RT moves to LT rating drop question

[cyril]

When a RT moves to LT, most of the time his rating drops by 10% or more, I wonder if that is being forced artificially to mimick real life situation, or whether there is a real performance difference between protecting the left and right side in the game's engine?

Are QBs in FOF more prone to sacks on the blind side?

[RedKingGold]

There's no written documentation, but I remember Jim saying in one of those IRC NFL Draft Chat back in the day that the LT is the most important position on the OL.

[Jughead Spock]

I'm all sorts of confused about LT/RT. I have a monster RT in WOOF, that would suffer the same 10%+ drop if I move him to LT... but the game keeps insisting on me playing him at LT. Craziness.

I also still maintain that the game is left-handed. Strong side (TE) is usually on the right, making LT (in the NFL) so important because of the QB's blind spot. At least according to the in-game formations, the TE is setting up left most of the time.

But again, I think too much in terms of left/right, when it's more likely it's just LT = best OT, and he takes on best DL(?).

[cyril]

when it's more likely it's just LT = best OT, and he takes on best DL(?).

assuming if RDE is the best DL, that would be true. In the league I am in, a lot of teams have their best ends as LDE, which means that the RT faces the best rusher as often as the LT, rendering the importance of LT over RT simply an artificially enforced one (by lowering the rating when RT converts to LT) rather than an in-game necessity.

A related observation is the run direction. IRL I think there are more runs towards the right side than on the left side, making the RT's run blocking abilities more important. But again the league I am in, left vs right runs are pretty even.

Unless the game engine makes a QB more prone to sacks on the left (blind) side, I wonder what makes LT more important than RT.

[LondonBrown]

I bet there are no southpaw QBs in the game!