Built in the Trenches

[TheDMG]

I generally pride myself on building my team from the lines out, but my current franchise in the English path is just ridiculous, even for that path.

Spoiler

Currently I've got an offensive line that from right to left that goes Selvin Lankford (96/97), Peter Boma (93/94), Ron Brown (95/95), Patrick Boma (94/94) and Javon Jackson (97/98). Peter just stepped in for Trae Harris who was a 95/95 before I traded him last draft.

The D Line is led by the Miami Monsters in the Middle, Alain Dixon (95/95) and Quincy Sims (94/97). 2nd year LE Kibo Bakari's the weak link at 89/93 and the line is rounded out by Mario Williams who I want to say is 91/93. I had intended to finish the line out with Xavier Cox instead of Williams but I was unable to deal up for him despite ridiculous amounts of trade bait and the Dolphins still won't part with the X-Factor, so I had to settle for the best player from my favorite team. There's also an an 88/89 DE (M Valley State from English year 1) who was the starter before Super Mario showed up and the ever-ready Tony Bake as well. Behind the

What are some of the scariest lines you've built, offensive or defensive? I thought I'd had some nasty ones before but nothing like this.

[cloudedskate]

Re: Built in the Trenches

How much of your cap is devoted to your line? It sounds like you have more than a few top 10 picks in there.

[MrNFL_FanIQ]

Re: Built in the Trenches

I had an o-line with the 49ers that was stacked. D'Brickashaw Ferguson at LT, Tyler Fordham (93 I think), Joe Staley at center, Shawn Andrews at RG and Jordan Gross at RT.

All in all, I think it was 95/93/89/96/93.

[fahrenheit]

Re: Built in the Trenches

Right now I have a pretty solid O line with my jets career. I'm only in my second year and I have Faneca 94-96 RG , Mangold C 93?, a big name Free Agent sign I cant remember ( RT 95/95 I believe). R Owens 91 for RG and Geoff Shaffer 89 for RT. Opens up huge holes but Thomas Jones turns 90 degrees on a dime if someone appears in front of him.

For your defensive line, how much pressure do you get and how effective is it? I've tried to build a good D Line but it never goes past a mediocre line despite great ratings.

[hawkeye2188]

Re: Built in the Trenches

With the Colts i took Faneca and Jake scott in FA, so the line is Ugoh, Faneca, Saturday, Scott, and i dont remember RT.

EDIT: Faneca might be RT.

[killxswitch]

Re: Built in the Trenches

My front 4 on the DL is
LDE: Andre Dalembert (90/94)
LDT: Albert Haynesworth (93/94)
RDT: Thaddeus Cheeks (87/92ish) (before that it was Dre Moore)
RDE: Calais Campbell (88/92)

My OL is pretty good but not ridiculous, my tackles are both 91 and my interior OL is in the high 80s.

My LBs are also ridiculous. Keith Rivers (94 pot), Patrick Willis (95 pot), and Thomas Howard (92 pot). Last season my defense gave up much less than 1000 yards rushing all year.

Eventually all this talent is going to catch up to me cap-wise but I hope to win a few more SBs before then. My 88/94 QB is in a contract year so that'll probably hurt.

[Demonolith]

Re: Built in the Trenches

Keith Rivers and Patrick Willis are gods in this game. Make sure you resign those 2, since great LB's who can cover are a real rarity

[killxswitch]

Re: Built in the Trenches

Keith Rivers and Patrick Willis are gods in this game. Make sure you resign those 2, since great LB's who can cover are a real rarity

Yeah I have Rivers locked up for another 4 years and will be resigning Willis next year. They're amazing. Though I wish there was a way I could change Rivers to a SS, which does a lot in my defense. He's a 96 POT there and would be cheaper to resign.

[MrNFL_FanIQ]

Re: Built in the Trenches

Yeah I have Rivers locked up for another 4 years and will be resigning Willis next year. They're amazing. Though I wish there was a way I could change Rivers to a SS, which does a lot in my defense. He's a 96 POT there and would be cheaper to resign.

Rivers as a CPU on the Patriots on mine had the most insane numbers I've ever seen. 99 speed, 99 tackle, 99 man/zone coverage, 99 hit power. Just absolutely INSANE.

BTW, Patrick Willis is also FTW.

[TheDMG]

Re: Built in the Trenches

How much of your cap is devoted to your line? It sounds like you have more than a few top 10 picks in there.

Actually just did a check to see what percentage of my cap each position group was taking up. My OL, including backups, cost 33.9 million, which was 25.69% of the cap that year and my highest percentage for a position group. That number will be going up too as I want to keep Peter Boma and he's coming into a free agent year, so that's probably another 6 or 7 million right there. And that line features two top ten picks, Lankford and Jackson.

The D-line, inlcuding backups, was costing me 27.08 million, or 20.53% of my cap. So, yeah, my two lines were costing almost half my cap, but I feel it's money well worth it as they're both dominant. And actually, that's not too awful when you think of it as the 9 positions on the line are 40% of the team and they're taking up 45% of the cap costs. And now that I've thrown English out on his ***, I can afford to keep these groups together a little longer. Not bad for the Detroit Lions.

[killxswitch]

Re: Built in the Trenches

Haynesworth's health is starting to fail so I was able to acquire Haloti Ngata. The trades you're able to do in this game are stupid sometimes.

I was once able to sign, trade, and re-sign Kelly Greg as a free agent, twice. I got a 4th and 5th pick out of it. His legs were totally busted, too.

[Demonolith]

Re: Built in the Trenches

ha, yeah the trades are so broken. You can get Patrick Willis and Ed Reed (assuming the Ravens have enough cap room to trade him) for next to nothing.

[killxswitch]

Re: Built in the Trenches

ha, yeah the trades are so broken. You can get Patrick Willis and Ed Reed (assuming the Ravens have enough cap room to trade him) for next to nothing.

I tried to get Reed early on but couldn't, I traded for Antoine Bethea instead and he has done pretty well.

My lowest-rated front 7 player is now 89 and my lowest-rated defensive starter is an 85. Ridiculous. I played the Seahawks last night and at halftime they had -2 passing and -4 rushing. They picked off my QB 5 times though and returned 2 for TDs so it was still close.

[Demonolith]

Re: Built in the Trenches

I tried to get Reed early on but couldn't, I traded for Antoine Bethea instead and he has done pretty well.

My lowest-rated front 7 player is now 89 and my lowest-rated defensive starter is an 85. Ridiculous. I played the Seahawks last night and at halftime they had -2 passing and -4 rushing. They picked off my QB 5 times though and returned 2 for TDs so it was still close.

Yeah you got to watch the Ravens. If they franchise tag Suggs, they won't have enough cap room to be able to trade Reed away. But if you get lucky and they don't tag Suggs, you can get Reed for dirt cheap

[edward_1385]

Re: Built in the Trenches

Yeah teams trading habits sometimes make no sense, especialy when they are willing to give up franchise type players for almost nothing, then they go out a draft bust as replacements...