I run nickel 2-4 with Ed and Pola mao up top, Sherman and parham on the outside, Deion at slot, and Derwin with hitman as sub lb
Stick to one or the other if you can. I’ve been trying to develop a hybrid scheme but here’s the issue. when I’m zone coverage you can use zone KOs and pick artists, when in man coverage you can use shades or pick artist and KOs. Now when you run Man and Zone you have to run a combination of those 4 abilities.
So you can have zone KOs and route KOs but you don’t have good coverage vs any route abilities and you dbs will get smoked, even when they don’t they will just swat the ball more often and it will be harder to click on and get interceptions.
you can run Zone Kos and shades to give you better man coverage but now you won’t get as many KOs and you still won’t get as many interceptions.
if you effectively use your abilities in zone almost all your dbs will have zone KO and pick artist and your user can have acrobat and pick artist or lurker whatever you prefer. Effectively using shades and KOs with man you can more effectively keep your opponent from even completing a pass.
However, personally I think it’s easier to beat man than be able to beat a person with a well disguised zone/zone match scheme. I also prefer being able to get more interceptions when people throw up the 50/50 passes.