Roster Size

[don_20]

I've noticed during the preseason you can only have 46 active players. The NFL has a roster size of 90 players but must be cut down to 53 by week 3 of the exhibition season and by the start of the season down to 46 (7 inactive). I just started a new season and the first week of preseason the game requires the roster to be set to 46 active players.

How am I able to evaluate players if I'm limited to a 46 player roster in the first week of preseason? Does anyone else agree?

I do not believe there is a limit of active players until the regular season. I have not found anything other than the required roster size and active player requirements after week 3 of the preseason.

[ozias]

It's 46, so just make all of your very good players inactive, and start the players who you are trying to learn about, ie. the rookies, and younger players.

[mtolson]

I also wish this was changed. Generally starters do play in almost all preseason games even if only for 1 series. In the past I think making them inactive in the game would result in them becoming rusty. Hopefully this is something Jim could look into changing.

[Bigdummie]

I also think it should be expanded to your full roster, how are you supposed to evaluate the talent if they are inactive? Starters need to play some also, but the second half is for the subs to make a splash.

[BowTieSports]

Personally, I don't have an issue with the roster limit. At the end of the day there isn't enough data generated to be able to be able to evaluate talent and make a performance-based decision between your back-end roster players... maybe over the course of a full season there is, but not in 2 preseason games with a First, Second, and Third Team offense and defense each getting a couple of series.

In "real life" coaches can watch the film and see if a guy was in the correct position and executed his assignment correctly on a play. In FOF, if a run goes strong-side we have no idea if the weak-side linebacker made the proper read or if he got blasted off the ball -- unless he's credited with a tackle on the play. Similarly, for OL we don't know how well each guy blocked on a play, only if he's credited with a Key Run Block Opportunity or with a Sack Allowed. We don't know if a DB got burned every play he was out there, but QB didn't throw in his direction or if the DB was providing blanket coverage and forced the QB to throw away from him.

Realistically all the data we'd have to go on is making a decision between OLinemen with 5-or-fewer key block opportunities and maybe 1 sack against. At Linebacker you're probably looking at 25-30 plays on the field and the difference between 0 tackles and 2 or 3 tackles and maybe 1 QB hurry. Those stats are as much the function of a lucky dice roll as they are player talent, so unless your scouts have guys rated even you're going to still be stuck making a call based on scout rating more than stats.

I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that even if rosters were expanded for the preseason, I believe opening day rosters would still look the same.

[Jukeman]

Yea I tried the demo and wish that there were roster cuts. It would had been cool to unlock some ratings for the late round/UDFA's that would have been on team to fill it out. I found that preseason was pointless.