I've been around just long enough to recognize that there are some basic things about planning a successful offense that most managers just instinctively grasp, and others just don't. As such, I intend to provide a (hopefully) brief but insightful guide into the planning and implementation of a successful offense. This guide is intended for managers that are close to or recently completed their stadium, but the information should be at least somewhat useful to many more. Also, I will try to refrain from specific player examples where possible to keep this guide as generic and relevant as possible. This is not intended for elitists to dissect, but is a rather basic and general guide. Constructive criticism is welcome.

1.) Defining your strengths and weaknesses.

Before even buying your first AC or a substantial number of players, each manager needs to figure out what the desired strengths and weaknesses of the team will be. This choice is fairly simple, but has repercussions throughout the rest of the offensive strategy. These traits that need to be decided upon are: TE Catching, RB Rushing, FB Rushing, TE Blocking, FB Blocking, OG/OC Blocking, and few great WRs vs many good WRs. QB/OT will usually be required to be very good in almost any strategy. I find it easier to identify about 2 or 3 weaknesses that you can live with and plan to maximize the other areas. Additionally, with tight ends there is another option altogether. It is possible to retain one 'super' TE and have him marked as first string in the depth chart. If you do so, there are formations to take advantage of the 'super' TE while saving money on the remaining TE's.

2.) Acquire coaches to meet your offensive goals.

Once step one is complete, this step is pretty straightforward. Other than figuring out how many CP you wish to spend between offense and defense, it is as simple as buying the AC's that support the most of your goals as is possible within your determined CP budget. For example, A manager might decide to put together an offense that utilizes RB rushes while only using FBs and TEs for blocks. Such a manager could skip the FB and TE coaches and instead pick up RB, OL, WR, and QB coaches(this setup is quite common but not universal). If the budget does not allow for 4 offensive ACs, then the choice of which AC to cut gets very difficult at that point.

3.) Find players that will help reach the offensive goals.

This is a never-ending step. The objective here is to use the chosen goals as a guide when determining if a player is worth signing. A manager that decides to never pass to a TE could even go so far as to sign or train an OL with the intention of changing his position to TE. A manager with a FB AC may wish to train young talent at home at a huge discount compared to the prices on the TM. Use the goals to help figure out how much you are willing to pay for the talent you are after. A blocking only FB is much cheaper to acquire than a running and blocking FB. A team without a QB AC will likely resort to buying veteran QBs every few seasons.

4.) Figure out which offensive formations best fit your offensive strengths while minimizing your weaknesses.

This is the real trick to pulling off a good offense. The offensive formation can be broken down into several catagories. For this guide, I will attempt to break them down as follows:

Super TE / TE / No TE
Rush FB / Block FB / No FB
RB / No RB
few WR / many WR

The formations themselves are as follows:

Big I (Super TE, RB, Block FB, few WR)
I-Formation (Super TE, RB, Block FB, few WR)
Pro Set (Super TE, RB, No FB, few WR)
Flexbone (No TE, RB, Block FB, few WR)
Wishbone (No TE, RB, Block FB, few WR)
Goalline O (TE, No RB, Rush FB, few WR)
Shotgun 2WR (TE, No RB, Rush FB, few WR)
Shotgun 4WR (No TE, No RB, Rush FB, many WR)
Singleback Big (TE, RB, No FB, few WR)
Singleback Spread (No TE, RB, No FB, many WR)

With this breakdown, it becomes easy to match the team goals with certain traits of the formation. For example, a team that has good RB's and blocking FB's and TE's might choose to use formations such as I-Formation, Flexbone, and Wishbone. A team with good rushing FB's and catching TE's might choose formations like Shotgun 2WR and Big I. A super TE team will probably want to take advantage of Big I, I Formation, or Pro set. The closer the match to the team's strengths, the better the formation will perform in general.



