One of the most overlooked aspects of every Madden game is choosing the right playbook. It isn’t as easy as one playbook being better than all of the rest. You have to match the right playbook to your team personnel as well as your personal playing style.
At Madden School, we have two huge differentiators that allow us to properly rate the best playbooks in all of Madden 24.
First, we’ve been developing schemes, ebooks, and money plays for the past 16 years (all the way back to the original XBOX/PS2 days). We know which formations/plays work and which don’t.
Second, we publish the Madden 24 playbooks database every year which gives us unique insight into which playbooks gamers are using.
When you add together our expertise with the wisdom of the entire Madden community, the end result is a list of playbooks that you really can’t go wrong using.
We’ll first take you through our recommended playbooks, then at the end of the article we’ll cover the Madden community’s most popular playbooks and formations.
Note: You can also check out our 3 best defensive playbooks in Madden 24 here.
Let’s dive in!
Kansas City Chiefs & Washington Commanders Offensive Playbook
The Chiefs and Commanders have nearly identical playbooks in Madden 24. They are both predominantly passing playbooks but have a good mix of power run formations too.
The only difference between them is the Chiefs have I Form Close while the Commanders have I Form Slot Flex. Everything else is 100% the same.
The passing formations feature a lot of compression sets like Bunch, Tight, and Close. These sets give your offense a lot more ways of attacking the defense in Madden than spread sets.
This playbook works best with either 11 personnel (1 running back, 1, tight End, and 2 wide receivers) or 12 personnel (1 running back, 2 tight ends, and 2 wide receivers).
Some of the best formations in the Madden 24 Kansas City Chiefs playbook and Washington Commanders playbook include:
- Singleback Bunch X Nasty
- Pistol Bunch TE
- Gun Bunch Str Nasty
- Gun Bunch X Nasty
- Gun Deuce Close
- Gun Empty Bunch Y Flex
- Gun Tight Open
- Gun Trey Y-Flex
- Gun U Off Trips
- Gun Wing Stack Wk
Gun Bunch Str Nasty is one of the absolute best formations in Madden 24. It can be found in 7 different playbooks, however two of the best plays in this formation (PA Corner and PA Double Post) are only found in this specific playbook.
We covered this playbook in-depth in our first eBook of the Madden 24 season. It features over 50 different setups that will drive your opponent crazy! You can get instant access to it (and all our other Madden 24 ebooks) by joining Madden School Unlimited today!
New York Jets Offensive Playbook
The Jets have one of the absolute best offensive playbooks in Madden 24. It has a great mix of both running and passing formations, although it is best for players who prefer to lean mostly on the pass.
The Jets have the only playbook in Madden 24 with the Gun Tight Offset TE formation which is a favorite for the top Madden gamers.
Some of the best formations in the Madden 24 New York Jets playbook include:
- I Form Close
- Strong Close
- Gun Bunch
- Gun Bunch TE
- Gun Tight Doubles
- Gun Tight Offset TE
- Gun Trips TE Offset
You can see from just the small list of formations above that the Jets offensive playbook is going to be incredibly popular as the year goes on.
Cincinnati Bengals Offensive Playbook
The Cincinnati Bengals have a very pass heavy playbook. In fact, they don’t even have 1 formation that uses a fullback (other than Goal Line). There don’t have any I Form, Strong, or Weak sets.
That isn’t a problem though as they have some of the absolute best passing formations in the game.
Two of the big standouts are Gun Tight Slots HB Wk and Gun Bunch Offset. Savvy passers could play an entire game using only those formation but the Bengal’s playbook is much deeper than that.
It is the only team playbook that has one of the coolest plays in the game, Gun Doubles – PA Zone Read.
You need 11 personnel (3 WRs, 1 TE, 1 RB) to run this playbook the way it is intended.
Some of the best formations in the Madden 24 Cincinnati Bengals playbook include:
- Singleback Bunch X Nasty
- Singleback Tight Y Off
- Singleback Wing Flex Close
- Gun Bunch Offset
- Gun Doubles
- Gun Tight Slots HB Wk
- Gun Tight Y Off
The Bengals’ playbook is shaping up to be the dark horse playbook of Madden 24. A lot of the best minds in Madden 24 are running it and having great success.
San Francisco 49ers Offensive Playbook
The San Francisco 49ers playbook is really good for players who prefer to call a run first offense.
It has a great mix of Singleback, I Form, Pistol, and Shotgun formation with mostly compressed sets.
Maybe the coolest part of the 49ers offensive playbook in Madden 24 is there are two formations that line up a starting wide receiver at running back. This can cause confusion for the defense and some great mismatches in the passing game with a linebacker often matched up on your best wide receiver.
Some of the best formations in theMadden 24 San Francisco 49ers playbookinclude:
- Singleback Bunch X Nasty
- Singleback Deuce Close
- Singleback Wing Close
- I Form Y Off Close
- Gun Deebo Package
- Gun Slot WR Backfield
- Gun Split Close
- Gun Tight Y Off
Even though this is mostly a run first playbook, there are still plenty of really effective passing plays in it.
