*Spoilers* Player reviews: English Draft Path

[ebongreen]

Position: WR
Draft Class: 2010
OVR Potential (Balanced): 94
Personality: Virtuoso

Best Attributes:
Size (6'5", 231lbs: 92)
Catch in Traffic (Max 99)
Durability (98)
Jumping (97)
WR Skills (Route Running, Release, Spectacular Catch max 96+)
Trucking (Max 94)
Awareness (Max 94)
Overall athleticism (94)

Worst Attributes:
Juke Move (78)
Elusiveness (85)
Learning (Max 89)

Summary:
The ultra-short version? Draft this player. Too athletic for linebackers, too skilled for safeties, and too big for corners to cover, he will be your number-one receiver within three years - even if you have Bellows.

At 6'5" 231 lbs, Lucas is (possibly) the biggest receiver the English path has to offer, and much more importantly, he plays like it. He's built like a possession receiver and catches like one, with the highest CIT potential I've seen. He also can develop the intangibles skillset of a Pro Bowl WR, which combined with his build means no-one can cover him in man.

What makes him nearly unique are his YAC abilities. A Truck max rating of 94? Are you kidding me? In his rookie pre-season, he sheds cornerbacks like Bruce Banner loses shirts. Later in his first year, safeties start bouncing off him like spitballs, and in his second year, lesser linebackers join the Society of We Can't Tackle Jamelle Lucas. Like Bellows, Lucas mandates zone coverage, but IMO he's an even bigger YAC threat, and with his sky-high CIT, drops will diminish to near zero as he matures.

His bad points? His elusiveness and learning are only very good - BFD. His juke rating isn't high, which is immaterial since he'll just run you over.

His draft comparison in the 2010 class is Plaxico Burress, and while that's correct considering his build, it's not accurate considering his capabilities. There is one receiver who he resembles, however - a receiver who winds up with monster stats (2K+ yards/year) in many franchises and is a game-breaker in his own right. Yes, I'm referring to the Terror of the AFC West, Brandon Marshall.

Don't run the Broncos and want a Brandon of your own, without trading a king's ransom to Shanahan for the original model? Run the Broncos and want a spare Brandon? Either way, wait two seasons and pick Lucas in the second half of the second round. In the first four years of the English path, he is the most dominant receiver I've ever drafted.

YMMV Overall Grade: A

Sample Stats: (2011 season as a co-#1 WR with Bellows)
81 for 1265, 11 TDs, 8 drops, long of 64, 255 YAC

[kcarr]

Position: ROLB
Draft Class: 2009
Overall POT (3-4 pass rush LB, Balanced LB): 92, 91
Personality: Captain

Best Attributes:
Athleticism (97 speed, 95 acceleration, 92 agility)
Pass rush moves (91 power moves, 93 finesse)
Intelligence (95 awareness, 96 play recognition, 98 learning)
Coverage (81 man, 93 zone)
Tackle (96)
Pursuit (96)
Toughness/stamina (99, 92)

Weaknesses:
Injury (62)

Summary:
Devin is a true playmaker on the defensive side of the ball. He is nearly elite in his pass rushing moves and with his speed and athleticism he easily bridges that gap between himself and the elite. Between his moves and his speed he is among the best pass rushers in the league from the start. He is great as a rush LB and can move down and play DE in nickle and dime packages as a pure pass rusher. His size is a little weak for a full time move to DE.

Not only can devin rush the passer with the best of them he has coverage skills better than you will nearly ever find in a nickle corner. Add that with the athleticism to run with nearly any reciever in the league and you have a guy who will allow you to leave your base package on the field against 3 WR sets as he can move over and cover most WRs in the league and can easily handle a #3 WR. He could probably even make the move to corner and replace nearly any #2 and most #1s. He also tackles very well and pursues the ball carrier well making him very good against the run and uses his play recognition and awareness to diagnose plays very well. Along with all that he has the learning to quickly master any playbook.

Now we come to the one glaring weakness in his game. He gets injured very easily. Last time I used him for a season he was injured in nearly every game. That said his toughness is incredible and that really limits the length of his injuries. While he may miss atleast a few plays and usually a quarter of most games it wasn't too often to see him miss a full half and in 3 years in one career I never had him miss a full game. In the time he is on the field, however, he more than makes up for the plays he is gone. It all comes down to the question, if you have a guy leading the league in sacks do you really care how many or how few plays he had to play to get there?

