Playbooks
Overview
Start with the honest version: the Cardinals Offense playbook and its sibling cut, NFL Live Cardinals Offense, are the same book. They share all 603 of this playbook's 603 plays and differ by zero sets, so there is no hidden formation or exclusive concept sitting in one and not the other. Pick whichever label you prefer in the playbook menu and know your film study carries over one to one. The only practical reason to care about the distinction is scouting: an opponent who sees the other name on the loading screen is looking at an identical call sheet.
What you actually get is a 603 play offensive book, larger than 63% of the game's 64 offensive team playbooks, built almost entirely out of the gun. Shotgun accounts for 365 plays across 23 sets, which is 61% of everything here and the deepest part of the book by a wide margin. Pistol adds 96 plays across 6 sets and Singleback adds 104 across 8, so roughly 94% of your call sheet lives in those three families. Under center heavy football is a token presence: Strong I is 12 plays in a single set, I Form is 9 plays in a single set, and Goal Line Offense is 14 plays in one set. Hail Mary exists as 3 plays across 2 sets, which is a situational panic button and nothing more.
Personnel follows the same logic. You have 11, 10 and 20 to spread the field, 12 and 21 to keep a tight end or second back attached, and 22 and 23 as the heavy answers that mostly show up in the Goal Line Offense and Strong I corners of the book. The concept list is built around Pass Play and Play Action work with Power, Power Run, Counter, Toss and Dive as the run game, plus Flat, Spot and Cover 3 Beater tags that tell you where the passing attack is aimed. Motion is a listed concept, which matters when you are trying to diagnose man versus zone before the snap. Sample calls like Curls, Bench, 0 1 Trap, 26 Duo, Counter Weak, FB Dive and Goal Post show the range: gun pass concepts and gap scheme runs as the spine, with fullback and goal line football as a short yardage appendix. This is a tempo and pre snap adjustment playbook, not a grind it out under center game plan.
Scheme Fit
This playbook wants a quarterback who is comfortable operating from depth and can threaten on designed keepers, since 77% of the plays come from Shotgun or Pistol and the Power, Counter and Toss run game leans on the defense respecting the quarterback. A back with receiving ability is close to mandatory to make the 10 and 20 personnel Shotgun sets worth running, and you want at least one tight end who can block well enough to hold up in the 22 and 23 looks you will use for Goal Line Offense and Strong I short yardage. Pick the Cardinals Offense playbook if you play fast, live in the gun, and like winning with motions and pre snap adjustments rather than lining up under center and out muscling people.
Example Plays from this Playbook
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Strengths
- Shotgun at 365 plays across 23 sets gives you an audible package with real depth, meaning you can flip between sets inside the same personnel group and keep your run and pass calls without ever tipping by lining up under center.
- Pistol's 96 plays across 6 sets let you run Power, Counter and Toss with true downhill footwork while keeping the quarterback deep enough for RPO style reads, something a Shotgun only book cannot replicate and an under center heavy book has to telegraph.
- Having 104 Singleback plays across 8 sets is enough to build a genuine play action package off the same looks you run 26 Duo and 0 1 Trap from, so the Play Action concepts in this book get sold by real run reps rather than being bluffs.
- Seven personnel groups spanning 10 all the way to 23 means formation subs and package audibles cover the whole spectrum: put your best pass catching back in 20 or 10, then shift to 22 or 23 for short yardage without leaving the playbook.
- The Flat, Spot and Cover 3 Beater tags in the Shotgun sets give you built in man beaters and zone beaters, so you can read coverage off Motion and check to the right concept instead of hot routing from scratch every snap.
Weaknesses
- Under center football is nearly nonexistent: 12 Strong I plays in one set and 9 I Form plays in one set is not a package, it is a handful of calls, so opponents who load the box against gun runs never have to respect a true two back power look.
- At 61% Shotgun, your formation tells are easy to chart. A user who has seen two games of your film knows the run game is coming from gun or Pistol and can user a linebacker in the box accordingly.
- Goal Line Offense is a single set of 14 plays, which leaves you thin inside the two yard line. Once an opponent has seen FB Dive and the goal line run tree, your short yardage options run out fast.
- The Hail Mary presence of 3 plays across 2 sets is filler. It gives you no real four minute or end of half variety beyond throwing it up.
- With 42 sets spread across only 7 formations and 365 of the plays in one of them, the book is wide but shallow outside the gun. Building a balanced audible package that includes heavy personnel means giving up your best pre snap disguise.
Usage Tips
Build your primary audible package entirely out of Shotgun sets, ideally two 11 personnel sets and one 10 or 20 set, so on any down between second and 10 and third and 8 you can motion, identify man or zone, and check into a Flat or Spot concept without a substitution pause.
Use Pistol on first and 10 and second and short. The 6 Pistol sets are where Power, Power Run and Counter hit hardest because the quarterback depth keeps linebackers honest and lets you run Counter Weak without a pre snap read giveaway.
Keep one Singleback set in your quick audible list purely for Play Action. Run 26 Duo and 0 1 Trap from it enough that the play action rollouts off the same look actually freeze the flat defender.
Reserve Strong I and Goal Line Offense for third and one, fourth and one and inside the five. With only 12 and 14 plays respectively, do not burn those looks early or you lose your only heavy element by the fourth quarter.
Save the 3 Hail Mary plays for the actual situation they exist for: no timeouts, under ten seconds, needing a score. Anything else in that window should come from a Shotgun set where you can hot route the sideline.
Formations in this playbook
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