As we ramp up to the 2025 season, I wanted to take a look back at a passing concept that the Green Bay Packers have leaned on heavily over the years. It’s not unique to the Packers - it’s a concept that has been around for years - but it has become a core part of the Packers' passing offense.

It’s called Dagger, and it’s really pretty simple. It’s a two-man concept with the inside man running a vertical, clear-out route and the outside man running an in-cutting route. The idea is to have the vertical route clear out the middle, while the in-cutting route works behind it. You can get a good look at the core concept on this page from the Packers' 2012 playbook:

There are a handful of popular variations to this concept. The one we’re focusing on today is one I typically tag as Middle-Read

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