FLEXBONE DEFINITION

“Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.” Vince Lombardi

 

The bible of human knowledge - Wikipedia - states:

"The flexbone formation is an offensive formation in American football that uses a quarterback, five offensive linemen, three running backs, and varying numbers of tight ends and wide receivers." 

So far so good. One may argue that the basic Flexbone formations - called ACE - involves 2 Wide Receivers and no Tight Ends and that all the other used formations of the Flexbone shell are derivates of it. Unbalanced and offbalanced formations may be part of the Flexbone offense, so are trips, double tight and all other kinds of formations that come to your mind.


Wikipedia continues:

"The flexbone formation is a predominant running formation derived from the wishbone formation and it features a quarterback under center with a fullback lined up directly behind the quarterback. There are two smaller running backs called slotbacks aligned behind the line of scrimmage on each side of the offensive line. The slotbacks are sometimes incorrectly referred to as wingbacks. But, in order to be a wingback, there must be a guard, tackle and tight end all on one side of the center on the line of scrimmage and then the wingback off the line of scrimmage." 

Calling the Flexbone formation a predominant running formation is a reach but may be right for the majority of teams that run the Flexbone. The main advantage of the Flexbone over the Wishbone is, that it merges the strenghts of the good ol' Wishbone 3-Back-Set with the more recently 4-Wide-Set approach.

RESSOURCES:
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexbone_formation