Playbooks

Team Playbook

Chiefs Offense

TeamOffense

View the Kansas City Chiefs Team Hub

7Formations

42Sets

583Plays

Overview

Chiefs Offense and NFL Live Chiefs Offense are functionally the same playbook. They share all 583 of this cut's plays and differ by zero sets, so choosing between them is a matter of which menu you prefer. Your audibles, formation subs and practice reps carry over one to one. Everything below applies equally to both.

Chiefs Offense is a spread passing book first and everything else second. Shotgun accounts for 442 of its 583 plays (76%) across 27 sets, which gives you a deep menu of alignments to disguise the same core concepts. Those concepts are drags, crossers, flats, hitches, slants, spots and posts, plus a dedicated Cover 3 beater tag. Singleback is a distant second at 87 plays (15%) across 7 sets and serves as the play action and under center change of pace. Pistol (18 plays), Goal Line Offense (12), Strong I (12), I Form (9) and Hail Mary (3) together make up under 10% of the book. They are situational packages, not a second identity.

The game plan this supports is tempo friendly, quick game driven offense. You stretch zones horizontally with flat and crosser combos, punish man with slants and drags, and use motion to diagnose coverage before the snap. The overall size sits on the leaner end of the 64 offensive team books (larger than only 13% of them). The trade is a tighter menu, but nearly all of that depth is concentrated in Shotgun, which makes it an easy book to master quickly. A thin but usable heavy package covering 12, 13, 21, 22 and 23 personnel handles short yardage, goal line and the occasional Counter Y-Lead or FB Dive to keep boxes honest.

Scheme Fit

Chiefs Offense wants an accurate, quick release quarterback with strong short accuracy and enough mobility to escape pressure from Shotgun. It also wants route running receivers who win on slants, drags and crossers, and a pass catching tight end who can handle block and release duties. It suits players who like to control games through the air with pre snap reads and motion rather than grinding a power run game, and it rewards anyone who can read coverage fast and live on the hot route menu.

Example Plays from this Playbook

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Strengths

27 Shotgun sets give you more pre snap looks for the same concept than most books, so you can run drag, crosser and flat combos from different alignments and keep opponents from keying a formation to a play.
The concept list pairs man beaters (slant, drag, crosser) with zone beaters (flat, spot, hitch, a Cover 3 beater), letting you audible between answers without leaving Shotgun or changing personnel.
Motion and block and release tags are built into the passing menu, so you can motion a receiver to read man versus zone and use a delayed TE or RB release to punish nano blitzes and aggressive user LBs.
Singleback's 87 plays across 7 sets provide a legitimate play action and under center package, which gives your quick game a counterpunch when defenses sit on short routes.
The book spans six personnel groups from 11 to 23, so formation subs let you match heavy fronts at the goal line without switching playbooks.

Weaknesses

With 76% of the book in Shotgun, opponents can build their defensive audibles around a spread look and sit in nickel or dime, since under center snaps are rare enough to be treated as tells.
The under center run game is thin: Strong I has 12 plays and I Form only 9, so a gap scheme or fullback led rushing attack cannot be sustained for a full game.
Pistol has just 18 plays across 2 sets, which limits RPO style or balanced run pass disguise from that alignment and makes Pistol calls predictable.
Goal Line Offense is a single 12 play set, so inside the 3 yard line a defense that stacks the middle can quickly exhaust your heavy menu.
The overall size is smaller than 87% of offensive team books, so outside Shotgun you will repeat plays and formations often enough for a sharp opponent to pattern read you.

Usage Tips

Build your base audible package entirely in Shotgun: one slant or drag man beater, one flat or spot zone beater, one Cover 3 beater and one quick run. Use it on 1st and 10 and all 2nd and medium situations.

On 3rd and 3 to 6, stay in Shotgun and use motion pre snap to confirm man or zone, then hot route the flat or crosser. If the defender follows the motion man across, check to the slant or drag side.

Save Singleback play action for 2nd and short or 1st down after two or three straight Shotgun completions, when the defense is sitting on short routes and post shots open behind the linebackers.

Inside the 5, go to Goal Line Offense or Strong I in 22 or 23 personnel for dives and leads, but mix in block and release play action because the heavy menu is too small to run repeatedly.

Use Pistol's 2 sets as a change up on 1st down or in the red zone rather than a staple, and keep a Hail Mary set on the audible wheel for end of half situations since the book includes only 3 of those plays.