Is the spread offense giving you trouble? If it is, keep reading, if not read anyway.
When you're being attacked by the spread attack, you're not going to want to have a only 4 DBs out there. You want to have a nickel, dime or quarter set on the field to combat the 3 and 4 wide sets. The big thing is the slot WRs. You usually want to have them with man coverage and a few hook zones scattered across the middle. If I saw 4 wide, I like to go 335 to have 8 solid guys in coverage. I like to pick the standard 335 cover 3, and put both players in buzz zones(purple zone) on the slot WRs, and put one of the defenders on the flat zone on a hook zone just in case.
If I see 3 WR's and 1 TE, I like to go dime or nickel normal, and man up the slot WR and the TE. I make sure to watch out for screens and those tricky HB routes. I like to have 2 hook zones during these situations and user 1 of them just in case the HB has a weird route where he doesn't get picked up quick enough. Outside WR's usually aren't a big thing in a 3 wide set if they see a weird coverage.
5 Wide is probably the trickiest of the shotgun formations seeing as you can't just run standard man coverage or blitz a lot of players. You usually have to improvise on D with this one. I like to control a safety when I see 5 wide and go dollar or quarter defense. I ALWAYS pass commit against 5 wide to give my players a bit of an awareness boost. I also like to man up that #5 WR just in case he happens to find the ball during the play. I usually like to give weird looks during a 5 wide set to make my opponent think somebody will be open when they won't. I also like to bring an overload blitz in case his play takes a while to develop. Having some buzz zones by safeties and hook zones by DB's really disrupt an offensive look for a player.
