Many things go into playing good defense in Madden 25. How well you do on defense can be affected by your players’ ratings compared to the offense’s, your scheme compared to the offense’s scheme, your player selection and how well you utilize a wide receiver route, and a few other things.
Almost every playbook in the game is based on a specific team’s playbook. They keep their style of play and goals in mind. There is no universally best playbook in Madden 25. Which playbook is best for you will depend on your playstyle and goals, but let’s look at what are generally the best defensive playbook options in Madden 25.
The most important factor in determining whether or not your defense will play well is the quality of the pre-snap adjustments you make before the offense snaps the football. No defensive play translates directly from the play sheet into perfect coverage or pass rush. Making the right pre-snap adjustments is critical to a good defense.
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Just like in real life, the main thing you need to protect yourself from on defense is big aerial plays. This means that the best playbooks are generally the ones that offer the best zone and man coverage options to limit the effectiveness of your opponent’s passing game as much as possible.
Best game books:
The Kansas City Chiefs defensive playbook is a good one. It offers a nice variety of formations with great pass coverage options. It isn’t the best at playing against the run, but it offers solid run protection at the line of scrimmage. However, if the RB makes it past the line of scrimmage, you could be in trouble.
As mentioned, your main goal on defense in Madden should always be to stop the pass, especially in multiplayer modes where the vast majority of players barely run the ball and just want to pass, but also in regular single player mode.
Multiple D doesn’t specialize in anything. It doesn’t do anything spectacular, but it doesn’t do anything terrible either. It’s very balanced and not difficult to understand. However, with the caveat that if it’s simple and easy for you, it’s simple and easy for the other team too.
It can be difficult to really mix things up and challenge the offense with a variety of attacks. This is the playbook to choose if you want a no-nonsense defense that can be effective with relatively little pre-snap adjustments.
This playbook is also used by the Eagles. It features the best zone coverage in the game. Zone coverage is better than man coverage in most situations and is what you want to play 95% of the time.
It’s a very straightforward and simple playbook that you can learn to use quickly, and the emphasis on good zone coverage is never a bad thing. This is the playbook that takes the “stop the pass” concept and turns it up to 100. It’s not flashy, it’s not interesting, and it lacks variety, but what it tries to do, it does really well.
This playbook places a heavy emphasis on top coverage to prevent long balls while putting pressure on the quarterback. It’s the type of playbook that, if played wrong or the offense fights it well, can consistently gain you 10 to 15 yards.
On the other hand, you should be able to put good pressure on the quarterback and use his strong blitz packages to get some sacks while playing safe with your safeties to prevent the broken coverage from 20+ chunk plays/TDs.
This is a great choice for someone trying to force turnovers. If your defense is able to apply good pressure, you can force a significant number of inaccurate throws into tight man coverage or a safety shading overhead.
