What is the best youth football offense for my team? That is the million dollar question for a lot of coaches. No worries, we will help you select the right offense for your team’s age and skillset. The first thing you have to consider when choosing a youth football offense is the age you are coaching. The second thing to consider is your team’s skill set. Let’s dive in!

What is the Best Youth Football Offense? Selecting an Offense by Age & Skill Set

What is the Best Youth Football Offense based on age? First off, the younger your team is, the more basic the blocking scheme, formation, and concepts needs to be. You then need to look at your team’s skill set. Is your offensive line undersized or do they have good size? Do you lack athleticism or do you have an abundance of speed? Do you have a dominate skilled position player or two of them? These are all things you need to think about when considering what is the best youth football offense for your team.

Best Offense for Undersized Offensive lines:

Best Formations: Wing T, Beast Formation, and Unbalanced Formations.

Best Blocking Schemes / Plays: Down blocking, Zone Blocking gap schemes, Wedge Blocking, Trap, and Option.

See Also: Best Plays for Weak Offensive Lines 

Best Offense for Big Offensive Lines:

Best Formations: Wishbone, I-Formation, Double Wing, Single Wing, Pistol, Split-backs, and Diamond Formation.

Best Blocking Schemes / Plays: Down blocking, base blocking, double team blocking, most gap schemes.

Best Offenses for Lack of Skilled Players: 

Best Formations: Beast / Single Wing / Wildcat, I-Formation, Split-backs, 20 Personnel, and Single Back Formation.

Best Offenses for Multiple RBs / Skilled Players: 

Best Formation: Spread Formations (2×2, 3×1), Shotgun Split-backs, Spread Beast, Beast Formation, Shotgun / Traditional Wing T, Wishbone, and Pistol.

We have playbooks for most of these offenses. Check out our Playbook Library.

Choosing the Best Offense for your Youth Football Team (based on age)

Things to think about before we dive into what offense fits your youth football team:

• How much practice time do you have? Plan out your offense installation.
• Coach / Teach what you know. Whatever offense you decide to go with, understand it fully. Get all coaches on board as well.
• Is your QB mobile? If your QB is mobile utilizing shotgun formations will help you utilize his skill set. There are several great QB run schemes from the shotgun.
• Get really good at your core plays. Get your core plays down, then add wrinkles and formations. This will allow you to be multiple while keeping things simple for your kids.
• Does your QB have a good arm? Make sure you utilize play-action passing plays. Always have play-action passes off of your best runs.

Best Youth Football Offense for 6u Teams

1. Beast Formation Offense- (Direct Snap)
2. The YFO Wildcat Formation Offense (Direct snap)
3. Double Tight-end I-Formation
4. Wishbone Formation
5. T-Formation

I label these offenses 1-5, but that doesn’t mean that 1 is the best and 4 is the least of the best. It depends on your team. If you have a lot of running backs, the wishbone might be the best for you. If you don’t have a lot of good running backs, the Wildcat and Beast would probably be the best for your team.

These offenses are very basic and I would recommend not pulling linemen and sticking to the base formation. All of these offenses are good, regardless of the ability / size of your offensive line.

Best Youth Football Offense for 7u / 2nd grade

1. Beast Formation Offense (Good if you don’t have a lot of RBs)
2. Wildcat Offense (good if you don’t have a lot of RBs)
3. I-Formation (with receivers or with double TEs)
4. Split-back Formation or Wishbone (great if you have more than one good RB)

There isn’t a big difference between 6u & 7u- not pulling linemen and installing just the base formation with simple run plays applies with 7u as well. If you have a couple kids that can run the ball the I-formation, Wishbone, and Split-back Formation might be right for you.

If you don’t have a lot of capable skilled players, the Beast or Wildcat would probably be good for you. Let’s be real- when kids are this young it’s all about having fun and keeping the kids engaged, while growing their love for the game. Have fun!

Best Youth Football Offense for 8u / 3rd grade

1. Beast Formation Offense
2. Wildcat Offense
3. I-formation & Split-back Formation
4. Wishbone Formation
5. Spread Formations (with 2 receivers- one to each side or two to one side)

For 8u, you can start getting a little bit more multiple with your plays and formations. The Beast Formation & Wildcat will be offense I will recommend for any age level (just dummied down for the younger age levels). I think you can you utilize two different formations once you hit 8u.

I think you can also start pulling with 8u, but it depends on your players and your ability to coach the technique. You can start spreading the field more and work in a play-action pass play or two. Have fun!!

Best Youth Football Offense for 9u / 4th grade

1. Wing T (traditional)
2. Beast Formation
3. Split-backs or Wishbone
4. 20 Personnel / Spread
5. Shotgun Wing T
6. T-Formation

At the 9u level you can start pulling linemen and being multiple with your formations. I wouldn’t overload the kids with a bunch of different formations and plays, but you can diversify a little bit. At this age the kids will start to understand the concept behind the offense and how each play sets another play up.

You’d be surprised how fast a 9 year old kid can catch on to different schematics. If you have a couple different kids that can run the ball and or catch, the Wing T, 20 Personnel, and split-backs will be a great option. If you don’t have a lot of good ball carriers the Beast is your best option- by far!

Best Youth Football Offense for 10u /5th grade

1. YFO Shotgun Jet Wing T
2. Beast Formation
3. Split-back or Wishbone
4. I-Formation
5. Pistol Formation
6. Trips (spread formation)

There isn’t much of a difference between 9u & 10u. 9u teams can do pretty much anything that a 10u team can do. As a matter of fact, a lot of 10u teams have 9 years old on them. For 10u, you can definitely spread the field more and implement some basic passing concepts. It is best that you install an offense that features a system of plays that all complement each other.

