Building on Part I of the deep dive into gameplay for Madden 20, EA has released information about Part II, which covers new playbooks and the implementation of RPOs (run-pass options). Here are all the key details you need to know, and as stated for previous articles, I would stick with our description rather than the EA blog, which jumps all over the place.

 

Playbooks

 

The descriptions are unfortunately not very long for the most recent “deep dive,” but playbooks are said to be “modernized to reflect each NFL team’s unique identity.” The example they provide is that Baltimore’s playbook is tailored to Lamar Jackson’s running ability, while Arizona has a playbook built around Kliff Kingbury’s spread attack.

 

Team playbooks have actually been fairly accurate in previous years, but it sounds like EA is highlighting two of the league’s more creative offenses to let everyone know that they will true-to-form in Madden 20. Also, there will be trick plays (including the “Philly Special”), and team-specific plays like the Rams Jet Sweep Touch Pass, so it will be fun to experiment with all the different playbooks to see which one fits your style.

 

Finally, there will be “regular updates” for playbooks to keep gamers up-to-date with the real NFL.

 

Run-pass Options (RPOs)

 

Called the “major addition that the development team is most excited about,” there will be hundreds of new RPO plays: Alerts, Peeks, and Reads.

 

The new mechanics should be pretty self-explanatory for anyone familiar with RPOs, as you can either hand it off or throw. For Alerts, the default will be a handoff, but you can throw the ball by pressing the receiver icon. For Peeks and Reads, “the mechanic is similar [to] Read Option plays,” so you will need to hold A/X to handoff or press a receiver icon to throw. (I am assuming doing neither will mean the quarterback keeps the ball.)

 

RPO Alerts

 

As just explained, an RPO Alert will be a default handoff that has the option to throw built into it. The blog says, “many of the base running plays” will have an Alert tag, so I just hope this doesn’t become too overpowered where everything is an RPO.

 

RPO Peeks

 

I think Peeks are the most common RPO that we see in the NFL, as you will need to read a single defender (denoted in the pre-play Coach Cam) and decide whether you will throw or hand it off based on what he does.

 

RPO Reads

 

Similar to Peeks but with another option built in, Reads allow users to decide whether to run or throw, and then—if they don’t decide to throw—whether the run will be a handoff or quarterback keeper. This is certainly the most complex of the three types, but there will be an On-Field Trainer to help out the first couple times you run RPO Reads, and it should be easy once you get the hang of it.

 

 

And that’s it. RPOs are obviously a welcome addition, but overall, the gameplay changes from the two blogs are not very encouraging because of how far the development team still needs to go to give us a quality game. Hopefully there are some surprises in store over the summer, but I’ll be back to breakdown the final Gridiron Notes (for Madden Mobile) next week.