Playbooks
Overview
The NFL Live Saints Offense playbook is functionally the same book as its sibling cut, Saints Offense. The two share all 600 plays and differ by zero sets, so there is no hidden formation or exclusive concept waiting on either side. Pick whichever one shows up in your playbook list and treat the choice as cosmetic. Everything below applies identically to both, and anyone scouting your tendencies from the other cut is scouting the same thing.
What you actually get is a 600 play offensive book, larger than 54 percent of the game's 64 offensive team playbooks, and it is a Shotgun book above all else. 429 of those plays (72 percent) live in Shotgun across 25 sets, which is a genuinely deep spread of pass looks, quick game and gun run concepts rather than a handful of sets copy pasted. Singleback adds 60 plays across 5 sets for the middle of the field, I Form contributes 39 plays across 2 sets, and Pistol gives you 36 plays across 4 sets as a bridge between gun spacing and under center run reads. From there it thins fast: Strong I at 18 plays, Goal Line Offense at 12, Hail Mary at 3, and Wildcat at 3 across a single set.
The concept list tracks the formation math. Play Action, Pass Play, Flat, Spot, Motion and Cover 3 Beater carry the passing game, while Power, Power Run, Counter, Toss, Dive and Run Play give you gap scheme answers out of the heavier looks. Personnel ranges from 11 all the way through 23, 21, 12, 13 and 22, so you can run the same Shotgun shell and then punch in FB Dive from Goal Line Offense or 26 Duo from Singleback without changing playbooks. The Wildcat set is the real novelty: it appears in only 15 of the game's 236 playbooks, and most opponents have never lined up against it. This is a game plan built to live in gun, dictate tempo with motion and hot routes, and reach for under center power only in situational windows.
Scheme Fit
This playbook wants a quarterback comfortable operating from Shotgun on the majority of snaps, with enough accuracy on short and intermediate throws to live in Spot and Flat concepts and enough mobility to handle the Pistol run reads and play action rollouts. On the ground you want a back with vision for gap scheme Power, Counter and Duo plus a fullback or extra tight end with real run blocking ratings to make the I Form, Strong I and Goal Line Offense packages worth calling. Pick the NFL Live Saints Offense playbook if you are a gun-first player who still wants a legitimate under center short yardage answer, and skip it if your roster is built around a bruising two back rushing attack, because 72 percent of these plays assume you are lined up in the gun.
Example Plays from this Playbook
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Strengths
- Shotgun depth at 429 plays across 25 sets means your entire audible package can sit in gun without ever repeating a formation family, so you can flip between quick game, Spot concepts and Cover 3 Beater shots while your opponent keeps seeing the same pre-snap picture.
- The Wildcat set appears in only 15 of the game's 236 playbooks, which means opponents have almost no rep count against it and will not have a pre-snap read or user-defender assignment ready for a direct snap look.
- Pistol at 36 plays across 4 sets lets you keep gun spacing for your route combos while still getting a true downhill run read, which a pure Shotgun book cannot offer and a pure under center book cannot spread out of.
- Personnel spans 11 through 23, 21, 12, 13 and 22, so formation subs and package audibles let you get a fullback or a third tight end on the field for Power, Counter and Dive without ever leaving this playbook.
- Goal Line Offense (12 plays) plus Strong I and I Form gap scheme concepts give you a legitimate short yardage identity, and FB Dive off a 72 percent Shotgun tendency is a genuine tell breaker inside the five.
Weaknesses
- At 72 percent Shotgun, your tendency chart is public information after two drives, and an opponent who commits to gun-beating pressure packages and man coverage from a two high shell removes most of your book from consideration.
- Only 39 I Form plays across 2 sets and 18 Strong I plays across 2 sets means the under center run game is shallow, so once a defender sees Power or Counter out of those sets there is very little left to disguise the same personnel.
- Singleback carries just 60 plays across 5 sets, which is thin for a book this size and leaves you without a deep stable of Singleback play action or motion looks to punish defenses that sit in heavy boxes.
- Goal Line Offense is a single set with 12 plays, so red zone and fourth and one play calling repeats quickly and a user who reads your first FB Dive can sit on it.
- Hail Mary is 3 plays across 2 sets and Wildcat is 3 plays in 1 set, so both are one-off change ups rather than usable packages, and neither survives an opponent who has seen them once.
Usage Tips
Build your primary audible package entirely inside Shotgun, choosing three or four of the 25 sets that cover Spot, Flat and Cover 3 Beater concepts, and use those as your default on every second and medium and third down situation.
Reach for Pistol on first and second down between the 20s when you want a Counter or Toss look without tipping run, since the 4 Pistol sets keep your receiver spacing intact for a play action shot off the same backfield.
Save I Form and Strong I for short yardage and clock killing only. With 57 combined plays across 4 sets, running Power and Dive from them too early burns your only heavy looks before you need them in the fourth quarter.
Use Goal Line Offense inside the five and on fourth and one, and alternate FB Dive with a play action off the same set so your opponent cannot commit a user defender to the A gap.
Hold Wildcat for one snap per game in a plus territory third and short or a two minute drive. It appears in only 15 of 236 playbooks, and the value is entirely in the fact that your opponent has not repped it.
Formations in this playbook
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