When you really think about it, a lot of the play designs that will work best in flag football mirror the spread offenses that many high school and college football programs are currently running today. Fundamentally speaking, you’re spreading out your skill players and focusing on either delivering the ball to them in space (and putting them in the best position to advance it down the field), or using the quarterback to scramble and advance the football that way.
Offensive Basics
That’s why, considering there aren't nearly as many players on the field in flag football as you'd see in "traditional" football, it's best to think about plays that allow your playmakers to attack a defense both horizontally and vertically. Most of the time, you also have the luxury of not facing defenses who will have more players in coverage than you have running routes, since you won’t have multiple offensive linemen on the field, whom they can offset with defensive backs (ie, multiple safeties).
Given these variables, there are a few different types of plays that you can draw up, which will have the most success:
Low-to-High: The simplest and most basic passing concept, which will ensure that your receivers have one-on-one coverage. Simply speaking, you want each receiver running their routes at different levels of the field, ranging from closer to the quarterback, and getting progressively further. That will force defenders to chase after them individually, and not be close together, putting the quarterback in a situation where they have to throw the ball into areas with multiple defenders.
Clear Outs: A similar concept to the Low-to-High, but with a more focused outcome. If you know that your players will be covered one-on-one, then you want to have multiple players run down the field, “clearing out” a section that you can slip another receiver into and deliver them the ball. They’ll now have the ball in an open field, since your receivers have cleared out the defenders that used to be there.
Run-Pass Option (RPO): This is the modern successor to the concept of “play action.” In this case, your quarterback is going to pretend to hand off the ball to a ball carrier, and watch the reaction of the defense. If the defense “bites” (ie, freezes and watches for the handoff), the quarterback will fake the handoff and throw the ball downfield into the larger windows created by the “frozen” defenders. If the defenders don’t “bite,” then the quarterback can simply hand off the ball to the potential runner, knowing that the defenders are focused on coverage downfield. Training the quarterback to read the defense is critical in this play.
Rollouts/Waggles: As we’ve previously mentioned, there are multiple benefits to putting one of your most athletic players at the quarterback position, when it comes to flag football. They’ll be able to move around in the pocket, since they will have few – if any – defensive linemen chasing after them, and they’ll also present the ability to become a ball carrier themselves. Even if quarterbacks are not allowed to advance the ball across the line of scrimmage, their scrambling will make life difficult for defenders who have to chase the quarterback and the receivers across the field.
Key Drills for These Concepts:
Scramble Drill – This is a drill that’s utilized at every level of football, so why not practice it in flag football as well? The basic concept is that when your quarterback scrambles out of the pocket with the intention to throw the ball downfield, the wide receivers that are now on the opposite side of the field need to come back to the side of the field where the quarterback is rolling, and the receivers that are on the same side of the field where the quarterback has rolled out need to start running down the field to give the quarterback the deep ball option.
RPO Drill – This might seem a bit obvious given the construct of the play, but it’s important to practice both the quarterback handing off the ball to a potential ball carrier, or the quarterback faking the handoff to said ball carrier and keeping it themselves. Both players need to understand what to do in regards to a potential handoff or fake handoff at full speed. You want to ensure the quarterback knows how to hand off the ball to the ball carrier, or hold it firmly in the instance they decide to keep it. Similarly, a ball carrier should practice the feeling of taking the handoff versus not trying to snatch it away from a quarterback who will ultimately keep it.
Route Tree Drill – Here’s a question: why is it some of the tallest and fastest players aren’t always the best receivers, and some of the guys who are shorter and slower somehow seem like they can’t be covered? It’s because of the precision in which they run their routes. They keep the defender in front of them guessing, because they make each route look the same at the start. You want to have your receivers practice coming off the line of scrimmage and starting out all their routes exactly the same, and then practicing using their hips and their feet to break into the route they’re going to run on each play. That break into the route should be sudden and instantaneous, allowing as little time as possible for the defender to anticipate and/or react to the receiver’s break.