Playbooks
Nfl Onside Kick 3 is a special teams set inside the Kickoff formation, and it exists for one purpose: recovering the ball when you have no other way to get it back. Unlike the standard deep kickoff sets in this formation, which spread coverage players evenly across the field and prioritize lane integrity on a boot to the goal line, Nfl Onside Kick 3 overloads bodies toward one side and shortens everyone's alignment so your kick team can attack the ball immediately after it travels the required ten yards. There is no personnel group tag here because the game populates the unit with your special teams depth chart, which means your fastest gunners and highest ACC/AGI defenders should be plugged in through the depth chart before you ever call this.
Save this for late fourth quarter or end of half situations where you are down and out of timeouts, and only after your defense has already forced the stop you need.
Aim the kick toward the sideline on the strong side, not up the middle, so the ball is contested with fewer return men in position to fall on it.
Take manual control of the coverage player nearest the intended landing spot right after the kick and drive at the ball, do not let the CPU choose the pursuit angle for you.
Set your special teams kickoff coverage depth chart with your best speed and acceleration defenders before the game, not in the menu after you are already down two scores.
If you are only down one score with time and timeouts left, kick deep or squib from another Kickoff set instead and trust your defense to force a punt.