I have 5 key things I manage every season in every league and I will begin to share some of those in this thread moving forward.
They are:
1) Position Number Ideals
2) Roster Overall thoughts by position
3) Lowest Common Denominator
4) Needs and score brackets
5) Weekly point tracking
Broken down further they look like this.
1) Position Number Ideals
The game caps you at 70 players overall but allows you to sign up to 25 players per season. Given a 5 year potential playing career this allows for a 43% churn rate. This will encompass early draft departures, cuts, transfers and less than max class sizes. With this is mind we need to have targets numbers by position to know who to pursue, else we all have weaknesses and we will end up with a disproportionate number of our favorite players.
Its also important to remember unlike real life players dont really have caps in this game. You can count on a +5 OVR every year in the program with few exceptions. As such the longer in the program the better they are. I try to redshirt every player at some point along their journey.
After some experimentation the following works well for me and its what I strive for and you will find rarely do I vary more than 1 away from this in any league at any given time.
QB - 4
This could be argued to be too high but it works for me. I like to have one red shirted every year and always to be prepared for a transfer or back up deciding to test the NFL waters. To this end, I typically sign a QB every year.
RB - 4
Similar strategy to QB. RBs typically maximize ability in year 3 so this allows a redshirt year and a year as a back up before they star as a rSo.
FB -2
I personally wouldn't carry a FB at all but the game makes me. I keep 2 so I never count on a Fr. Im typically formation subbing HBs from above into this roster spot so...whatever. I have found this to be far and away the most talent devoid position in the game so if you want a good one you either move them or sign them way early.
WR - 8
8 is the magic number here. I sign 2 every year. Sometimes more. if I anticipate early departures. I run a fair amount of 5 WR sets need 1 back up in case of fatigue or injury and redshirt the 2 freshmen. That makes 8.
TE - 3
Starter. Back Up. Young grooming (RS) talent.
OT - 6
I will tell you upfront my OL numbers are high. Remember that personal bias I mentioned above.
Anyway my thinking here is a starter and back up dedicated on each side. A swing 3rd string that doubles up on both sides and a guy red shirting.
OG - 6
See Ot
C - 3
Starter, back up and RS guy.
Offense Total: 36
DE - 6
Basically my OL philosophy carries over here. A full 3 deep depth chart at each position with only 1 guy doubling up and a RS guy.
DT - 6
When I set up my numbers I was running exclusively 4-3 Defenses. This carried over the same philosophy for my 2 DT spots. I am currently evaluating this and may be tweaking it down to 5.
OLB - 6
You are going to see a trend developing. Dedicated starter and back up for each side. swing for 3rd string on both sides and a RS guy
MLB - 3
Again in 4-3 days this made sense. As Ive experimented with 3-4 I may need to up this number. Worth noting that with 3 MLB you will be using an OLB on your MLB depth chart. My OCD doesnt like this. So I usually cheat my own system and carry 4 here.
CB - 6
This is the same tired argument from me,only its not. In this case when I run Dime I put 4 CBs on the field. this gives me 4 starters a U and a RS
FS - 3
3 deep depth chart, Nuff said.
FS - 3
See FS
Defense Total:33
Offense/Defense Total: 69
Allows me to carry 1 K/P, however in reality Im never perfect here and always have a K and a P. As I said I am now mostly carrying 5 DTs.