Play Designer

Draw plays, watch them run, and see how they look against different defenses — then save them to your playbook.

Overview

Open it from Playbook → Design a play or Play Designer in the menu. Start from one of 60+ base formations, grouped in the picker: Shotgun (Doubles, Spread, Twins, Wing, Double Stack, Split Backs, compressed sets), Shotgun Trips and Trey, Bunch (including TE bunches from gun, pistol and under center), Empty, Pistol (Trips, Trey, Wing, Strong, Diamond), Singleback (Ace, Doubles, Trey, Wing, Trips), I-Form and Strong/Weak I (Pro, Twins, Tight, Wing), Pro Set, Full House, Wing-T, Heavy (Goal Line, Jumbo) and Unbalanced. Then pick a concept: quick game (Stick, Slant-Flat, Hitch-Flat, Spacing, Snag), high-lows and combinations (Smash, Curl-Flat, Corner-Flat, Levels, Mills, Scissors, Post-Wheel, Hitch-Seam and more), full-field calls (Four and Three Verticals, Mesh, Y-Cross, Drive, Dagger, Brindlecross, Shallow Cross, All Curls, Yankee), double moves, PA Boot and screens, runs (Inside/Outside Zone, Split Zone, Duo, Power, Counter, Trap, Dive, Iso, Off Tackle, Toss, Crack Toss, Jet Sweep, End Around, Draw, Speed Option, Read Option, QB Power/Counter/Draw/Sneak) and RPOs. Concepts are written by role (#1/#2/#3 receivers, the tailback, the TE) so the same concept works from any formation.

Designing a play

New to the designer? Tap ? How to at the top of the page for a 7-step walkthrough that opens each panel as you go. It shows once automatically on your first visit.

Pick the field

Build tab → Field: Tackle or one of your flag formats, and Ball on. Open field draws yards from the line of scrimmage; pick a yard line (20, 10, 5, 3, goal line) to draw a red-zone play with the goal line, end zone and end line. Routes and deep defenders fit in front of the end line.

Pick a formation

Search by name, alias, personnel (11, 12, 21…) or your own terminology. Use Flip to mirror the whole play left/right.

Pick a concept

Routes, blocks, the ball path and the read order fill in automatically. Switch the playside if you want it the other way.

Adjust by hand

Drag players to change splits. Tap a player to pick a route from the route tree, or choose “Draw route” and tap the field to add points (drag the white handles to fine-tune). Add pre-snap motion (jet, orbit, fly, shift, return) the same way.

Set the reads

In the Player tab, make a receiver the primary or add him to the progression. The Ball section picks pass / handoff / pitch / keep, the target, and when the ball comes out.

Check it against defenses

In the Defense tab choose a front (4-3 Over/Under, 3-4 Okie/Under, Tite, Nickel, Dime, 3-3 Stack, 46 Bear, 5-2) and a coverage (Cover 0, 1, 2, 2-Man, 3, 4, 6). The defense lines up on your formation; Cycle looks steps through common ones. Blocking labels update for each look.

Play it

Press Play (or Space) to animate motion → snap → the play. Scrub, change speed, or jump to Snap / Throw / Handoff / Catch.

Save

The Save tab adds the play to your playbook (or updates it). Open any playbook entry in the designer with “Open diagram”. ⤓ PNG downloads an image of the diagram.

Flag football

Turn on the flag formats your team plays in Settings → Tackle & flag formats: 5-on-5, 6-on-6, 7-on-7 and 8-on-8. Each has its own formations (Spread, Trips, Bunch, Stack, Twins Back, Quads…) with an eligible center and the QB in the gun, drawn on a narrower field with sidelines. Leagues differ, so each format’s field width, length, end zone and rush distance can be changed there.

