How to choose?

[merry]

Hi,
After I have my starters and some back up extras, say 35 players I have maybe 18 spots left to fill.
I have (1) affinities, (2)cohesion and (3)special teams to think about.
Often I cannot easily double these up.
What priority should I use? What weights?
Thank you,
Merry

[aston217]

I always favor the young pipeline, promising rookies who might start or be valuable backups later on. I don't cut young talent unless they are really marginal.

ST would be #1 on my priority after that, mainly because I can't be bothered looking up birthdays. If I can get useful affinity players, great. If I can't, it's good to be competitive in ST and not very hard to do so.

Cohesion is also sort of just an "If I have it, great", because it's calculated based on the players on the field. So if you're talking about a guy who's been on the team for 10 years but you never even make him active, what's the point.

[Autumn]

Yeah, I would probably prioritize 1. special teams, 2. affinities, 3. cohesion.

Special teams is going to give you yardage every single drive, every single game. If you can produce a ten yard gap between you and your opponents on field position, you can give up an extra first down, or make one less first down, every single drive. That's huge.

I at least make sure, if I have a QB that will be my guy for years, that I focus on getting triple affinities with him. I think it's worth the time to find the right offensive leaders with strong personality and the right birthdays. If I don't have enough time I'll pay less attention to the defense, but at least get the offense right.

Cohesion I feel is more an added bonus. If you get the right players you're going to keep them and gather cohesion. It's something to think about in the sense that trading up for slightly better talent at a position might not be worth it due to a cohesion hit, but I'd rather get the right guys, including the right affinities and special teams players, then have the wrong guys with good cohesion.