American football play templates
10 american football shapes, drawn on the pitch they belong on rather than sketched. Read the setup, then open it in the designer and move the players your team does differently.
Formations
Five wide
Formation · 11 players
Empty backfield, five eligible receivers spread from sideline to sideline and nobody left to block but the five up front. Every defender is accounted for before the snap, which is the whole argument for it and the whole risk of it.
Read the setup
Flag 5v5 spread
Formation · 5 players
Five a side: a centre to snap it, a quarterback, and three receivers spread as wide as the field allows. With no blocking and no back, every play is a route combination and every defender is in coverage.
Read the setup
Flag 7v7 trips right
Formation · 7 players
Seven a side, no line to speak of: a centre, a quarterback, a back and four eligible receivers with three of them stacked right. Flag is played on a narrower field than this one, but a yard is a yard, so the six-yard gaps between the receivers are what transfers.
Read the setup
I formation
Formation · 11 players
The base two-back set: tight end and flanker to the strong side, split end isolated left, and the fullback and running back stacked directly behind the quarterback. Drawn on the 25 so a route tree has the full 25 yards to the goal line.
Read the setup
Shotgun trips right
Formation · 11 players
Three receivers stacked to the right with the back beside a shotgun quarterback, leaving the split end alone on the left. The formation that makes a defence declare where its extra defender is going before the snap.
Read the setup
Singleback spread
Formation · 11 players
One back, one tight end and three receivers — the most common set in the sport, because it can run and throw from the same picture. Quarterback under centre, back offset behind him, slot receiver to the weak side.
Read the setup
Attacks
Flag 5v5 stack right
Attack · 5 players
Two receivers stacked one behind the other on the right, so a defender cannot line up over both of them. Whichever way the front man releases, the back man goes the other, and the coverage has to sort it out on the run.
Read the setup
Flag 7v7 bunch left
Attack · 7 players
Three receivers bunched in a triangle to the left, which is how a seven-a-side team beats man coverage without a blocker in sight: the defenders have to run through each other to stay attached.
Read the setup
Goal line heavy
Attack · 11 players
Second and goal from the three: two tight ends, a wing, and three players stacked in the backfield. Nine blockers against a defence with nowhere left to retreat to — the one situation where the end zone is the whole diagram.
Read the setup
Defences
Templates for another sport
Draw your first american football play now
It opens on a american football pitch, it costs nothing, and your team can watch the play animate from a link.
Open the american football designerShelf updated · All play templates