Which Lbs Where in a 3-4

[Abe Sargent]

Hello All!

I'm not this question is a FOF8 question vs a normal FOF one, so I pulled it out of the FOF 8 thread instead


I just moved to a 3-4 and have one year of experience with it. This is my first time actually playing with a 3-4 in like two or three editions of FOF. But
I just keep getting massive LB talent to come to me in the draft, it seemed like a natural segue. here;s a stud 3-4 LB i just grabbed in the draft. Where is the best spot for him in my team?

Is it teh same for FOF8 as previous editions?

The one I am trying to figure out is the rookie Rincon in the upper right corner. I pulled the other three starters so you see them as well

https://s12.postimg.org/dudxpz259/Untitledlb2.png


Thoughts?


Don;t know if it matters but this is where the game puts them with a recommend:


Rincon SLB
Nelson SILB
Horton WILB
Kraucheck WLB

I got Horton 3 years ago, Nelson 2, Krau last year, and Rincon this one.

[wustin]

WLB is the monster pass rushing spot, so I would have Rincon swap positions with your current WLB.

WLB is the main edge rusher, SLB should be able to do a little of everything (drop back, blitz, etc.), and the MLBs should also be able to do a little bit of everything but more focused on run stopping.

[Noop]

You have an elite linebacker corps. What kind of stats are they producing for you?

[Dawgfan19]

WLB is the monster pass rushing spot, so I would have Rincon swap positions with your current WLB.

WLB is the main edge rusher, SLB should be able to do a little of everything (drop back, blitz, etc.), and the MLBs should also be able to do a little bit of everything but more focused on run stopping.

Except Rincon is very light for a 3-4 WLB. With all the chatter about the importance of weight, defenders are not all about big red bars anymore.

We also can no longer make assumptions about our knowledge of FOF 7. For example, PRT was king for 3-4 WLBs. With the launch of FOF 8, PRS may play a bigger role. And Kraucheck has a near maxed out PRS bar.

I'd be careful overriding REX.

[Darkmatter]

At the moment it's really impossible to tell you, except to say that the engine seems to to take weight into consideration much more heavily than in previous versions.

If this were FOF7, I would have turned Rincon into a SILB and put Dean as my WLB. A SILB is on the field at every play, so you want your best overall LB in that role. Likewise, in FoF8, I'd be going into my defensive personnel and making sure Rincon is seeing as much action as his stamina allows.

[Abe Sargent]

You have an elite linebacker corps. What kind of stats are they producing for you?

Nothing too great yet.

So I inherited one great young LB on team, Kirksey, with a high 70s rating. I had 50s and 60s potential backers elsewhere. And I built my franchise very quickly around my front 7. FOr a while, all of my front 7 were set.

In particular, I had a stud D Line. A UFA got 15 sacks his first year as a rookie, and I played the crap out of him. He's now in his 8th year with me, and dropped this off season to 50/50, he has 110.5 sacks in 7 years, and had three ALL Pro and 1 Defensive Player fo tehj Year award, with 25 sacks in a season and 7 in a game, setting records for both of those. The following year I drafted DE Julio Stanton, who missed 11 games his first year, and DPotY twice, entering his 7th year, has 86.5 sacks, and 4 All Pros. Stanton was the best non-K in the league overall. And he played like it. Meanwhile I signed, in FA, DT McGee who the game rated as a 71/71 guy, and was great. He was injured for a year and a half, but he still came back and played strongly. The next year I signed Bennie Logan, DT from FA and paid him serious money. He was the 3rd best DT and was ALl Pro for me the year before I signed him, and two years for me. In fact twice in the three years they all played for me, Logan and my two DEs got ALl Pro.

I had to let McGee go. No one else could do as well as he could, I had an 86/86 guy at one end, mid 60s at the other, and two 70s in the middle. Then after a year of trying to make the D Line work, I swapped over to 3-4, adn planning on using Santon. But in his 31st year in th league, he was dropping, and was no longer someone I relayed on for, so I let him go.

Meanwhile at the backers, I drafted a solid guy named Banda, and resigned Ogbah, already on the Cleveland roster. I ran Ogbah at WLB because he could rush, Banda at SLB and Kirksey at center. Kirksey was all pro twice, once in 2016 when he was pretty much the only player on the team, and the other in 2020 when he led all LBs in sacks, picks, passes defensed, and if he had kept up his momentum in the last 2 weeks, I think he would have pushed Stanton for DPotY.

Ogbah did okay, but nothing amazing. Banda was fine. But he had an All Pro season in 2021.

So I drafted LB Vince Horton a back in 2020 in the back of the 5th round. He was a BAP pick, even though he preferred a 3-4. And I let him start at WLB and moved Ogbah, who was older and expensive and never that great, to start as a 2nd year player in the penultimate year of my 4-3 defense. Then in teh 2021 draft, Nelson fell to me at 2.32 and I grabbed him, as another 3-4 preference backer who was a BAP.

In 2022 draft, I wasn;t looking for LBs that much when Krauchick fell to me in the back of the 4th. Alright, that;s fine. I had just moved to 3-4 so I grabbed him.

Int eh first year of my 3-4, I started Banda, Kirksey, Stanton and Horton in these spots:

Horton - WILB
Nelson - WLB
Banda - SLB
Kirksey - SILB

In those four roles...


Player Pos Team GP GS Tckl Asst Sack Blkd Hurr QBKd
Kirksey, Chris ILB CLE 16 16 101 36 3.5 1 4 6
Banda, Robert OLB CLE 16 16 92 27 2.5 3 7 0
Nelson, Sawyer ILB CLE 16 16 84 26 4.5 4 4 1
Horton, Vince ILB CLE 13 5 43 10 0.0 1 0 0

Player Pos Team GP GS Ints IRYd TD Defn Cght PPly PDPct
Banda, Robert OLB CLE 16 16 3 67 1 6 51 637 76.4
Kirksey, Chris ILB CLE 16 16 2 8 0 4 43 640 76.6
Horton, Vince ILB CLE 13 5 1 0 0 0 17 173 72.3
Nelson, Sawyer ILB CLE 16 16 1 1 0 3 32 559 77.0



So nothing amazing in there. Banda dropped again in training, and was in the high 50s. And these four all prefer 3-4s, and he didn;t. So i cut him. And Kirksey is still on my roster, but dropped to 63/63

Anyways, Krau and Rincon have never started in this role.

So I just want to make sure I have the right guys in the right seats, before I begin my season. There's no reason this lB corps shouldn;t dominate. I need to make that happen. I even went after a DC in the off-season with a great play calling.

[Abe Sargent]

Oh, and Horton didnt get many sacks at 4-3 WLB despite huge pass rush tech, but minimal prs, so I agree, that pass rush strength may be more valuable than before.


Here's a pic of the LBs in the league listed by future potential:

https://s17.postimg.org/4qnbuhnkv/defense2023.png

(In case you care, I included super stud DE Stanton and my new DC in case that mattes)

[Abe Sargent]

Well,at the end of the season i went 10-6, and Rincon at SLB was both Defensive rookie of the year but also All Pro 2nd team, and led all Lbs with 11.5 sacks,

Krauchick was 8 sacks, and led all LBS with 5 blocks.

Others weren;t as good

[Abe Sargent]

In order to make sure this thing worked, I decided to push my NT to the top. I traded up and grabbed:

https://s15.postimg.org/ewke9xjjf/Alcott_i.png

This nasty horse. They say you need a great DT to make a 3-4 work, right?