Playbooks
Franchise Playsheet
Wide Empty is one of the most extreme situational playsheets in Madden, and it earns the name honestly: all 24 plays live in Shotgun, and every one of them comes out of a single empty set. There is no fullback package, no under center audible, no second formation to flip to. You line up with five receiving threats spread from numbers to numbers, read the coverage shell, and throw. For a franchise situational sheet, that concentration is the entire point. You are not calling this playsheet to run an offense, you are calling it to attack a specific defensive picture with a book that never lets the defense stop worrying about all five eligible receivers.
The concept list tells you exactly what it wants to do. All Curls and Curl variations, Hitch, Drag, Slant and Option Route give you a full inventory of quick, timing-based throws that beat pressure by getting the ball out before the fifth rusher arrives. Cover 3 Beater is a listed concept, which means you have a dedicated answer to the most common user shell in the game instead of having to hot route your way into one. Play Action shows up as well, which is unusual out of empty and gives you a way to hold second level defenders when opponents start jumping the hitches. The run game is small but deliberate: Designed Qb Run and Draw let you punish defenses that vacate the box entirely to cover five out.
What you get from picking Wide Empty over a balanced franchise book is total pre-snap clarity. With one formation and one set, every play calls from the same look, so your opponent cannot tell curls from drags from a quarterback run based on personnel or alignment, and you can rip through your audible package without ever changing the picture. The tradeoff is that you have no disguise through formation, only through route concept and hot routes. This is a passing-situation and hurry-up specialist sheet, best used as a change of pace or as the book you lean on when you need to move the ball with the clock running.
Wide Empty wants a quarterback who is both a fast processor and a real running threat, because Designed Qb Run and Draw are the only ground game on the sheet and the empty set offers no protection help against extra rushers. You need depth at receiver more than star power: five eligible bodies with dependable route running, short area quickness and good catching ratings, plus a receiving back or slot type who can win the Option Route and Drag reads from an inside alignment. Pick this playsheet if you are a quick-read passer who trusts your pre-snap coverage identification and wants a situational hurry-up book, not if your roster is built around heavy blockers or a workhorse runner.
Coaches who run it: Andy Reid, Jim Harbaugh, Kevin O'Connell, Kellen Moore
Select any row to open that play.
Search every playbook by tag and personnel grouping, not just Wide Empty.
Build your entire audible package inside the single Shotgun empty set: park All Curl, a Slant or Hitch concept, Drag and Designed Qb Run on your four audible slots so you can flip between them from the same look on any down.
Reach for the quick concepts (Hitch, Slant, Curl) on third and four through third and seven, where the ball comes out before an unblocked rusher reaches the quarterback.
Call the Cover 3 Beater concept when you read a single high shell pre-snap, and keep the Option Route for third down against man so your isolated receiver wins on leverage rather than on scheme.
Use Draw and Designed Qb Run on second and medium once the opponent starts playing two high and dropping seven, then go back to Play Action from the same empty set to hold those second level defenders.
Because every play shares one formation, run this playsheet in hurry-up situations where the no huddle repeat keeps the defense in whatever look they just showed you.
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