the slot gives a speed player the ability to go inside or outside.
This is much different than a boundary receiver who can only go straight downfield or go inward.
Slot receivers are becoming more prominent, especially in the NFL.
For example, players like Tyreek Hill or Brandin Cooks are smaller receivers who can stretch the defense vertically off pure speed.
They’re also extremely effective in the catch and run game, running shorter routes on the route tree, such as slants and quick outs.
Why Are Nickelbacks Or Slot Corners Important?
As we recently saw in the 2018 playoffs, the San Diego Chargers used 7 defensive backs to stop the Baltimore Ravens with their prolific passing attack and quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Speed is everything, especially in the NFL. Safeties are now averaging around 5’11 – 6’1 and can run with these speedy receivers.
Although it’s nearly impossible to cover Tyreek Hill running vertically down the field, these longer players can help disrupt routes at the line of scrimmage with safety help over the top.
As teams start to spread the field with 4 and 5 receiver sets, blitz-happy teams are forced to take linebackers off the field and put defensive backs on to cover them.
Knowing about slot receivers is one thing, but there’s so much more to learn about football! Don’t worry, we’re here to help!
I’m Chris And We Help Fans Learn Football!
I’m here to help ease your mind when learning football. As a passionate fan and current football coach, I’m here to make learning football fun and easy. We created an all-in-one solution called the Ultimate Football Guide to help you learn at an accelerated rate. Let’s get started!
Increase Your Football IQ
Why spend hours on Google and YouTube trying to learn football yourself? We’ve created a simple guide to help make you the smartest person in the room.
Popular slot receivers in the NFL are Cooper Kupp and Julian Edelman.
It all depends on the head coach, but they can choose to use 2, 1, or no slot receivers. Most teams will carry 2 slot receiver positions. In the past few seasons, we’ve seen a rise in the slot position, as players like Tyreek Hill have added an explosive element to offenses.
If you liked learning about slot receivers and slow corners, we recommend you check out our Ultimate Football Guide, which will help you improve your football IQ!
Learn more about wide receivers by reading the articles below.
Learn To Stem & Stack At Wide Receiver
How to Beat Press Coverage In Football
Why Do Wide Receivers Point At The Sideline?
What Does A Tight End Do In Football?
Why Do Wide Receivers Wear Gloves?
Slot receivers are starting to replace the full back position in football.
As the game has moved to a more traditional, spread offense, teams are using less power football and more athletes in space.
This often gives the offense an advantage as it allows fast players to play slot receivers and be matched up against a linebacker.
However, it neutralizes the advantage if the defense has a slot corner or a nickel back to play defense against the slot receiver. It also forces the offense to win with the scheme rather than skill.
This is why football gets more difficult as the player gets older.
Skillful players will often dominate; however, the game becomes all about the scheme when matched with other skillful players.