One back, one tight end, both answers available
American football · Formation · 11 of your players
Singleback spread is the most-run alignment in the sport because it gives nothing away. The handoff and the four-route pass look identical for the first two steps, and the defence has to be right first.
Opens on a american football pitch with the shape already drawn. Free, no signup.
One back, one tight end, three receivers
The quarterback is under centre, drawn three yards back. The running back sits behind and to his right, seven yards from the line of scrimmage and about three yards off the midline — offset, so he can take a handoff either way without crossing the quarterback's feet.
Up front, five linemen and a tight end outside the right tackle. The split end is alone wide left with a slot receiver nine yards inside him, both on the left. The flanker is wide right, a yard off the line. Two eligible receivers to each side plus the back, which is what makes this formation balanced without being symmetrical.
Why coaches keep coming back to it
Eleven personnel — one back, one tight end, three receivers — is the group that forces a defence to be right about something before it knows anything. Keep the base defence on the field and three receivers are a problem. Bring an extra defensive back on and the run has a light box to attack.
The tight end is the hinge. He is a sixth blocker on the strong side and an eligible receiver against a linebacker, and every good version of this offence makes the same play look the same whether he blocks or releases.
Nothing here is a specialist formation, and that is the point. A team that can only line up in something is a team a defence can prepare for on Wednesday.
Three things to try on the diagram
- The same handoff, both directions. The back is offset right. Draw the run right and then left, and count his steps in each. That offset is worth two tenths of a second one way and costs it the other.
- Run and pass from one look. Draw a run, then a play-action pass with identical first three steps. Put them side by side and share both.
- Move the slot to the right. Redraw it as three receivers strong and see what happened to the run lane the tight end was supposed to open.
Open it in the designer, leave the front and the back exactly where they are, and change only the routes. How much can change while the picture does not is the whole argument for the formation.
Also known as
- singleback
- eleven personnel
- spread
- balanced
- run pass option
Shapes to look at next
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Put the Singleback spread on a pitch
It opens with the shape already drawn. Move the players your team does differently, drag the runs, and send your squad a link that animates.
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