FOF 2004 - Position switch causes big gains

[QuikSand]

Just thought I'd post this - it's something I have never seen before.

I had a particularly frustrating player, who played a skill position. In his sixth season, I decided to switch his position -- a major switch, from one position group to the other.

I knew to expect a dropoff in ratings -- this player had about the right sixe for the new role, and my scout predicte he'd switch at 75%, plus he'd lose a lot of current ratings due to loss of experience. Okay, I did it anyway.

The switch was about what I had expected, with him losing some ground but still looking pretty good in the relevant areas - with one strange exception. The player, in the switch, suddenly developed excellent return ratings -- he went from zero to 70+ in both punt returns and kickoff returns, to my surprise.

I have never seen anything like that happen before. Has anyone else?

[WSUCougar]

It must be that all-chitterling diet. ;)

[cthomer5000]

RB to WR or something?

And no, i've never seen anything like this.

[QuikSand]

RB to WR, yes.

I'm hazarding a guess here -- that perhaps when a player is switched to a position (like WR) where the position is associated with punt and kick returns, the game might do some sort of "dice roll" to determine whether the player will indeed have ratings in those areas (a separate determination that we see with other skills) -- since it might be the case that the player never had that opportunity before (if he is switching fron a non-returner position group). In this case, though, I could see that the player clearly had zeroes there before... and after the switch he suddenly became a star returner.

I'm baffled - but that's my best explanation.

[Darkiller]

cool to hear that.
Haven't experience that before but will pay a lot of attention before cutting a RB now, may be interesting to "evaluate" his return skills before making any roster moves.

[Darkiller]

dola :

So, should the Musketeers expect to see that mysterious man returning punts and kickoffs in the game between our teams in two weeks time ? ;)

[QuikSand]

No, this was in a single player career.

[gstelmack]

When did you do this switch? If it was at training camp or some other time when busts/breakouts occur, maybe he was ready for a breakout and would have been a better RB if you had left him alone? Maybe he picked up the skill in TC as a WR?

Of course, if this was just "FA Stage 7" or something, then I've got nothin'.

[QuikSand]

Hmmm... interesting question.

I made the switch in the offseason, during the early FA period, before training camp. The results (including the new return skills) were evident immediately - I didn't have to wait until after training camp, for instance.

This was a basically topped-out RB, incidentally - most ratings were in the 90 range or so... after the switch most of his relevant receiving ratings were around 40/80 or thereabouts.

(Yes, I realize that coverting a 5th year maxed-out RB to a new position is a largely insane thing to do... the specific circumstances made it a fairly reasonable option)