Playbooks
Franchise Playsheet
Chain Mover
PlaysheetOffenseOverview
Chain Mover is a 30 play situational playsheet built around one idea: keep the offense ahead of the sticks with a compressed, repeatable set of concepts you can run from the same shell over and over. It only carries 2 formations and 4 sets, and 21 of the 30 plays (70%) live in Pistol across 3 of those sets. Shotgun holds the other 9 plays (30%) in a single set. That is an extreme concentration by franchise playsheet standards, and it is the whole point: you are not flipping through a 15 formation book looking for an answer, you are running the same look and letting your reads and hot routes do the work.
The concept list tells you how it wants to move the ball. Outside Zone, Zone Run, Counter, Power Run and generic Run Play give Pistol a downhill and lateral run game from a depth that keeps the back's eyes clean, and Play Action plus Motion sit on top of that to punish defenders who start crashing. In the passing game you get Corner, Drive, Angle, Cover 4 Beater and general Pass Play tags, with Curl Flat as the representative Pistol call and Curls out of the Shotgun set. Those are chain moving concepts by design: flat and curl spacing against zone, Drive and Angle rubs against man, Corner and the Cover 4 Beater tags when a team sits in quarters and dares you to throw behind the safeties.
Personnel is limited to 11 (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) and 10 (1 RB, 0 TE, 4 WR), so you are living in spread and empty-adjacent bodies rather than heavy sets. What you get from picking Chain Mover over a wider book is mastery speed and disguise. Because 70% of your calls come from Pistol, the run and the play action look identical pre-snap, and your Shotgun set becomes a pure change of pace passing package. What you give up is variety, and you will need to accept that this is a book you learn cold rather than one you browse.
Scheme Fit
Chain Mover wants a quarterback who can read safety rotation quickly and handle Play Action rollouts, with enough mobility to keep Pistol run action honest even if he is not a true scrambler. On the roster side you need a one cut back who fits Outside Zone and Counter, a receiving back for the Angle and flat routes out of 10 personnel, and interior blockers with strong run block and impact block ratings to make Power Run work without extra tight ends. This is the book for a methodical franchise player who wants to master 4 sets deeply, control tempo, and win with pre-snap reads and hot routes rather than formation variety.
Playsheet bonuses
- IUnlocks the playsheet
- II+3Pass BlockOL
- III+3Short Route Running, Medium Route RunningWR & TE
- IV+5Short Accuracy, Medium AccuracyQB
Every play in this playsheet (30 plays)
Select any row to open that play.
Find plays by concept, not by formation
Search every playbook by tag and personnel grouping, not just Chain Mover.
Strengths
- Pistol at 70% across 3 sets means your Outside Zone, Counter, Power Run and Play Action calls all come out of the same backfield depth, so an opponent cannot read run or pass off the alignment the way they can against a book that splits snaps between under center and Shotgun looks.
- The Motion tags paired with Pistol run concepts let you shift strength and pull a defender out of the box pre-snap without burning a timeout on a formation flip, since you never have to leave the formation family to get a new look.
- Only 4 sets total means your audible package can cover almost the entire playbook, so you can check from Outside Zone to Curl Flat to a Cover 4 Beater at the line based on what the safeties show, with no motion penalty from a subbed personnel group.
- The single Shotgun set carrying 9 plays including Curls functions as a dedicated dropback package, which gives you a clean second identity for obvious passing downs while your Pistol sets carry the run and Play Action load.
- Personnel stays locked in 11 and 10 (1 RB, 0 TE, 4 WR), so formation subs travel cleanly across sets and you can put your best route runner in the same slot alignment on nearly every call.
Weaknesses
- With 70% of the book in Pistol and only 2 formations total, experienced opponents will set their base defense to your Pistol sets and stop guessing, which flattens the deception value that the Play Action and Motion concepts depend on.
- No heavy personnel beyond 11 (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) means short yardage and goal line work has to come from Power Run and Counter against loaded boxes with no extra blockers available, and there is no true two tight end or fullback answer in the book.
- The 9 play Shotgun set is a single set, so once a user starts sitting on Curls and your other dropback spacing, you have no second Shotgun look to rotate into and have to retreat to Pistol.
- Concept coverage is chain moving by nature: Curl Flat, Drive, Angle and Corner all work the intermediate and short areas, so there is little vertical shot structure to punish a defense that plays soft and tackles well in space.
- At 30 plays it sits larger than only 20% of the game's 42 offensive franchise playsheets, meaning you will run out of fresh calls in long drives and late game situations faster than opponents with deeper books.
Usage Tips
Build your primary audible package entirely out of the 3 Pistol sets: put one Outside Zone or Zone Run, one Counter or Power Run, and one Curl Flat in the same group so you can stay in the formation and check based on box count on first and second down.
Save the Shotgun set and its Curls spacing for third and 5 to third and 9, when the defense expects dropback and you want a set that carries no run tendency for them to key.
Run Play Action out of Pistol only after you have established Outside Zone in the same set, since the play action rollouts and the Motion tags both sell off a defense that has started flowing to your zone run.
Use Drive and Angle out of your Pistol sets against man coverage and press looks, and flip to the Corner and Cover 4 Beater calls when you see two high safeties sitting at quarters depth.
Because you are limited to 11 (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) and 10 (1 RB, 0 TE, 4 WR), sub your best receiving back into the 10 personnel set and hot route him on the Angle and flat concepts rather than hunting for a heavier package that does not exist in this book.
Formations in this playbook
Upgrade to Playbooks Rookie
- Filter every play by tag and concept
- Personnel groupings
- Premium play analysis