Nickel / Dime Backs
 

What makes a good nickel back? What makes a good dime back? How do you rank the importance of the different ratings when trying to decide who to start at each of those positions? It seems like no matter who I start in my SP career, they none do a very good job. Just looking for some advice.

Same things that make a good regular CB - coverage skills and INT skills. Having a decent (rated over 40 roughly) third CB can make a lot of difference in shutting down good offenses.

I like the coverage skills. And to go along with those is a good interception rating and/or a good play diagnosis rating. And is better of course, but I will take one or the other.

So do they need to be decent at all three coverages?

CB's,more pass coverage than run.
Safeties, I tend to try and find equal skills in run and pass.

Decent INT ratings is also a plus.

Are you playing a 3-4? Nickelback's stats are depressed in a 3-4 so you may not be seeing the impact he's having on your pass defense. This is just a bug. If you're in a 4-3, see the advice above. Just get another good corner basically.

Starting CBs ideally should be well balanced.

Nickleback somewhere inbetween these two.

Your dimeback can usually get by with much less run d, play diagnose, and endurance.
I like to see more "coverage" based skills...roughly in this order zone,int,m2m,bnr.