When creating a custom coach in Madden NFL 26, you'll be asked to choose a coach type that determines your specialties. Offensive Guru is one of the best coach types in Madden 26, and you can unlock new abilities that greatly enhance your team's offensive capabilities.
While your coach type doesn't lock you out of any specific playstyles in Madden 26 franchise mode, it does determine the abilities that you'll be able to unlock throughout your career. The Offensive Guru coach type focuses on offense over defense while also sprinkling in a little bit of player development to patch up holes in your roster. Madden's coach progression can be daunting for newcomers, so this is the best Offensive Guru coach build in Madden NFL 26.
Best Offensive Playbooks in Madden NFL 26
If you want to win more games in Madden NFL 26, you can use a custom offensive playbook to switch things up and surprise the defense.
How to Upgrade Your Coach Abilities
As an Offensive Guru, most of your abilities will end up in the offensive category of Coach Central. You begin your first season with the following tier one skills unlocked:
- Blitz Buster
- Dr. Dots
- Outside the Club
- Trench Barons
These are the foundation of your build, so focus on upgrading their tiers early in your starting season. Each tier of an ability unlocks new bonuses, and you can see the progression goals needed to master each ability and reach the next tier when hovering over a skill in Coach Central. You can also drop down a tier if you meet the downgrade criteria listed in Coach Central as well, so your abilities are incredibly flexible for better and for worse.
You can earn more skill points by completing goals listed in Coach Central. Offensive Guru coaches have to gain passing yards, score rushing touchdowns, and perform similar feats on the field.
Best Offensive Guru Coach Abilities
These are the best Offensive Guru coach abilities to unlock in Madden NFL 26.
- Cool Under Pressure
- Dashing Dots
- Insider Trading
- Ahead of the Chains
- People Movers
- Field General
- Happier Feet
- Move the Chains
Cool Under Pressure is one of the best overall coach abilities in Madden 26, especially if you have a star QB on your roster. It makes them much more effective when under pressure and even increases their chances of breaking sacks at higher tiers. The same goes for Dashing Dots, which greatly improves your quarterback's accuracy and throw distance. Then there's Field General, which increases your QB's stats. As long as you avoid interceptions, these abilities are very easy to upgrade.
Improving your offensive line is one of the key responsibilities of an Offensive Guru, so Ahead of the Chains and People Movers are must-haves. Ahead of the Chains will make it harder for defenders to slip past your offensive linemen's blocks, and People Movers will give your entire offensive line stat increases as you upgrade its tiers. Both of these are incredibly easy to upgrade as well. You just need to avoid turnovers, sacks, and fumbles while building up rushing yardage.
Happier Feet and Move the Chains are two other solid ability options. With Happier Feet, receivers will become much more nimble on their routes. Paired with the other QB abilities recommended above, you'll have crazy passing game potential. Move the Chains is the Field General equivalent for wide receivers and tight ends as well, increasing their stats by a few points as you upgrade its tiers.
To have the most success in Madden 26's franchise mode, you should work with your offensive and defensive coordinators to maximize the reach of your abilities. That's what they're there for, after all.
Best Player and Personnel Development Abilities
These are the best player and personnel development abilities to unlock in Madden NFL 26.
- Head of the Class
- After School Tutor
- Camp Counselor
- Practician (Any)
Head of the Class should be your first priority as an Offensive Guru coach. It increases the rate at which you and your coaching staff earn XP, resulting in triple XP gains at tier four. It is insanely strong, and all you have to do is gain yards to upgrade it.
After that, you should focus on upgrading After School Tutor. Each tier grants you an additional focus player per week, with tier four granting 10% increased training XP for all players. It'll make player development so much easier. In addition, Camp Counselor will make training camp minigames much more worthwhile, greatly increasing their XP rewards and even giving them a higher chance of upgrading development traits for players at tier four.
Once you've secured those skills, you should unlock the Practician abilities to round things out. Practician is available for multiple positions, and it increases players' training XP gains. It's a small buff, but a 20% increase at tier four is nothing to scoff at.
With these coaching skills, you'll be able to dominate offensively in Madden NFL 26. This will leave some defensive blind spots, however, so make sure to work with your coaching staff to fill any holes in your lineup. As long as you have some decent talent on your team, though, you'll be able to make it far as an NFL coach. You can always trade for some new players if you need to bulk up your roster, anyway.
- Released
- August 14, 2025
- Developer(s)
- EA Tiburon
- Publisher(s)
- EA
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Franchise
- Madden NFL
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Sports