There is plenty more involved in the fine details of actually implementing a solid offense, but this should be more than enough to get young teams pointed in the right direction.

very good start

Good tips Drac

I'll add my 2 cents about what I think each offensive position needs and why it helps. Other vets feel free to come in a give a different opinion if you disagree with me. My words certainly aren't gospel

QB:
- INT: helps avoid interception, the #1 most important thing imo.
- SPE: helps avoiding sacks
- STR: helps passing
- AGI: helps breaking tackles
- PAS: quite obvious this one
- VIS: helps to find the open WR
POS might also help QBs but it's unclear to me

RB:
- SPE/STR/AGI: help gaining extra yards and breaking tackles
- CAR: helps avoid fumbles
- VIS: helps read the defense
- POS: helps get in the right position
- CAT: helps catching the ball on passes
FOO might also help RBs but it's unclear to me

WR:
- SPE/STR/AGI: help get open, gain extra yards and break tackles
- CAT: helps catching
- POS: helps get in the right position
- VIS: helps read the defense
- CAR: helps break tackles and yards after the catch
- INT: helps avoid interceptions

OL:
- STR: helps make a block/pancake
- BLO: helps make a block/pancake
- FOO: helps stand your ground (or push the opposition) at the line of scrimmage
- POS: helps get in the right position
- VIS: helps read the defense
- AGI: helps make a block
- TW: allows the lineman to help his OL teammates on the line (i.e: double teaming a strong defender)
SPE might help to avoid speed rushers but it's unclear to me

TE: Everything the OL and WRs need.

FB: Everything the RBs need plus blocking.

Before anyone catches and criticizes my decision to list OG/OC as a viable position to slack off on, I want to justify it. It is possible to make it work as long as the OTs are good enough AND your rushes are only to the outside. Clearly, rushing up the middle with bad OG/OC will get you clobbered.

Very helpful tips

I'm pretty sure that the abilities effect all players equally. So for instance STR is going to help a WR and a RB break tackles, not CAR. Also, Pete has already confirmed that CAR is a lot more than just not fumbling. Things like spin moves, stiff arms, jukes, etc. all fall under CAR.

Positioning is especially important for WRs because that is linked to route running. This could be important for RB running outside routes too, but I'm not sure POS plays a big roll for RB. Also, I'm pretty sure that RB don't catch the ball in the current engine, so CAT is currently a useless skill for RB.

Vision is very important for FBs making blocks because they have to see and pickup guys coming out of the backfield. I'm not sure how important it is for OLs.

RB's most certainly do catch passes..

All of mine do.

As do mine, even if it is rather rare. But when they do, they are among my more dangerous passes. I think what he meant was that RBs may not benefit from the Cat stat. That might actually be true. I just can't get RBs to be selected for enough passes to tell either way.



I don't think that TW actually helps TE blocking at the line because I don't think that they actually block at the line itself(at least as of right now). The point is moot, though, because TEs need the TW anyways due to raw training requirements. If this is true, it also raises the question of how useful footwork is on TEs if the blocks they do are not at the line.

Back on topic, is there anything in the guide that should be debated or is too vague/unclear?

Absolutely not. Strength for a QB is arm strength , for a Kicker it's leg strength. Same ability, very different applications.

Anyway, there's a big mystery around a lot of skills in this game and Pete does it on purpose. You think CAR helps spin moves, I think AGI does that and we'll simply never know because no matter how much data you come up with to support one side or the other it will never be enough.

I remember bwadders studied something like 250,000 plays and he was told that his data wasn't good enough...

I would say both do: Carrying (like all skills) covers the theoretical aspect of a skill, the "technique", while the physicals play a role in how well/effective that knowledge is executed. To stick with the RB example: Carrying covers a players arsenal of moves, while AGI/Speed put the limit on how fast/well those moves are executed when they include like changes of direction for example.

or POS for WR: it determines how well a player knows his routes, but without Speed that doesnt mean he will get where he's supposed to be before the defender gets there.