The football offense has come a long way from its humble rugby beginnings. It evolved from an organized scrum into something nearly as precise as the gas powered motor. It's an entire system that evolves over the course of a game, season and career; a centered idea that can branch into any number methods while remaining true to its core idea. Simply put, it's far more than a cluster of plays. For this philosophy I will be using All-Pro Football 2K8 as my template.

Developing an offense is a somewhat tedious but very rewarding process. It requires a lot of time in the lab, and a lot of frustration in deciding what to put in your playbook. However, the reward is an almost unstoppable offense and an ability to attack any defense with precision and diversity. Changing your play calling style from a collection of plays you happen to run well into a system of plays that build off of each other will frustrate your opponent and consistently score you points no matter who you're playing.

The first step to creating an offense is deciding on a philosophy; as it's almost always true, the first step is the most important. You need to pick an attack you are comfortable with no matter who you play, while also being a system that you can execute.

This can’t be something you want to do, it needs to be something you can do. You can be a power running team, spread offense, west coast, The Greatest Show on Turf, you just need to pick a general philosophy you can execute and are comfortable with.

Tied in with your philosophy is the need for players to execute it. As a general rule of thumb I have more defensive legends than offensive legends, usually 6/5, though sometimes 7/4, however some offenses requires more offensive firepower.

If you want to have the Greatest Show on Turf you need at least 7 legends on offense, including both golds most likely. However, a power running team can likely get away with only 3 or 4 offensive legends, using mostly bronze players. But the point is you need to decide if you want to be an offensive, defensive, or balanced team. Your offensive philosophy needs to agree with your overall team philosophy.

Generally speaking, it's very hard to run an offense without any Gold or Silver legends. I typically go with one gold and one silver for my offense, though I’ve also tried two silver and no gold and an all bronze offense. I like to run ace with two TE and also some shotgun spread offense and go with a lot of zone running. I tried a lot of different players and combinations, but in the end I decided my offense works best with a gold back. A bronze wasn’t consistent enough and I don’t like any of the silver backs.

I was reluctant to go with a gold back because I’ve always subscribed to the offensive line means more than a running back theory. However, in reality I needed the gold back for the passing game to keep my opponent scared of the run even in a 4 WR set, and to turn my offense from a trudging 3 or 4 yards at a time offense to an explosive attack that started to put up points as the need for the hard to come by 15 play drive weaned away when I started to get 10….15…..20 yard carries with some more regularity.

It's also very important that you run your offense through your gold and silvers. At one point I used two silvers (QB/WR) and then 3 bronze WRs and a bronze C. The problem was I never wanted to use my silver WR because he often had a gold corner or another silver corner against him, so I just went to a different match up. That’s sound playing, but a complete waste of a silver pick.

I also still wanted to run 20 times a game, which was fine, but I wasn’t consistent enough with the generic RB and there weren’t enough balls for 4 WR, and a RB to make them all valuable. I ended up abandoning that group because I would score 50 points one game but 13 the next -- my consistency wasn’t there and it didn’t really fit my style of play.

In my current offense I utilize a gold HB, silver QB, 3 bronze OL but no WR. I use my HB to run around 20 times a game and try and get him multiple passes as well, usually getting him at least 25 touches. The generic backup also usually gets a few carries and I use a lot of PA passing.

My lineman are involved in my 25ish runs a game and the slower developing PA pass, my QB gets 25 attempts a game and a few scrambles and my gold HB gets 25+ touches and is a constant threat that my opponent must counter every single play -- often giving me 4-3 look against 3 wide packages or even 4 wide.

It wouldn’t make a ton of sense for me to have a gold QB because my running game and the screen/swing passes are my favorite methods of attack. Furthermore, without any WRs, my passing game won’t ever be great. However, a silver QB is perfect because I utilize his special talents (scrambling and throwing on the run) which adds a dimension to my offense I couldn’t get with a bronze. If you want a power running game, you need lineman and a back, but a WR is really unimportant.

Likewise, if you want a high powered attack you likely need to field golds at QB and WR and at least a couple bronze OL and WR. The exact numbers vary, but you definitely need more WR and QB talent than a bruising running game, which needs a gold RB and a couple silver OL but no WR.

The first step to creating an offensive system is deciding on an offensive philosophy and sticking with it. Decide what you want to do, find players that fit that what you want to do and then run your offense though those players.

If you want a power running game you need a gold or silver power back that can hold up to your 30 or 40 runs a game. If you want the Greatest Show On Turf you need both a QB and RB plus multiple WRs so you can score fast and create mismatches. If you want to run a pass first open offense, a gold QB is key so you can throw 50 times a game. Know what you want.