Tackle football
Build a Tackle Football Playbook Your Line Can Actually Read
A tackle football playbook lives or dies on the assignments nobody sees on a highlight reel — the down block, the pull, the back's track. Football Playbook draws all of it: full offensive lines, blocking terminals, run paths, route concepts and the defensive front you are installing against.
- 9v9, 11v11 American and 12v12 Canadian
- Blocking assignments with terminal bars
- Run tracks, handoffs and play action
- Offense and defense on the same diagram
Free to start · No account required
Five drawn blocks with terminal bars, the back's track on top and the defensive front shown.
Start drawing in your tackle format
Each format opens with the right personnel already on the ball — a real line, a backfield and receivers — so you're adjusting an alignment instead of building one.
Blocking
Blocking is drawn like blocking, not like a route
Assign a block and the line ends in a short perpendicular bar at the contact point — the same convention you already use on a whiteboard. A guard who pulls draws a path and still ends in a bar; a back who checks and releases draws both.
Linemen default to blocking when the format has them, so a full protection scheme is a few drags rather than eleven manual decisions.
Protection assignments plus a two-level route concept, colored so the picture stays readable.
Run game, pass game and the look you're installing against
Live diagrams rendered by the editor's own engine. Add a defensive front to any of them to show the play against cover 3, a bear front or whatever you're seeing this week.
Five drawn blocks with terminal bars, the back's track on top and the defensive front shown.
Protection assignments plus a two-level route concept, colored so the picture stays readable.
The extra receiver and wider field are built in, so the boundary spacing is honest.
Animate
Watch the mesh, the pull and the timing
Handoffs in Football Playbook are physical exchanges — the two players have to be close enough at the exchange point for the ball to change hands — so playback shows a real mesh instead of a ball jumping between icons. Pulls, kick-outs and play-action fakes all run on the same clock.
Organize
Install packages, not a pile of plays
Keep the base run install, third-down package and red zone calls in separate playbooks, ordered the way you teach them. Situation tags mark which down, field position and intent a play is for, and exports give you PDFs to hand to your staff.
Trips Right — Smash
5v5
Mesh Concept
6v6
Goal Line Slant
5v5
Flood Right
7v7
Game day
From the install meeting to the headset
Game Mode turns a playbook into a locked sideline view: one big diagram, oversized navigation, starred quick calls and a scoreboard. Read-only by design, so nothing changes at 34-31 in the fourth.
Trips Right — Smash
Mesh Concept
Goal Line Slant
Details that matter on an eleven-player diagram
Action colors
Color protection, run track and route concept separately so a dense diagram stays readable when projected or printed.
Formations you keep
Move players once, save the play, and reuse it as the starting point for the next concept in the family.
Defense on the field
Add a front and coverage, and draw defensive movement when you're installing the other side of the ball.
Exports
PDF exports for install sheets, printed call sheets and anything your staff still wants on paper.
Staff workspace
Team playbooks keep coordinators and position coaches on the same version of the install.
Youth tackle too
Nine-player tackle uses the same tools with fewer bodies on the field.
Tackle football playbook questions
- Can I draw offensive line blocking assignments?
- Yes. Blocking is a first-class action: assign it to a lineman and the line ends in a short perpendicular bar instead of an arrowhead, which is how coaches already draw a block on a board. Down blocks, reach blocks, pulls and kick-outs are all just drawn paths with that terminal.
- Does it handle 11v11 and 12v12 Canadian football?
- Both. 11v11 opens with a five-man line, quarterback, back and receivers. 12v12 opens with the twelfth player and the wider Canadian field, so your splits and motion look right rather than being squeezed into an American field.
- Can I draw run plays, not just passing concepts?
- Yes. A ball carrier's path is drawn as a run, handoffs are physical exchanges that require the two players to actually be close enough at the exchange point, and playback shows the mesh happening rather than the ball teleporting.
- Can I add a defense to a play?
- Yes. Add a defensive front and coverage to any play so the diagram shows the look you are installing against, and draw defensive movement — drops, slides and pressure — when you are teaching the defensive side.
- How do action colors help on a tackle diagram?
- An 11-player diagram gets dense fast. Coloring by assignment — protection one color, the run track another, the route concept a third — keeps a full-line play readable when it is projected in a meeting room or printed in a call sheet.
- How do I organize an install by week?
- Playbooks are named collections you control the order of, so a base install, a short-yardage package and a red zone package can live separately. Situation tags on each play mean the right calls surface when you need them.
- Can I export or print my tackle playbook?
- Yes. Plays and playbooks export as PDF for printing or emailing to your staff, and any play can be shared with a link.
- Does it work on the sideline?
- Game Mode gives you a read-only, tablet-sized view of one playbook with big navigation, starred quick calls and a scoreboard — usable in the press box or on the field without risking an accidental edit.
Start your tackle football playbook
Open an 11v11 alignment, block it up and draw the concept. It takes less time than sketching it twice on a legal pad.