Madden Sunday School Episode 1: Hot Routes

Holden Pitre
Jul 27, 2017 · 7 min read

What’s up every body, Madden Sunday School (MSS) is a series that I started on my YouTube channel and I decided that it would be a good idea to have it in article format too for everyone to be able to look at if they wanted to. MSS aims to help people build the foundation to their Madden game and understand the fundamentals of the game as a way of improvement as opposed to being given a “money” scheme or play.

If you would rather watch this in video form, here you go! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDtKI_DM8BY&t=518s

This first episode is all about the different hot routes that are available to the offensive player pre-snap. Hot routes are a way for you to adjust your receivers routes at the line of scrimmage based off of what you are seeing from the defense pre-snap or on what play you think they might be running. Depending on where the player you want to hot route is lined up on the field you will get a specific set of routes in which you are able to put them on. In this article I will touch on each one of those options and give some insight as to when you may want to look at each one.

So your first set of hot routes is going to be whenever you attempt to hot route a receiver who is split out wide, such as Dez Bryant who is circled in the picture above (Terrance Williams would work as well). As you can see on the button call-out in the bottom right hand corner, you are presented with eleven(!) options: Streak, Out, In, Curl, Fade, Slant, Drag, Zig, Comeback. Smoke Screen, and Smart Route. Now this can be a lot to handle, but do not worry! You will know these like you know the back of your hand in no time.

Streak: A straight route running vertically down the field. It can be good with speedy receivers to get behind the defense as well as with tight ends or compressed receivers to attack the deep middle of the defense.

Fade: Identical to a streak except for it has a slight angle towards the end of it. These are primarily good going down the sideline.

Out: A sharp 3 yard deep route that attacks the outside of the defense. These can be good against man coverage or against zone blitzes that leave the flats vulnerable.

In: The opposite of an out route, it is the same route but cuts inside rather than outside. These can be good against man coverage as well as serve as a good check-down read over the middle of the field.

Curl: The player runs 10 yards and then turns back towards the quarterback. These can be good against off man coverage (man coverage where the defender is playing off of the wide receiver) and can be used in conjunction with other routes to form nice route combinations.

Slant: This route is very similar to an in route but cuts much quicker and gets more depth as it crosses the field. The slant is the prototypical man-to-man beating route.

Zig: This route does an inside fake as if the receiver were about to run an in or a slant before pivoting and breaking back towards the outside. These routes can be good, primarily from inside slot receivers or tight ends, as a good route to attack the shallow outside of the defense.

Drag: Very similar to a slant and an in, the drag is the quickest and the shallowest of the routes. This route is great at beating man-to-man coverage as well as giving you a quick read against a heavy blitzing defense.

Comeback: The comeback route is almost like a deep curl that attacks the deep sideline of the defense in the 15–20 yard range. It can be viewed as a type of back-shoulder throw type of route. It is good against man-to-man defense as well as against coverages that are focusing more on defending the shallow part of the field that allows the comeback to squeeze in behind it.

Smoke Screen: The smoke screen is a route where the receiver instantly turns and faces the quarterback at the snap of the ball. This route can be good against heavy blitzes that leave the flats open.

Smart Route: This option is not a route, but rather a route modifier that is only applicable to certain routes. Smart routing a receiver causes their route to run to the depth of either the first down marker or to the goal line in goal to go situations. Many routes can be smart routed, some of which include ins, outs, curls, corners, and posts.

The second set of hot routes you are going to see are the options presented to you when hot routing a slot receiver. As you can see in the photo above for Cole Beasley, the analog stick hot routes are identical to those for Dez Bryant. The triggers is where the difference lies and you get flat routes and hitch routes.

Flat: The receivers immediately runs parallel to the line of scrimmage towards the sideline at the snap of the ball. In the example above, Cole Beasley would essentially run straight at Dez Bryant. This route can be great against heavy blitzing defenses that leave the flats open or when used in conjunction with deeper routes, such as a curl or comeback, to create route combinations and put an opposing defender in a situation where he has to pick one to defend.

Hitch: A hitch route can be seen as a baby curl. The hitch is a 3 yard deep route where the receiver turns and faces the quarterback. These can be good against defenses that are playing very deep/conservatively.

The third set of hot routes are the ones you see when adjusting someone at the tight end position, such as Jason Witten in the photo above. Once again, the analog stick hot routes are identical and you see the flat route option return for the LT option like with Cole Beasley. The only difference you see here is that now you have the option of Pass Blocking your tight end on the end of the line of scrimmage. This can be a good adjustment if you are expecting heavy pressure from the defense or to double team a disruptive pass rusher such as guys like Von Miller, Khalil Mack, etc.

The fourth and final set of hot routes comes from your HB out of the backfield. As you can see the LS hot routes are very similar to the rest of the receivers, however the RS, LT, and RT hot routes are rather different.

Wheel: A route where your HB will run out horizontally from the backfield before turning the route vertically up the sideline. This route is great as it effectively attacks two different areas of the field: the shallow flat and the deep sideline.

Swing Left/Right: A route where the HB “swings” out of the backfield to either the left or the right and attacks the shallow flat. This can be a good route against heavy pressure or if your opponent is not putting any priority on defending shallow sideline routes.

Check & Release: Probably the most unique hot route to this point, the check & release combines pass blocking along with a checkdown route that attacks the flat. It gets its name from the HB behavior: at the snap of the ball, he “checks” to see if the defense is sending pressure and whether or not there is a defender for him to block. If so, he will engage and become a pass protector. If not, or when he gets off of his block, he will “release” out into the flat as a checkdown option. This route is very versatile and can be great against a variety of coverages.

Option: The option route out of the backfield to the HB can have one of two outcomes where the HB will either run a curl or an out route. What dictates this outcome is the type of defense that is being played on the HB himself; if there is a man-to-man defender assigned to defend him, he will run an out route. Otherwise if there is nobody assigned to him, he will run a curl. It is crucially important to know how your receivers will react when running option routes as miscommunication can easily result in 6 points for the defense.

And there you have it! You are now an expert on every hot route option that is available to you in Madden 17. This information will likely carry over into Madden 18 as well as we haven’t gotten any indications from EA that there will be any changes to the hot route system that is currently in place. I appreciate you reading my article and hope that it brought some type of value to you!

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