Concepts are limited to ones that work without blocking: pass concepts and outside handoffs (sweep, toss, jet).
Defenses are how many rush (none, 1 or 2, from the rush line) and a coverage: Cover 0/1 man, 2-Man, or 2, 3 and 4-deep zone.
Gaps, holes, techniques and blocking labels are hidden — they come from the offensive line.
With no-run zones on, the 5 yards before midfield and the goal line are shaded.

Labels

Gaps (A / B / C / D / E)

Lettered outward from the center, one per space between linemen: A (center–guard), B (guard–tackle), C (tackle–TE, or outside the tackle with no TE), D outside the TE, E outside a wing. Computed from where your linemen actually stand — move a tackle and the gap moves with him.

Hole numbers

Default: numbers in the gaps, odd to the left and even to the right (A = 1/2, B = 3/4, C = 5/6, D = 7/8), 0 over the center. Programs differ, so a team owner or admin can change it for the whole staff under Settings → Play Designer: numbers on the players instead (C = 0, G = 1/2, T = 3/4…), or the even side on the left. Every play relabels to match.

Techniques

Each down lineman is numbered by the shoulder he aligns on: 0 head-up the center, 1 shade, 2i / 2 / 3 on the guard, 4i / 4 / 5 on the tackle, 7 / 6 / 9 on the TE (some staffs say 6i instead of 7 — change it in Numbering conventions). With no TE, 6 means head-up a "ghost" TE and W9 is a wide 9.

Blocking terms

The line’s assignments are worked out from the scheme and the defense in front of it: Base / Drive, Zone, Reach, Combo → linebacker, Double, Down, Back, Pull-Kick, Pull-Lead, Trap, Kick, Lead, Climb, Cutoff, Slide, Man, Release. Tap a lineman to see the full term and his target, or override it.

Reads & ball path

Numbered circles show the QB’s progression; the gold route is the primary. The dashed brown line shows where the ball is thrown and caught — the ball is thrown to where the receiver will be when it arrives.

Strength

Strength is the side of the attached TE, then the side with more receivers, then the offset back; balanced sets default to the right (field). You can switch the rule to receiver count. Defenses set their front to the strength.

Moving defenders to match an opponent

Defenders line up automatically for the front and coverage you pick, but real opponents cheat: the Sam walks out, the Will creeps up, the end kicks inside to a 4i. Drag any defender (finger or mouse, like your own players) and every label follows — his technique number, the gap labels and the line’s blocking assignments are all worked out from where he now stands, and the animation starts him from there. A small red dot marks a moved defender.

Tap a defender

The Defense tab opens his inspector: current job, technique, and how far he is from his normal spot (“2.0 yd wider · 0.5 yd deeper”).

Drag him

Moves are saved relative to his normal alignment and toward/away from the offense’s strength, so they keep their meaning when you change formation or flip the play.

Change his job (optional)

Pick a zone landmark from the coverage, man or spy on a receiver (tap “Tap target”, then tap the receiver), a blitz gap, or rush.

Reset

“Reset defender” puts one player back; “Reset all” clears every adjustment.

Dragged defenders — The end kicked in to a 4i and the 3-tech to a 2i — the zone blocking re-resolves; the Mike is in man on the Y.

In the Opponent looks panel, Save current stores the front, coverage and your defender tweaks as a reusable look (“Central Eagles — 4-3 Over, Cover 3 roll”), with the opponent, tags like “3rd & long” and notes. Apply puts a saved look on the play you are drawing. Looks are the building block of game plans.

Your own terminology

In the Terms tab, add your own names on top of the base library: call Shotgun Trips Right “Trey Rt”, name Mesh “Lion”, add protections, routes or tags. Terms that map to a base item show next to it in the pickers and are used to build the play name (“Trey Rt Lion”). Flipped plays flip Rt/Lt automatically. Save current alignment as a custom formation stores your exact alignment so you can reuse it.

💡Who can edit

Everyone on staff can open the designer; coaches (and admins/owners) can save to the playbook and edit terminology — the same rule as the playbook itself.