How to perform a pass in Madden 21

If you’re new to the Madden franchise, you may be wondering how passing works in the game. After all, it’s an important part of scoring in real football, and the same can be said for Madden. Luckily for beginners, the learning curve for passing in Madden is relatively quick, and figuring out the controls is pretty straightforward.

Before you perform a pass, you need to call a passing play on the play-call screen. A simple way to do this is to select Play Type at the play-call menu and scroll until you see the Play option. From there, you will see a variety of short, standard, and shotgun passes to choose from. If you want to go more in-depth and select a passing play from a specific formation (i.e., I Formation, Shotgun), you can choose the Formation option at the play-call screen, and you can find a play from different setups from there. To select a specific concept (i.e., Slants, Post), hit the Concept option. You can also pick plays with a specific number of eligible receivers (i.e., 3 WR, 1 TE, or 2 WR, 2 TE) by selecting the Personnel option.

Once you have called a play and are on the field, press A/X to snap the football. Once you do that, the quarterback will move back into the pocket, and you will have many eligible receivers to choose from. To throw to a particular receiver, press the button that is above that target. The buttons that are used to target receivers are RB/Y/X/B/A for the Xbox One and X/Square/Triangle/Circle/R1 for the PlayStation 4.

The length of time that you press on the button will also affect what kind of pass it will be. If you press and hold a button to target a receiver for a very short time, the pass will be a Bullet Pass, which is fast and straighter. If you lightly touch it, the pass will be a Lob, which has a higher apex and is not as fast as a straight Bullet Pass. You can also modify the pass by hitting LB/L1 for high passes, and LT/L2 for low passes.

If you’re feeling the heat from the pass rush and want to get rid of the ball quickly, a throw away option is also available. To do this, press and hold the middle of the right stick to throw it away to the sidelines. Keep in mind that you need to scramble and throw it away outside of the pocket, or otherwise you will get an intentional grounding penalty.