also: mesh point · the mesh
Two different things that share one idea: the spot where two moving people pass close enough to each other to matter.
2 meanings, all below. Jump to the one you heard.
In the run game, the point where the quarterback and a back meet and the ball is exchanged, or is not. The quarterback seats it in the back's pouch and rides him along his track, and what happens next depends on the play: on a straight handoff he simply leaves it, and on an option or zone read he holds it there while reading an unblocked defender before giving or pulling. The ride, the give and the pull are all parts of the mesh rather than alternatives to it. Coaches talk about the depth of the mesh, the timing of the mesh and cleaning up the mesh, and all of it means this.
mesh point, the exchange, ride and decidemesh (the route concept)In the pass game, a concept in which two receivers run shallow crossing routes in opposite directions and pass within a yard or so of each other, one deliberately under the other. One receiver sets the depth, conventionally no deeper than six yards, and the other goes under him and never over. Against zone both settle in the first open grass; against man they keep running, and the traffic they create is the point.
mesh concept, shallow crossmesh point (the exchange)A youth or middle school staff running only the run-game sense may never hear the route sense, and will reasonably assume anyone saying mesh means the exchange. The collision shows up the first time that staff hires a coordinator from a spread background.