Who are your keepers?

[RogueHominid]

I'm sure he's not universally beloved, but I'm falling in love with Rocket Ismail. He runs kicks back for scores and makes 2-3 big plays for me a game on offense. He's got enough strength to break tackles, and he's murder in the open field. He's my #4 offensive option, and he's great in that role--not the guy you'd make your go-to, but a really nice, versatile weapon. He'll drop the occasional ball, but he's a bronze, so I live with it.

[Arles]

Even though I have Marino, Rice, St. Clair, D Clark and Okoye, a guy I am growing to love is Tom Rathman. He lays out LBs as a lead blocker, has soft hands as an outlet and gets 6-7 YPC as a runner. His effectiveness running is what's surprised me. I'm seriously thinking about swapping out OKoye for another player given how effective Rathman's been. He's a horse to bring down and it take more defenders to tackle him than Okoye.

I also nominate Greg LLoyd. He's the heart of my D. I just stick him on the opposing RB and blitz him on passing downs. He's everywhere and there are plays when I blitz him on the right side, the QB swings it to the RB on the left and LLoyd still makes the tackle 4 yards downfield. He's like having two extra legends on D. Given the choice between him and Butkis in games I've played, I would take LLoyd all day.

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by Arles

Even though I have Marino, Rice, St. Clair, D Clark and Okoye, a guy I am growing to love is Tom Rathman. He lays out LBs as a lead blocker, has soft hands as an outlet and gets 6-7 YPC as a runner. His effectiveness running is what's surprised me. I'm seriously thinking about swapping out OKoye for another player given how effective Rathman's been. He's a horse to bring down and it take more defenders to tackle him than Okoye. I also nominate Greg LLoyd. He's the heart of my D. I just stick him on the opposing RB and blitz him on passing downs. He's everywhere and there are plays when I blitz him on the right side, the QB swings it to the RB on the left and LLoyd still makes the tackle 4 yards downfield. He's like having two extra legends on D. Given the choice between him and Butkis in games I've played, I would take LLoyd all day.

Yeah, I've played lots against Lloyd, and he is everywhere and near-invincible.

[biglami]

Lloyd is nice

[maskedmarvel]

Another vote for Lloyd. Assign him to the other team's best back, and he's like a heat seeking missile -- almost never gets caught in traffic, and is GREAT at covering swing passes (I think the footseps ability helps). I'm also a huge Chris Warren fan -- he's good at everything, and really good if you're more of a block follower than a joystick jockey.

Those are my stalwarts.

For golds, I love Rod Woodson for his versatility -- good special teamer, solid in coverage, awesome in run support, can cover tight ends pretty well -- and also Joe Montana. Montana's ball is almost always catchable, and it just seems to find recievers through small windows in zone defense and despite tight man coverage.

On the bronze level, I concur with Albert Lewis. He's seldom out of position and makes plays for me in zone coverage as well. I love John Taylor -- he plays like a silver -- and at tight end I alternate between Ben Coates and Metz. Both are hosses. (Eric Green makes some great catches, too, even though he's a mediocre route runner). Clyde Simmons is great when paired with a silver/gold DE on the other side. Just now experimenting with a Fridge/Salmenua (spelling?) duo at DT, they seem pretty destructive so far.

Also, I recommend trying Bill Curry at center. For some reason, my line seems to block twice as well when I have him on my roster. Maybe it's the leadership ability.

[Red Ronin]

Yeah, I've got Bill Curry at Center on my ALL LEADERSHIP team, the Jackson STALLIONS. I put Steve Wisniewski and Tom Mack on either side of him at Guard. They block extremely well for Walter Payton. I'm not sure if the LEADERSHIP ability stacks or not, but everyone on the team, both sides of the ball, plays better than I had gotten used to in times past.

I have Dan Saleamua and William Perry on my first rendition of the Los Angeles Wings. Unfortunately when I created the team I inadvertently set everyone of my Generic players to "Balanced" because I couldn't understand the stupid user interface. On teams since then I have set the Generic Players on the Defensive Line to RUN SUPPORT and I get much better performance overall.


Red Ronin

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by maskedmarvel

Another vote for Lloyd. Assign him to the other team's best back, and he's like a heat seeking missile -- almost never gets caught in traffic, and is GREAT at covering swing passes (I think the footseps ability helps). I'm also a huge Chris Warren fan -- he's good at everything, and really good if you're more of a block follower than a joystick jockey. Those are my stalwarts. For golds, I love Rod Woodson for his versatility -- good special teamer, solid in coverage, awesome in run support, can cover tight ends pretty well -- and also Joe Montana. Montana's ball is almost always catchable, and it just seems to find recievers through small windows in zone defense and despite tight man coverage. On the bronze level, I concur with Albert Lewis. He's seldom out of position and makes plays for me in zone coverage as well. I love John Taylor -- he plays like a silver -- and at tight end I alternate between Ben Coates and Metz. Both are hosses. (Eric Green makes some great catches, too, even though he's a mediocre route runner). Clyde Simmons is great when paired with a silver/gold DE on the other side. Just now experimenting with a Fridge/Salmenua (spelling?) duo at DT, they seem pretty destructive so far. Also, I recommend trying Bill Curry at center. For some reason, my line seems to block twice as well when I have him on my roster. Maybe it's the leadership ability.

I'll second the Chris Warren vote. I put him on a team just to mess around and was really impressed. I'd like to go back and make a team with him to take online.

And you're right about Albert Lewis. Even though I lost both of the games I played since I made the switch from McDaniel, he wasn't the reason. He gave up one big third down conversion, but swatted several balls because of his height and long arms, and played excellent defense on the whole, helping out much more than McDaniel in the running game. I think it's neat that size does play a factor at that position, and Albert gives you a little more of that.

[beal209]

Gold - Derrick Thomas just makes plays all over the field
Silver - Lem Barney Coverage and a kick returner its a value pick
Bronze - Chris Okoye Hes a beast in the running game