FOF2001 Roster Management: Position Depth

[Morgado]

We all have seen the horrors that injuries can do to a team during a run at the playoffs. The best case scenario is when you can put that 2-3 month guy on the bench and plug in a second string veteran who's been with the team for a few seasons until he heals.

But this is not always the case.

In FOF2001 and the NFL, we have to maintain a 46 man active roster with a 7 inactive player list for a total of 53. Several things are considered when we make our final roster decisions after camp:

1. How important is a position to my scheme and how bad is it if I lose the starter?
2. How much endurance does a starter at a given position have and hoe often will the backup rotate in?
3. How likely is an injury to occur to a player at a given position?
4. How many formations do I use involving a particular position?

A good example is a tight end. If you run a lot of short passing (1), and have a great pass catcher who doesn't have high endurance (2) but run out of a lot of 1-2 TE sets (4), then you usually want to have a decent backup who can give the guy a breather or even take over in an emergency (3). Defenses based around dominant linebacking and DT out of a 3-4 or solid Nickel play around a stacked secondary are other examples of systems that would require consideration when deciding which positions to back up and with what quality.

The 64 Dollar Question:

How do you fill out your 53 man roster and why do you provide depth at the particular positions? This is a generic question not accounting for particular star caliber players. With the system you normally run, which positions get that extra backup?

For me, I run the 75 Offense and Nebraska Defense from the Variation thread. This is the roster I normally use:

4 QB
4 RB
2 FB
2 TE
5 WR
1 KR/WR

2 C
4 G
4 T
1 P
1 K

4 DE
4 DT
2 ILB
4 OLB

4 CB
1 KR/CB
4 S

I know there is no official kick returner position, but I usually dedicate one WR and one CB slot to full fledged PR/KR specialists who really have no other skills. Those guys are usually maxed out on return skills and endurance though.

The big places I look for depth are what I consider the injury prone positions: RB, LB, OG, OT, CB. Given tradeoffs in getting quality backups, I will pursue quality backups in these places first. Why not QB? I'm gambling that if my offensive line play is good enough, the QB won't be sacked as much and be less likely to suffer an injury. Usually this gamble works out, especially since the offense I run is mainly ground oriented and the ball is rushed most of the time. People not directly involved in the play do have a nonzero probability of being injured, but a very very low one.

The placest where the biggest dropoff in performance when going from starter to backup is usually at the QB and RB positions. No other positions in the game have such a significant impact on your team's chances of success. Even without mucho gusto wideouts, a top notch QB can still move the ball in a dink and dunk scheme and the loss of one LB in an otherwise quality front seven is not disastrous. However, even the best receivers cannot catch balls thrown to opposing free safeties and the best linemen cannot push the ballcarrier to help boost his breakway speed (so even key blocks just get 4-5 yards).

Such "key" positions I think are of the second tier importance to back up since although not injury prone positions, they are critical. These would be QB, DT, S, and RB (so RB is doubly important to have a viable backup!).

Places I don't believe quality depth really matters too much: CB, DE, and WR. Honestly, if you're maintaining a really deep OL and can keep your QB healthy, I think you can do fine in a short passing game with scrubs who have good run after catch ability (I tried this before in a career and got good results). As for CB, i've already said elsewhere that I feel S is the INT manufacturing position - and INTs are really what matters most in pass coverage for FOF2001 (unfortunately). DE... well, I don't really care too much about sacks and DEs really don't figure much into my defensive philosophy (stop the run). IN fact, most of the time my starting DEs aren't all that fabulous.

[Ben E Lou]

First of all, here is my normal roster:

3QB
4RB
2FB
3TE
4WR
1WR/KR/PR
3C
4G
4T
1P
1K
4DE
4DT
6LB
4CB
1CB/KR/PR
4S

I tend to go after quality backups at RB,LB,G and S.

[ibdb]

I run a slightly tweaked 75 Offense, and a pretty standard 4-3 defense, typically favoring man to man and the nickel. My LBs haven't been big pass rushers, but I'm going to start moving that direction.

3 QB
3 RB
2 FB
3 TE
5 WR
1 KR/WR

2 C
4 G
4 T
1 P
1 K

4 DE
4 DT
2 ILB
4 OLB

5 CB
1 KR/CB
4 S

I typically keep a developing CB around, because contract demands at the position can get outrageous, and I'd rather take the cohesion hit than pay through the nose to keep all but my stars around.

I'd also like to drop one TE in favor of another RB, but my universe seems to provide me with a steady stream of quality RBs, and only a trickle of quality TEs. I frequently have a star FB, and get the second FB some playing time at TE.

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The city of Houston was named after Sam, not Dean.

[This message has been edited by ibdb (edited 01-25-2001).]

[QuikSand]

For what it's worth, I have practically no pattern to my use of reserves on my current team. I keep reserve players for a combination of reasons-- but mostly of two sorts: developing players with multi-year contracts, and players on the team simply to fulfill my self-imposed "home state" rules.

In general, my extra playerstend to fall into the positions where there is some level of quyality among the URFAs, since that's where most of my inactive players are acquired. Thus, I tend to have an extra C or G (rather than a tackle), perhaps an extra RB, and an extra guy at DT or LB (rather than DE).

However, I really don't/can't follow a pattern, even as a general guide.

I do not (as Morgado seems to) always maintain the possibilityo to completely de-activate any given player. For instance, I rarely carry more than 3 QBs, and if one gets hurt-- he just goes to the bottom of the depth chart.