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Coach and Quarterback DNA Help Drive Madden NFL 26 Gameplay

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On June 18, 2025

The Madden NFL 26 Gameplay Deep Dive is here as there is a massive amount of information for the game this year, and this deep dive is just the gameplay portion. Gameplay is obviously important, and the goal for the devs for Madden NFL 26 is to instill that coach and player DNA. The team wants Madden to be the best sports simulation ever as the team incorporates more and more into the series that is witnessed on Sundays. This is why this year’s mantra is “Built from Sundays”, as the details play the pivotal role for 26. You can expect many community-driven innovations and changes, as well.

A Few Gameplay Tidbits Before Diving In

Let’s get something flashy out of the way before jumping into the X’s and O’s of Madden NFL 26. The game will introduce Hot-Spot Celebrations, meaning when you score, you can run to a specific area of the end zone to execute different celebrations. Players can move after scoring a touchdown as there will be a window of time to either sprint or jog to one of nine hot spots. These will each house unique celebrations that trigger based on where the celebrating player is.

There will be 20 total celebrations plus numerous animations across all the Hot Spots. The Celebrations tab in the pause menu will provide the button combo needed for each. The dev team created more than 4,000 new elements to make these as realistic as possible. Examples include shadow boxing the goal post, fake crossbar dunk attempts, and interactive crowd celebrations.

The devs are also putting the power in the players hands, as customization will play a more pivotal role in Madden NFL 26. No longer do you need to wait to tune gameplay with the client update. This also allows for faster feedback on gameplay. Also, full route trees will be available in passing hot routes including custom stems. Custom Zone stems are also available on defense for the first time, so you can now dictate very easily just how deep you want your zone coverage to be for individual players.

Custom Zone stems are also available on defense for the first time, so you can now dictate very easily just how deep you want your zone coverage to be for individual players.

Madden NFL 26 will also offer 130 new tutorials to get you ready for Sunday. The Skills Trainer experience has been completely rebuilt to make the experience more fun. This is accomplished by incorporating the Mini Games tool into the Skills Trainer. There will also be a drill for every single gameplay mechanic in the game, as the dev team conducted a comprehensive audit. Below are what the new tools cover.

Ballcarrier Mechanics
QB Mechanics
Receiver Mechanics
Option Mechanics
Offensive Preplay Mechanics
Tackling Mechanics
Coverage Mechanics
Defensive Line Mechanics
Defensive Preplay Mechanics
Kicking Mechanics
Returning Mechanics

Coach and Quarterback DNA Help Drive Madden NFL 26 Gameplay

The First Madden NFL 26 Trailer is Here

The dev team has more data than ever to work with to replicate tendencies and movements to improve the experience against the AI.

Wear & Tear System Coming to Madden NFL 26

The system that was introduced in College Football 25 will be making its way over to Madden NFL 26. This system tracks any contact a player takes over the course of a game with attribute ratings being reduced if the player takes too much punishment. The game will bring up a graphic during gameplay to show a player that has taken a lot of abuse and what attributes are affected. Over the course of a season in both Franchise and Superstar, Wear & Tear will play a new role in strategizing your seasons.

College Football 26 will introduce Dynamic Subs and so will Madden. This means you can seamlessly swap out players during pre-play for the next play allowing for a better way to manage Wear & Tear and work on rotational players. The team has already discussed implementing the latest position types with Edge rushers, and this will allow to better track a rotation of players to keep them fresh. There will be more on this in the coming weeks.

How the Trenches Will Dictate Gameplay

The dev team is introducing a new Block Steering mechanic along with a new Leverage System. It also rebuilt the targeting system for better situational blocking. Block Steering is the latest innovation that is built on the back of its animation-branching technology. Block Steering is for the defensive side of the ball, thus giving players much needed gameplay depth at these positions. Players now have additional control rather than just flicking the stick to attempt a move on the defensive line.

Players can now be steered by engaging the Left Stick. They can be pushed into the backfield or side-to-side. If you notice a hole on the offensive line on a run play, you can now attempt to push the blocker towards the hole to reduce it or close it altogether. The AI will be able to fight for control of the gaps, and blocks can be engaged like this anywhere on the field. The player ratings will dictate outcomes along with the momentum, size, speed and the position of the two players, which would be leverage. Defensive line stunts are also being introduced to add on to individual plays. You will hold down the button of the play you want and this will bring up a sub menu with multiple defensive line stunt options.

The player ratings will dictate outcomes along with the momentum, size, speed and the position of the two players, which would be leverage.

The Leverage System improves how blocks work to result in more realistic outcomes on the field. Smarter AI will now look at leverage, or the better position, to decide which blocking animations happen and who wins those battles. The Leverage System initiates based on the design of the play or any adjustment made to the play, then moves onto the ratings match-up and the pose of the player. From here, the system selects the proper animation to that it can easily see which player wins the gap.

For example, if the offense wants to run a zone run in the B-Gap vs. a 3-technique defensive tackle, the Guard is attempting to get his head to the playside of the 3-technique so that he can win the B-Gap. But the 3-technique is not supposed to get reached unless he’s playing the inside gap, so he desires to win the B-gap to force the running back into a different lane. Based on the ratings of the guard and D-tackle, and their body positions at the point of engagement, the proper animation will trigger that will put either the blocker or the defender in the gap with the other struggling to try to take it over. Whichever player has head leverage in that gap has a significant advantage in winning the gap. If the blocker wins, the defender will have a harder time shedding into the B-gap, or steering into the B-gap, and the ball carrier will be able to have confidence that his guard will hold the B-gap long enough to burst through it. But if the defender wins the gap, he’s likely to push his blocker into the hole or quickly shed to make a play.