Philadelphia Eagles & Indianapolis Colts Offensive Playbook
As is the case with the Chiefs and Commanders, the Eagles and Colts also share an identical offensive playbook in Madden 24.
This playbook is perfect for players who have a mobile quarterback and want to mix in some quarterback run plays within a normal offense.
One big reason to use the Eagles or Colts playbook is the Gun Bunch Offset formation. It is a full formation with 18 plays to choose from including PA Read, Verts HB Under, Bench Pivot, Double Post, and Read Option.
Whether we like it or not Gun Bunch Offset is seemingly always will be one of the best formations in Madden.
Some of the best formations in the Madden 24 Philadelphia Eagles playbook and Indianapolis Colts playbook include:
- Pistol Deuce Close
- Gun Bunch Offset
- Gun Bunch Str Nasty
- Gun Deuce Close
- Gun Trips TE Offset
- Gun Wing Stack
- Gun Wing Tight Nasty
The Eagles and Colts playbooks have a total of 24 different Shotgun formations making it perfect for gamers who don’t want to run an under center offense.
Playbooks That Just Missed The Cut
Minnesota Vikings Offensive Playbook (Honorable Mention)
The Minnesota Vikings playbook is great for gamers who want to run their offense from only a small handful of formations.
They have the full 21 play Singleback Bunch X Nasty formation which allows you to attack any part of the field from one formation.
Their playbook also includes the Gun Bunch TE formation which is a favorite of both pro gamers and casuals.
This playbook works best with 11 personnel (1 running back, 1 tight end, and 3 wide receivers).
If you do want to run the ball a little, the Vikings offensive playbook has both I Form Close and Strong Close allowing you to easily audible between the two.
Some of the best formations in theMadden 24 Minnesota Vikings playbookinclude:
- Singleback Bunch X Nasty
- Singleback Trips
- I Form Close
- Strong Close
- Gun Bunch TE
- Gun Tight Open
Even though the Singleback Trips formation has only six plays, it can be a nice little wrinkle to add into your offense to give your opponent one extra look to think about.
Denver Broncos Offensive Playbook (Honorable Mention)
The Denver Broncos offensive playbook has a good mix of traditional formations that work well in every Madden game as well as some new formations introduced in Madden 24.
The Gun Tight formation is one of the most effective and versatile formations but it is limited to only 3 teams’ playbooks this year. It has classic plays like PA Cross, Slot Post, Drive Corner, and Bench.
The Broncos playbooks is the only one with a Read Option in the Gun Tight formation. This addition changes Gun Tight from mostly a passing formation into a formation where the run game is credible threat.
You’ll generally want to use 11 personnel (1 running back, 1 tight end, 3 wide receivers with this playbook.
Some of the best formations in theMadden 24 Denver Broncos offensive playbookinclude:
- I Form Close
- Gun Box
- Gun Bunch Str Nasty
- Gun Doubles Hip
- Gun Split Flanker Close
- Gun Tight
- Gun Wing Flex Offset
The Gun Wing Flex Offset formation can be really good for those that run more of a balanced offense. Plays like PA Double Post, 0 1 Trap, Wheel Post Drag, and Stick Nod Vertical can be really tough to defend when properly mixed up.
Most Popular Playbooks In Madden 24
Now that we gave you our recommendations, it’s time to cover which playbooks the general Madden community likes most.
This information is taken directly from our Madden 24 playbook tool with over 2 million data points used.
Here are the top 10 most popular playbooks (in order) according to what the Madden community is looking at:
- New York Jets Offense
- Kansas City Chiefs Offense
- San Francisco 49ers Offense
- Green Bay Packers Offense
- New England Patriots Offense
- Cincinnati Bengals Offense
- Philadelphia Eagles Offense
- New Orleans Saints Offense
- Denver Broncos Offense
- Buffalo Bills Offense
The Jets playbook is the clear #1 most popular offense, the Chiefs have the undisputed #2 most popular offense and then the rest of the list is pretty close together.
Surprisingly, no alternate playbooks like Spread, Run N Gun, and West Coast made the top 10 this year which suggests that those playbooks are continuing to become less popular as the years go by.
Most Popular Formations In Madden 24
The most popular formations on offense likely won’t surprise anyone this year. The data matches what we all see out there on the virtual gridiron.
Here are the top 10 most popular formations in Madden 24 (in order):
- Gun Tight Offset TE
- Gun Bunch
- Gun Bunch Str Nasty
- Gun Tight
- Gun Trips TE
- Gun Bunch TE
- Gun Bunch Offset
- Gun U Trips Wk
- Gun Tight Slots HB Wk
- Gun Tight Doubles
Absolutely no surprises here.
You are now fully equipped with all of the information you need to choose the right offensive playbook. That’s only half the battle though! You also need to know how/when/why to call specific plays and formations.
If you are serious about taking your Madden game to the next level, join our Madden School Unlimited program today!
