Okay, extracting this isn't as easy as I had hoped, my print-to-file isn't working on this computer, alas. So, here's a screenshot of my roster sorted by ST snaps:
in-view pic seems too tedious, so
https://i.paste.pics/8RKU9.png
So, let's see here. We'd like to know WHO was getting used without being assigned as "encouraged" first, and maybe a breakdown into position groups would be nice to see, too. I'll do what I can.
Pos Name ST E/N - ST snaps
QB - none encouraged, no snaps
P/K
K Cortez NA N - 135 snaps = 40 FGA + 95? kickoffs (48 TD + 34 FG + 16)
P Frederick NA N - 121 snaps = 40 FGA + 81 punts
...there's a seeming kickoff discrepancy there (end of half scores I suppose), but no indication that the P/K are being trotted out to play a "position" for special teams, which would be bad
RB/FB
FB Lusignan 100 E - 393 snaps
RB Lester 59 N - 95 snaps
RB Podolyak 47 N - 0 snaps
Takeaway... well, the 100-rated guy led the team in ST snaps, that's what we'd want. It seemed to want another guy...can't tell whether this was "a second back" or "one more guy than you have available" but that's what we've got here. Noteworthy - the higher-ST-rated got used 100% of the time it dipped into the non-encouraged RB pool.
TE Barrett 92 Y - 393
TE Weydahl 90 Y - 293
TE Austin 30 N - 0
Perfect.
WR Conway 37 E - 311 (oops, rookie accidentally left as "encouraged")
WR Stocz 84/97 E - 172
WR Mathews 24 N - 100
WR Bernal 19 N - 1
WR Franz 34 N - 0
WR Slade 71 N - 0
WR Dugas 19/30 E - 0 (hmmm, accidentally E, but why didn't he get in?)
Okay, weirdness here. Perhaps my oversights will help shed some light here, though? One note - the guys who were earning "starts" here were Conway, Stocz, and Dugas... but the 212 lineup appears to feature Franz and Bernal (and that seems to be the "starters" in game for some purposes, like maybe a routine to avoid overtaxing starters by using them in special teams, which once was a setting in the game...and seems like there's potential it looms in the background when the AI needs to make the call).
WR Mathews was our primary punt returner, that likely explains most of his ST snaps.
Let's consider why Dugas, tagged as "encouraged" would get zero ST snaps. Maybe the game simply is hard-coded to take two guys from tehe WR group, and it grabs the highest-rated ST guys who are encouraged. In this zero-injury league, he was always the third guy, left out. That's the leading explanation, I'd say.
(TBA, so I don't lost typed-in text)