What skills are important per position?

[Malificent]

I'm trying to get a grasp on what skills have value for the different positions. For example:

Safeties - They need zone coverage nowadays it seems, but are mtm or bump important for them at all? Does the free safety need run defense?

Which linebackers need zone? Which need run defense? Is any linebacker better to blitz from? Run defense for DTs and pass rush for DEs? Do blocking skills really matter for TEs? How about blocking strength for the offensive line?

As you can see, I have a long list of random questions. So, at the core, I'm looking for what skills are key valuation skills at each position and which are pretty much meaningless.

Thoughts?

[Draft Dodger]

noob

[Malificent]

Well, yeah. I barely knew what I was doing in 2k4.

[jbergey22]

The strong safety will need bump and man , a lot of times they will need to guard the te or rb. Bump likely isnt as important but its nothing to overlook.

Most blitzing from the lb position comes from the weak outside especially in the 3-4 of course any linebacker can blitz if they are good at it.

LDE is generally the pass rushing DE while the RDE is generally the bigger run stopping DE. Same thing for DT's. What skills you look for in your LB's is up to you and your philosophy, if you want to blitz take blitzing LBs if you want to stop the run pick run stopping LBS.

Same for offensive linemen, pretty self explanatory there. yes blocking is VERy important for TE's.

Moral of story, the best part of this game is the fact you can create your team on what you believe makes good strategy!

[Richard Weed]

What jbergey said. I'd also look for a Strong-Side Linebacker with good Man coverage skills so he can cover the TE.

[QuikSand]

The strong safety will need bump and man , a lot of times they will need to guard the te or rb. Bump likely isnt as important but its nothing to overlook.

Most blitzing from the lb position comes from the weak outside especially in the 3-4 of course any linebacker can blitz if they are good at it.

LDE is generally the pass rushing DE while the RDE is generally the bigger run stopping DE. Same thing for DT's. What skills you look for in your LB's is up to you and your philosophy, if you want to blitz take blitzing LBs if you want to stop the run pick run stopping LBS.

Same for offensive linemen, pretty self explanatory there. yes blocking is VERy important for TE's.

Moral of story, the best part of this game is the fact you can create your team on what you believe makes good strategy!

Does any of the above actually come from FOF 2007? Or is this mostly from your thoughts about the NFL or other football?

There are a number of things in there that I'm pretty sure I've never seen tested with any version of FOF, much less the latest version, which was the basis for the initial question.


You say/suggest that the SLB needs man coverage, but not really bump. If you use a bump coverage scheme, how do you know that your SLB will be in man coverage on the TE and not in bump coverage? And you don't even mention zone coverage - is that never used by a SLB? What if you use the strong side zone/weak side man coverage?

In a 3-4, in FOF 2007, the weak side backer does not blitz - he is simply part of the base pass rush package. You will find him absent from the list of blitz options.

As for OL, sure, "blocking" is important, but the question was about "blocking strength." Do you know that this rating is important in FOF 2007? Anything to back that up? Plenty of evidence from FOF 2004 suggested it was by far the least important of the OL skills... but I really don't know whether that is the same in the newer version of the game.

Blocking for TEs was asked, presumably, because the game has not always accounted for sacks yielded by the TE, and it still may not (I don't recall whether this got patched). I think Jim has indicated that the TE is/was included in the calculations that yield the pass rush results, but perhaps not in the mechanism that assigns the blame for the sack allowed.


Hope these thoughts are helpful to the original poster, and to the respondent from above.

[RedKingGold]

To echo some of Quik's thoughts, your best bet might be to view the reference thread (the last of the stickied threads) to see some tests that have been run by members of the community to back-up Quik's statements.

It might not be a perfect roadmap, but it is the best source out there for how some facets of the game might really "work" under the hood.

[RedKingGold]

dola

Also, check out "Coach's Corner" threads posted by our own EF27. There is an archive sticked to the top of the FOF2K7 board. It is a better reference to more modern testing occuring with FOF2K7.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

As for OL, sure, "blocking" is important, but the question was about "blocking strength." Do you know that this rating is important in FOF 2007? Anything to back that up? Plenty of evidence from FOF 2004 suggested it was by far the least important of the OL skills... but I really don't know whether that is the same in the newer version of the game.

An interesting discovey for me was the fact I did not put much emphasis on blocking strength in 2K4. And I think that was the right way to go. But I just noticed on a Greta list regarding best blocking TEs. Judging by the combo of the 3 blocking ratings (run, pass, strength), it seemed the strength rating was getting a healthy share of the calculation -- whatever the hell that means.

[jbergey22]

Does any of the above actually come from FOF 2007? Or is this mostly from your thoughts about the NFL or other football?


Good question QuikSand, It comes from my thoughts about the NFL and I had never done any tests on it to know one way or another, in fact it might ruin some part of the game for me if I did do a test and wasnt accurate enough for my liking. From the tests that some people did on previous versions I do feel confident enough that Jim takes all of this inot cosideration so IMO it is all in there somewhere.

[Kozure]

This was taken out of the help file that comes with FOF2007. Thought it may help some of you.

"We have received many questions about how a player's coverage ratings translate into these coverage options. The answer is complex. On each play, a defensive player is assigned a coverage rating based on the chosen coverage, the position he plays and the targetted receiver.

Cornerbacks, even when in zone coverage, need to have man-to-man and/or bump-and-run skills because they are almost always responsible for a wide receiver close to the line of scrimmage. And safeties, especially the free safety, even when in man coverage are often essentially playing a zone. The strong-side linebacker is often assigned to the tight end.

We recommend you try out different lineups, especially in the Nickel and Dime situations, and see which coverages work best for your players. There's a lot of flexibility in this system."