Is the Wildcat Formation Back?

Let's find out

Good morning everyone,

This week we’re flipping sides again. Last week we looked into some sack efficiency stats but today we’re going to have some fun. I wanted to research a hunch I’ve had while watching games this season. I just feel like I’ve seen more wildcat plays this season than in previous ones, so I wanted to run some queries to find out if that’s true. Let’s jump right into it.

Pre-Req: What is a Wildcat?

According to Merriam-Webster, a wildcat is:

1. 1. either of two Old World cats (Felis silvestris or F. lybica) that resemble but are heavier in build than the domestic tabby cat and are usually held to be among the ancestors of the domestic cat

   2. or plural wildcat : any of various small or medium-sized cats (such as the lynx or ocelot)

   3. a feral domestic cat

2. a savage quick-tempered person

3. 1. wildcat money

   2. a wildcat oil or gas well

   3. a wildcat strike

I’m going to have to put in an emergency edit request with the dictionary, because none of these options are the wildcats we’re talking about today. A wildcat formation in football is the generalized word used to classify an offensive formation where the quarterback is not the primary player lined up behind the center or under center. Typically on NFL plays, the quarterback receives the snap from the center. On wildcat plays, a running back or tight end might receive the snap. There’s an important distinction that we must make though. The wildcat formation itself means that pre-snap it doesn’t look like the quarterback will receive the ball from the center. That’s all there is to it.

Much like their rare animal equivalents, wildcat plays are a rare and evasive species. The first ever recorded wildcat formation play occurred in week 3 of 2008 in the Miami Dolphins vs. New England Patriots game. It starts around the 22 second mark of this game if you’re interested in seeing it. Dolphins RB Ronnie Brown lines up in the shotgun position for the play, where the QB usually stands. The Dolphins bring Ricky Williams in motion, fake the outside handoff to him and keeps it running down the middle for a touchdown. It looks like a read option play with two running backs. It was popular in college before 2008 but made its way to the NFL in a desperate attempt to try and fool the unbeatable Bill Belichick Patriots defense.

The Query

Now there’s no exact way to grab all wildcat plays but we can get relatively close following this simple step:

1. SELECT from nflfastR play-by-play data where desc ILIKE ‘%direct snap%’ AND desc NOT ILIKE ‘%punt%’

SQL ILIKE just finds all instances of direct snap regardless of capitalization. A where clause like that helps with play description fields. The only caveat to this is that we don’t have the ability to actually filter out other direct snap plays. Some teams like the Kansas City Chiefs will run direct snap plays where the running back is lined up next to the quarterback in a non-wildcat formation but still receives the ball directly from the center. So for the sake of accuracy, I’m going to call these graphs “direct snap graphs” instead of “wildcat graphs.”

That leaves Saints QB Taysom Hill as our only real hurdle to true running back and tight end only direct snap plays. But I’m going to leave his plays in since I classify him more as a gadget player than a pure quarterback. I told you these graphs were more art than science sometimes

The Visualization

Here’s a count of every direct snap play through week 7 from every NFL season from 2008-2025:

We’re going with the chalkboard style chart again using ggpattern and ggplot in R. I’ll give a tutorial for these later in the week.

So what does this tell us? I guess it means my hunch is true but not significantly true. Yes, there are more direct snap plays through 7 weeks in 2025 than there were in 2024, but fewer direct snap plays than in 2023 and 2022. Some would say that we’re just back to a normal amount of direct snap plays. This could have something to do with two rookie tight ends taking on prominent roles in their offenses. Browns TE Harold Fannin Jr. and Colts TE Tyler Warren both featured heavily on wildcat plays in their college seasons at Bowling Green and Penn State, respectively. Maybe their offensive minded head coaches Kevin Stefanski and Shane Steichen are borrowing from concepts from their college playbooks.

Here’s an additional table showing the 18 teams that have run ‘wildcat’ plays:

Slightly too small of a sample size to really take stock in any of these EPA/Play numbers, but I thought it would still be fun to visualize. Jordan Mason’s wildcat running touchdown from the 1 yard line in last week’s Vikings loss to the Eagles is doing the heavy lifting here. I’m surprised to see the Colts only used a Tyler Warren wildcat play once this season. Maybe because it didn’t go well.

And one more just for fun since I’ll jump on any opportunity to make a map. Here’s a map of direct snap plays by NFL stadium similar to ones you may see for real wildcat sightings:

Onto week 8. Hope everyone’s having a great week so far!