Play-action rate

FTN charts every dropback for whether the offense showed a run fake before the throw. Play-action rate is those dropbacks divided by all of them. It counts the fake itself rather than the formation — a snap from under center with no fake is not play action, and a fake out of shotgun is.

A run fake asks second-level defenders to commit for a beat, and the throwing lane behind a linebacker who took that beat is the whole return on it. The rate is worth knowing before a season rather than after, because it is a coordinator's habit rather than a quarterback's improvisation and it barely moves week to week. The Rams ran it on 34.6% of dropbacks in 2025 and the Chiefs on 15.2%, a spread wide enough to change what a passing game looks like: heavier play action tends to mean deeper throws and more work for tight ends and backs releasing late, because those are the routes the hesitation opens.

Play action needs the threat of a run more than the run itself, so an offense that abandons it while trailing loses the tool exactly when it is behind. And the rate says nothing about whether the fake worked — it counts the attempt, not the beat it bought.