Playbooks

Franchise Playsheet

QB Runs

PlaysheetOffense

2Formations

6Sets

30Plays

Overview

QB Runs is a 30 play situational playsheet built around one idea: putting the quarterback's legs into the run game as a live threat rather than a scramble bailout. Shotgun carries 24 of the 30 plays (80%) spread across 5 sets, and Singleback supplies the other 6 (20%) from a single set. That is an extremely narrow structure by franchise playsheet standards, and it is intentional. You are not calling this book to find a new dropback progression, you are calling it to run option and read concepts like Buck Sweep Read Opt out of Shotgun while keeping enough downhill gap scheme (26 Duo from the Singleback set) to punish a defense that starts crashing the edge.

The concept list tells you how the passing game is meant to function here: Play Action, Motion, Flood, Crosser, Stick and Stick Concept, plus a tagged Cover 3 Beater and vertical Go work. Those are complements to the run, not a standalone air raid. Play-action off the same Shotgun looks that produce Counter, Power Run and Buck Sweep Read Opt is where the playbook generates its explosive plays, because a defense that assigns a user-controlled defender to the quarterback keeper has fewer bodies left to carry a Flood or Crosser. Stick and the Cover 3 Beater tag give you the quick, low risk answers on early downs when the defense loads the box and you need a clean four to six yards without exposing the quarterback to a hit.

Personnel is the other reason to pick this sheet over a conventional franchise offense. It carries 12, 23, 20, 11 and 13, which means you can go from three receiver 11 spacing to a 23 grouping with two backs and three tight ends and zero receivers without ever leaving the Shotgun family. Very few 42 offensive franchise playsheets give you a true 23 heavy Shotgun look alongside 20 and 11, and that range lets you keep the same option and gap run tree with completely different run fits on the defense. What you get from choosing QB Runs is a compact, memorizable sheet where every call reinforces the quarterback run threat, at the cost of the formation variety a 60 or 80 play book would hand you.

Scheme Fit

QB Runs only works with a genuinely mobile quarterback who has the speed, acceleration and carrying traits to survive live reads, plus enough short and intermediate accuracy to hit Stick and Flood off Play Action. The 23 and 13 personnel groupings ask for big-bodied blocking tight ends and a fullback or lead back with strong impact blocking, while the 20 and 11 sets want a receiving back who can threaten the flat once the defense tilts toward the keeper. This is the sheet for a player who enjoys option reads, pre-snap motion diagnosis and grinding out the run game, not for someone who wants a deep dropback passing tree from a large playbook.

Playsheet bonuses

IUnlocks the playsheet
II+7Run Block, Run Block Finesse, Run Block Powerall OL
III+7Break Tackle, InjuryQBs
IV+10CarryQBs

Every play in this playsheet (30 plays)

Shotgun Empty Ace6 plays

Shotgun Heavy Panther3 plays

Shotgun Split Slot Offset3 plays

Shotgun Spread Y-Flex3 plays

Shotgun Wing Slot Wk9 plays

Singleback Wing Tight6 plays

Find plays by concept, not by formation

Search every playbook by tag and personnel grouping, not just QB Runs.

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Strengths

Shotgun at 80% of the playbook across 5 sets means nearly every call comes from the same alignment family, so your audible package can flip from a 23 heavy grouping to 11 spread without a formation tell, and the option keys on Buck Sweep Read Opt look identical from every set.
Carrying 12, 23, 20, 11 and 13 personnel in a 30 play sheet gives you formation sub flexibility most franchise playsheets cannot match: you can put a fullback or a third tight end on the field as a lead blocker for quarterback keepers, or subin a receiving back in 20 and force the defense to defend three receivers and an option read at once.
The Play Action and Motion concepts fire off the exact same Shotgun run shells as Counter and Power Run, so a defense that user controls a defender onto the quarterback gets punished by Flood and Crosser behind the vacated level.
Singleback 26 Duo at 20% of the book is your change of pace hammer, letting you take the quarterback out of harm's way on obvious short yardage while still running gap scheme with the same blocking bodies you just used in Shotgun.
Stick, Stick Concept and the Cover 3 Beater tag give you built-in zone answers that need only a single hot route adjustment, which keeps the play clock free for pre-snap motions that identify man versus zone before you commit to an option read.

Weaknesses

At 30 plays across just 2 formations and 6 sets, this is a smaller sheet than most of the 42 offensive franchise playsheets, and opponents who play you twice will have the option and gap run tree memorized.
Eighty percent Shotgun means almost no under center identity beyond the one Singleback set, so you lose true play-action depth, hard counts that freeze linebackers, and the quarterback sneak and power looks a heavier under center book provides.
The passing concept list is thin and quick oriented (Stick, Stick Concept, Crosser, Flood, Go, Cover 3 Beater), so when you fall behind and need to throw on every snap there is not enough vertical and dagger variety to sustain drives against quarters and Cover 2 shells.
The playbook's entire identity depends on the quarterback being a live run threat, which makes it fragile to injury and to defenses that spot drop, set the edge with a user-controlled defender and dare you to hand off into a loaded box.
With no dedicated empty or heavy under center sets listed, third and long and goal line situations both force you back into the same Shotgun sets you already showed on first and second down.

Usage Tips

Build your primary audible package entirely inside the Shotgun sets, pairing one option read (Buck Sweep Read Opt), one gap run (Counter or Power Run), one Play Action shot and Stick Concept so you can answer any front from a single alignment on first and second down.

Put Singleback 26 Duo in the second audible slot and reach for it on second and short, third and one and any time the defense has committed a user-controlled defender to the quarterback keeper, because it keeps the quarterback clean and attacks the interior the edge defender just abandoned.

Use pre-snap motion from the 11 and 20 Shotgun sets to read man versus zone before you commit to the option read: if the defender travels, keep on the read and attack the open edge, if he stays, fire the Cover 3 Beater or Flood tag.

Run Play Action off Shotgun only after you have shown the same look with Buck Sweep Read Opt or Power Run at least twice in the drive, then look for Crosser or the Go route behind the second level bite.

Against nano blitz and heavy edge pressure, lean on the 23 and 13 personnel Shotgun sets so your extra tight ends and back seal the keeper lane, and hot route the tight end to a quick Stick as your built-in pressure release.