Madden NFL 25 – Top 5 Offensive Tips

If you’re new to either the sport of football or football video games, you need to first understand how the flow of the game works. Learning the controls will take a few days but can easily be accomplished with a combination of the Skills Trainer and practice mode. Once you have a feel for how to hold the controller, exit practice mode and start getting some real reps in a game, because playing live games is the only way to learn the timing. Set the difficulty level to Rookie to start—this is a good way to monitor your progress—and you can ramp up the difficulty when you start to improve. Here’s how solid players get thinking about their offense in Madden NFL 25. (When you’re ready, get more Madden NFL 25 strategies!)

5. Choose Your Play
4. Read the Defense
3. Make Your Read
2. Make Your Move
1. Huddle Up

5. Choose Your Play

Once you receive the kickoff, a great place to start is with the question, “What play should I call?” You will be in the Play Call screen and have many options from different formations. Formations are how your players line up, and each formation has different strengths and weaknesses. Every team tries to focus on its strengths, like its best players, and use those to attack their opponents’ weaknesses. Beginners tend to play more conservatively with what plays they choose and usually start with a running play. If you think the defense isn’t ready for the pass or can’t defend your players, call a pass.

For basic play-calling, you can go with a run to the left, run to the right, run up the middle, or a passing play.

If you choose a pass, you want your passing play to do one of three things:

1. Beat the Blitz (Quick Pass)
2. Beat Man-to-Man Defense (Man Beater)
3. Beat Zone Defense (Zone Beater)

As you will see in the team breakdown chapter of the guide, every playbook has plays built into it to cover all these scenarios. The key is finding the plays you are comfortable running that maximize all of your talented players. Just because one play might work with one team doesn’t mean it will be the best play for another team. When you are thinking about which play to choose, remember to consider factors like the score, how much time is left, and what has been working so far.

4. Read the Defense

While reading the exact defense can be challenging for newer players, you can still learn valuable information by just paying attention. Although you may not know the exact play, think of everything you do know and ask yourself questions like:

• What types of players does my opponent have on the field? Are they set up to stop the run or the pass?
• Is the defense backed off my receivers, or are they up near the line?
• Are there any players who appear to be blitzing and drawing my attention?
• Where is the field position right now, and how could that affect the play call?
• Is my opponent controlling a certain player on defense? If so, how can I use that to my benefit?
• Do I think the play I called is going to work when I snap the ball?

All of these questions should be cycling through your head calmly after you call your play and before you snap the ball. If at any time you see something questionable and don’t have a plan for it, make an adjustment or take a time-out. The number one mistake that beginners make is snapping the ball when they know a play isn’t going to work. You have audibles that you can switch to based on what you see out there, so use them to your advantage. Hike!

3. Make Your Read

Now that you have snapped the ball, you are getting ready to either hand off or throw the ball. Both the dropback of the QB and the handoff are automatic, so don’t push the left stick too hard. For a run, make your read based on what you saw pre-snap. If you chose a read option, be looking at your read key from the pre-snap screen. If you’re running the ball outside and see daylight, keep going, but if it looks sealed maybe cut it back towards the middle. Since you know where you’re supposed to be going and what to expect, you shouldn’t see any surprises.

On passing plays, you want to have a list of priorities on where to throw the ball based on what you saw before the play. Beginners should focus on just three players on any play.

Primary Read: This is your intended target based on what you saw before the snap. Make sure you were correct with what you saw and then deliver the football. A common mistake is to focus on this read too much and force the throw even when the receiver is not open.

Secondary Read: This route needs to break after your primary read. If your primary doesn’t get open, this route won’t help you if the receiver has already made a cut to try to get open. This is where timing windows and passing concepts start to be valuable.

Safety Valve: If both your reads are covered, move to your last read before throwing the ball away or taking off with the QB. The safety valve role is best served by a tight end (TE) or a halfback (HB) who blocks and then releases or is running a curl against zone defense or a drag across the field against man coverage. Since this will be your last read, it will be a few seconds before you dump it off, so make sure the timing is good.

If you can master just three easier reads on a few plays, you can prevent a good defensive player from user-controlling all your options on any given play. Never wait on an open primary read because you think the secondary read might get open; if you see an open player, throw him the ball. Otherwise, keep your progressions going quickly.

2. Make Your Move

Once you get control of the ball carrier, start running! After you complete a pass or take the handoff, now is the time to have some fun. Between the directions you go with the left stick and the moves you pull off, you are now in true control. While running with your player, ask yourself these questions and scan the field:

• What skills does this player have? Is he a power runner or speed runner?
• From where is the defense running at me? Do I need to speed up or slow down?
• What angle is the nearest tackler taking, and what move will work in this situation?
• Do I need to cover up the ball to prevent a fumble?
• Is the player who is going to tackle me a big hitter, and does the quarterback (QB) I am running with need to slide for protection?
• Can I stretch out for extra yardage to try to get a first down or touchdown (TD)?

All of these things need to be quickly reevaluated with every step of the ball carrier, but most of them come naturally. You should have an idea of the game situation before you start to run, so you can quickly process this information. Every play in football is made of hundreds of small decisions by all 22 players on the field made quickly and updated every second. By having a plan, you can quickly make the right decisions and rack up more wins!

1. Huddle Up

After the play has ended and the runner has been tackled, has run out of bounds, has scored a TD, or has thrown an incomplete pass, you enter the final stage. Now is a good time to ask yourself a few more questions as you run back to the huddle:

• Did that play successfully achieve my goals?
• Do I want to call hurry up and skip the huddle to try to speed up this drive?
• How did my opponent react to that play? Would the play work later in the game?

As you ponder these questions, you will be back at the Play Call screen and ready to start the entire process all over again for the next play! If you can put together a long drive you can quickly see just how many decisions are needed to compete in a game of Madden NFL 25! Just remember to stay calm, ask questions, and be in control!

Offensive Checklist

• Choose a Run or Pass Play
• Look at the Defense
• Make Any Needed Audibles or Hot Routes
• Snap
• Make Your Reads
• Run with the Ball

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Also check out Madden NFL 25 – Top 5 Defensive Tips.