Crossover Effect: How Ben Johnson Builds Easy Throws with Crossing Routes
Every offensive coordinator has a handful of concepts that become part of their identity. Turn on the 2025 Chicago Bears and you know what is coming. You will see Duo. Outside Zone. Sail. Smash. And a healthy portion of Y-Cross. Yes, we have well documented the ‘Y-Cross’ concept here on the board drill, but it isn’t just the ‘Y-Cross’ concept that catches your eye.
Crossing routes are everywhere.
Whether the Bears are running play-action from boot, attacking from the pocket, or changing launch points with movement passes, Johnson constantly finds ways to bring receivers across the formation. Each variation looks a little different, but they all accomplish the same goal. They force linebackers to make impossible decisions, create natural voids in coverage, and give Caleb Williams simple, high percentage throws.
The beauty is not the crossing route itself. It is how Johnson builds different presentations around the same core idea. Defenses recognize the run action. They react to the quarterback movement. They match vertical routes. By the time they recover, the crosser is running free across the field.
Let’s take a look at several of Johnson’s favorite variations and why they consistently create explosive opportunities.
Play Action Boot Game
Johnson understands that if you want to stretch a defense horizontally with the passing game, you first have to force them to defend the run vertically. His commitment to Outside Zone, Counter, and Toss forces second level defenders to trigger downhill with confidence.
That aggressive reaction becomes the offense’s advantage.
Once linebackers begin fitting the run, Johnson attacks with complementary play action. The offensive line sells the run. The backfield action mirrors the run game. Linebackers step forward, creating space behind them for crossing routes to attack.
Outside Zone Boot
One of Chicago’s staples is running outside zone into the boundary. That action forces linebackers and safeties to flow aggressively toward the sideline while Caleb Williams boots back into the open field.
The route structure is simple but effective. A backside crossing route works across the formation while another receiver attacks the flat and a third releases inside before breaking to the corner. As the linebackers chase the Outside Zone action, the crossing route naturally appears in the window behind them.
Johnson also dresses up the concept with motion. Pre snap movement forces the safeties to rotate, leaving the corner responsible for both the vertical route and the flat. That conflict creates another easy completion off the same play-action look.
Toss Boot
Johnson makes a subtle adjustment when building the concept off Toss. Instead of sending a receiver directly to the flat, he replaces that route with a shallow crossing route underneath the linebackers.
The Toss action creates an even faster downhill reaction from second level defenders, opening space immediately behind them.
