A drop-back pass or dropping back to pass is a passing style employed in

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

in which the

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

initially takes a three-step drop, backpedaling into the

pocket A pocket is a bag- or envelope-like receptacle either fastened to or inserted in an article of clothing to hold small items. Pockets are also attached to luggage, backpacks, and similar items. In older usage, a pocket was a separate small bag ...

to make a pass. It is the most common way of passing the ball in gridiron football. Kinds include a three-step drop, a five-step drop, and a seven-step drop.

References

American football terminology {{American football-stub