If you have a mobile QB that can run and throw, spreading the field or implementing the Beast Offense is a great idea. If you aren’t loaded at the receiver position run it down the defenses throat with the I-formation, Wishbone, or Pistol.

Bonus Tip: Get really good at running plays that offer deception! They’ll hit big all game long at this age.

Best Youth Football Offense for 11u /6th grade

1. YFO Shotgun Jet Wing T
2. Beast Formation / Single Wing (works with any skillset)
3. Pistol Spread
4. 20 Personnel
5. Trips Formation (if you have a couple good receivers 2 or more)
6. Double Wing
7. Split-backs & Diamond Formation (if you have a multiple capable RBs)

There isn’t much you can’t run at this age level. If you have a couple good backs, the Double Wing Offense and / or Wing T could be a good option. Both of those formations feature 3 running backs (Split-backs & Diamond are good as well). If you have a couple kids that can run and catch, spread the field out and make the defense defend all of them.

Pistol is an all around good formation- gives you a nice power running and play-action passing attack. You can absolutely pull linemen at this age.

Bonus Tip: Get really good at running plays that offer deception! They’ll hit big all game long at this age.

Best Youth Football Offense for 12u / 7th grade

1. YFO Shotgun Jet Wing T (multiple backs)
2. Spread Formations (Twins, 20P, 10P, Trips with nub TE)
3. Beast Formation (1-2 featured backs)
4. Pistol Spread (2 running backs)
5. Wing T (Traditional) (multiple backs)
6. Split-backs
7. Double Wing (multiple backs)
8. T-Formation (multiple backs)
9. I-Formation / Power I Formation

There isn’t much you can’t do offensively. If you have a lot of good athletes use a formation that features multiple skilled positions players. At this age you can start implement some easy option plays (Pre-Snap RPOs) and you can pull linemen.

Pick a formation that fits your team’s skillset / athletic / physical ability- but make sure you have a system of plays that attack all areas of the field. Have passing concepts, reverses, a trick play, screens, & an RPO or two.

Best Youth Football Offense for 13u / 8th grade +

1. Any formation that fits your team skillset.

What is the best youth football offense? Well, that question is much easier to answer when you have 8th graders.  Build your offense / formation around your players. When coaching at this age level you should be pick an offense that you can teach. Coaching matters and determines games a lot more at the old age levels. Install a system of plays that all complement each other. There isn’t a run or pass concept you can’t run. It’s all about what works best for your team’s skill set.

Top Offenses for Youth Football

There are some offenses that are great on all age levels of football and with all skill sets. Below I will breakdown the couple of offenses that are great for all age levels and team skill sets / ability. These are the formations / system I am going to utilize with my team- regardless of age and / team skill set. These offenses are good even if your team isn’t. These offenses are extremely explosive if your team is good.

The Beast Formation Offense 

Best Age to Use the Beast Offense: ANY AGE!

The Beast Formation is a direct snap formation that will allow you to outnumber and outflank the defense at the point of attack. It loads up one side with blockers and you direct snap to your best player and watch him gain yardage. You can keep things simple out of this formations (no pulling linemen) if you are coaching the younger age levels or don’t feel comfortable pulling. For us, we won’t pull with any kids younger than 8.

The Beast Formation creates alignment conflict for the defense. Most of the time the defense won’t adjust properly and you will hit big plays. One of the best ways to be explosive offensively is to out formation the defense. So many times defenses give big plays because of misalignment. The Beast Formation will help you create misaligned defensive looks. We have a TON of resources on our website regarding the Beast. Check out this mini clinic. This offense is great if you are undersized as you can utilize several different blocking techniques and angles to gain an advantage.

Resources

See Also: Beast Tank Formation Series 

Playbook: Single Wing Beast Formation Playbook

Facebook Group: Beast Formation Plays, Playbooks, Clinics, & Coach Tips

The Shotgun Jet Wing T Offense 

Best Age to use the YFO Shotgun Wing T: 8u and up!

When I ask myself- What is the Best Offense for Youth Football? This offense comes to mind immediately. The Shotgun Wing T is great if you have good team speed. This formation will allow you to play fast even if you don’t have a lot of team speed. The Shotgun Wing T System is great for all offensive line skill sets. This is an offense that I would say- one size fits all! This offense is built around the Jet Sweep play- which is great for all age levels. It will allow your slow players to become faster and allow your fast players to be even faster.

Jet sweep is great because you only have to block 2-3 defenders to get big time yardage. This is great if you aren’t very good upfront. The other great thing about Jet Sweep is that it forces the defense to react or they will keep getting beat outside. Now once the defense starts to react / over play the Jet Sweep, that’s when you hit them with the complementary plays (counters / plays off jet sweep action).

The best way to be successful on offense- regardless of team age and skill set is to have a system of plays that all complement each other. With that said, our Jet Gun T Formation Playbook will give you just that! It’s our most popular playbook and hundreds of coaches (coaching teams of all ages) have score a ton of points and won a ton of games with this system.

Resources

YFO Playbook: Jet Gun T Playbook

YFO Playbook: Jet Gun T Playbook 2.0

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Final Thoughts

The best thing to do is have a series of plays that all complement each other. You can be good offensive- regardless of the formation / scheme / skill set if you have a structured attack. At the end of the day, all of these offenses/ formations are good. It comes down to how well you can teach these schemes. At the young age levels I won’t pull linemen and won’t toss the ball outside. The older groups can do pretty much anything schematically, but you need to pick the right formation based on your team’s skill set.