also: veer · veer block · skip release
Releasing past a down defender without blocking him, to get to a linebacker. Somebody else, usually the read or a trapper, accounts for the man you ran by.
A lineman releases past a down defender, taking a path around him rather than into him, and blocks a linebacker instead. The defender he ran past is not forgotten: he is either being read by the quarterback, trapped by somebody else, or deliberately given the play in exchange for a body at the second level.
The payoff is that a linebacker gets blocked by a lineman who arrives with momentum, rather than by somebody who has just finished fighting. The risk is that the man you released past is now unblocked and behind you.
skip releaseclimb, pull"Veer" names both this release and a family of option plays, and they are related historically rather than interchangeable. A coach saying "veer release" means the block; a coach saying "we run veer" means the offense.