Lastly, new pass block mechanics have been added to add a more legitimate feel to the pocket and to better represent what is seen on Sunday. Unique pass protection have been adding to each passing play in the playbook data. Each pass block scheme is available in the pre-play adjustment menu. On Sundays, you see Quarterbacks call out blocking assignments or lineman will adjust on their own. Last year, the game implemented half and full slide blocking which has become a staple of gameplay.

Players now have the option of half slide left/right, full slide left/right, empty and base as these are applied appropriately to pass play and are on by default. Protections are specifically set to fit the original design of the play, so rather than just depending on the AI to seek out the right defender on every play, it gets further assistance by having specific protections in place for every single play. You can now untarget a defender in the pre-play menu, which is similar to ID the Mike. You have the option to ignore a player on defense if you know they’re not going to be involved in the play.

Protection on the Fly allows to easily swith the direction of your protection by flicking the RS. Players can combine the Untarget mechanic with a RS flick up without having to bring up the adjustment menu. Your opponent won’t know things you’re doing to the play now, and it allows for quicker blocking adjustments. Pass blockers will be receiving their own locomotion animations that allow for more realism in the pass sets. Blocking in play action is also improved thanks to the run block targeting introduced last year being extended over to play action passes. They will look exactly the same as the run in simulation.

NFL Coach and Quarterback DNA

Madden has previously included tendencies and pocket behaviors for some quarterbacks. Madden NFL 26 will have individual tendencies and NFL pocket behaviors for every starting quarterback in the league. The devs are including the sideline jump pass from Josh Allen, as well. Madden NFL 26 will introduce signature ball holds with nine being available at launch. These include two-hand and one-hand variations of both high and low holds. QB AI can contextually switch from one hold to another for better ball security if the situation arises.

Madden NFL 26 will have individual tendencies and NFL pocket behaviors for every starting quarterback in the league.

Throwing motions will benefit visually thanks to these ball holds. This means more fluid animation on the ball throws. Quarterbacks will bounce on their feet more and move their head around more to find an open target. The details that will go into this, including revamped on-the-run passing animations and footwork, will all equate to a more realistic experience than in previous titles. Scrambling quarterbacks will also receive signature run cycles. This includes Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes and more.

Field Vision (not the 2006 cone) is a new technology that takes line-of-sight into effect. Officially, having a short quarterback is now a detriment if they can’t see over the line. This affects accuracy and was experienced first hand with our demo of the game. Receiver icons will actually fade out if there is no line of sight, and you won’t realize how big of a difference this makes until you experience it. You will find yourself rolling out of the pocket for shorter quarterbacks.

Officially, having a short quarterback is a detriment if they can’t see over the line.

Ball carrier special moves with the quarterback have returned while behind the line. Pass rushes can be evaded beforte throwing the ball with special moves like spin and juke. This is done by simply using the RS with no modifier required. Pass trajectories have been tuned to bring more lob and lead to non-bullet passes. There are much more details on this over at the Gridiron Notes blog that breaks down individual details.

Coach DNA adds to the Coach Suggestions already in the game using real world data and AI. The game gives you a percentage of success for the plays in those situations, much like the analytics that NFL coaches use. Everything including weather conditions plugs into this to decide the top plays for that next situation. Decades of NFL play-calling tendencies have been input to train a predictive machine learning model.

Superstar Mode Brings Relationship Element in Madden NFL 26

Initial Hands-On Madden NFL 26 Impressions

A big focus remains on delivering authenticity with styles, which is all here. There’s also a lot that cannot be discussed.

Opponent tendencies are also tracked thanks to this AI, no matter the opponent. The model will suggest plays to better counter your opponent’s strategy. Data-Driven Coaching will also bring in Coach Speak to provide context as to why these plays are chosen for a backstage peak at NFL strategy. Real-Time coaching AI makes its way over from College Football 25 but with more enhancements. On defense, exotic blitzes can be shown to opponents while delayed shifts, improved formation intelligence and targeted run recognition will have you doing more before the snap than ever before.

Finally, the dev team is doubling down on playbooks with 1,000 new plays just at launch. This is twice the amount of new plays introduced all of last year. The focus on this is motions and shifts, stunts and twists, exotic defensive pressure and new coaching adjustments. More plays with auto-motion are being added plus new double-motion plays and auto shifts. New locomotion has been captured for this player movement. The amount of details in this game is going to be outrageous.

First Hand Experience with Madden NFL 26

We were invited to the Madden Media Day at EA and got to spend some time with the game, but not a ton. The entire experience of a game feels much different thanks to presentation elements and these gameplay changes. The presentation details will need to wait, but the gameplay can be commented on. The overall gameplay in the build that was played is much more snappy, crisp and responsive. Being able to shake things up on defense with stunts and more tools like custom zones currently gives playing a defense a lift, but there is so much to take in that there will be a learning curve.

The same goes for offense as the offensive line currently behaves stellar and playing as a short quarterback definitely provides a problem. Passing lanes need to open or you need to roll them out of the pocket. Playing with Bryce Young was fun, since he is quick and small. Rolling out and delivering a deep ball with him felt like what you saw from him on Sunday’s last year late in the season. The secondary is much more responsive, playing defensive line is fun, and the ability to throw a Double Pass with a tight end as the Panthers was something not in the cards before. It certainly is now. The Gridiron Notes have more details including the Weather breakdown and Superstar Abilities.