Overall Grade: A

[cutter73]

Position: DE
Draft Class: 2010
Overall Pot. (Balanced): 96
Personality: Super Star

Best Attibutes:

Power Moves- 95 cap
Finesse moves- 96 cap
Tackle- 95 cap
Blocl Shedding- 97 cap
Awareness- 99 cap
Stength- 92 cap
Speed 97 cap
Acceleration- 95 cap

Weakness:

Agility- 80 cap. This is the ONLY rating that is below 90.

Summary:

Simply put, Xavier Cox is a beast. Insane speed, power, block shedding and strength mean that physically he can dominate pretty much at will. The best pass rushing DE I have ever come across in the game. A lot of people really like Campbell in the first draft, but Campbell plays like he's in a junior league compared to this guy. I played through one season with him and he had over 30 sacks by week 10. And I run a basic 4-3 alignment with few blitzes. If you want to generate consistant pass rush from the defensive line alone, Cox instantly makes that possible. He's going to average at least 25-30 sacks a year if you actually play the games.

He also has great pursuit against the running game. And for some reason, and this is gonna sound crazy, he gets the sacks when you need them most. it's hard to explain it, but in the fourth quarter, with the game on the line, he's usually the one who makes the sack to end a drive or move a team out of field goal range. It's almost like he's programmed to be a clutch performer. I am not joking when I say he's the closest thing to a borke player, in that having him is almost unfair at times, that I've seen in this game.

Which leads to his one major drawback. If he's broke, prepare to be the same way yourself. You are going to have to give him a big contract right off. He doesn't drop in the draft. If he slips to 3 or 4 overall and you pick him up there you got lucky. And his personality means that you will have to pay him big time come renegotiations. But it's a fair trade off if you ask me. Save the money to pay him by starting strictly average players at the other end position and one tackle position. You don't really need anything to get a solid pass rush besides him, and one other player with good stats on the line on the opposite side of him will shore up the run defense.

Overall Grade: A+

[ebongreen]

... but I'll start with stories about players I've already reviewed from my current career.

I just finished my 2013-14 season, in which QuSean Mack has been playing #3 WR (slot) for most of the year. However, in a game late in the season after my #2 guy (split end) had reached 1K yards & 10 TDs, I decided to start Mack in his place. Nearly fully developed in every way save production, he had nearly 200 yards receiving that day and multiple TDs, consistently beating Lions Tampa-2 coverage through route-running and elusiveness. He was a monster.

Similarly, in the Super Bowl, I met Dungy's Colts with Dane Morrow at QB. If he'd had lead receivers other than the mummified remains of Harrison and Wayne, they might have beaten me - which would have been only the second loss of this career. As it was, the score was only 14-7 at halftime, and I was kinda sweating it: Dungy's defense was swarming and tackling well, and I was punting via three-and-outs frequently.

The game MVP had to be Jamelle Lucas, who scored half the points of the eventual final score (42-7). In a tough fight with Dungy's top corner and Bob Sanders at SS, he came out on top - grabbing and holding onto a pass in the endzone corner as Sanders leveled him, catching another in front of Sanders who went behind him to bat it down and missed the ensuing tackle, and grabbing a third TD off play-action deep down the middle uncontested at the goal line. Sanders got a pick off Darius Pryor on a Lucas route and caused multiple drops by multiple receivers including Lucas, but Lucas' CIT rating, size, and route-running ability each came through for scores that contributed to putting the game out of reach as the fourth quarter marched on.

(The final TD, BTW, was a Domisa Bomani end-zone-to-end-zone pick-six on the Colts' next-to-last two-minute drive, leaving them maybe ten seconds on the clock.)

Mack is a very good receiver in this game; Lucas is a great receiver in this game. Now that Lucas has signed his second contract, I hope to see how good he can be over the remainder of his career as I continue my own.

[ebongreen]

Position: TE
Draft Class: 2011
OVR Potential (Balanced): 93
Personality: Anchor

Best Attributes:
Overall Athleticism (89)
Speed, Acceleration, Agility, Jumping (all max 95+)
Receiver Skills: Catching, Spectacular Catch, Route Running, Catch in Traffic, Release (all max 92+)
YAC Skills: Trucking, Elusiveness, Spin Move, Juke Move (all max 92+)
Awareness (max 96)
Durability: Injury 91, Toughness 95
Learning (max 96)
Stamina (max 96)

Worst Attributes:
Pass Blocking Strength (max 59)
Run and Pass Blocking (max 64)

Summary: Moves like Jagger, no - moves like a Pro Bowl wide receiver, and blocks better than any of them. He's really a speed wideout in a smallish tight end's body, in that he's only 6'3" (Size 87). He's all but impossible to cover in a man-scheme and will require either double-coverage or zone play - and with his deep threat skills, he's a tough matchup for pretty much any safety. If all your TEs do all day is run routes and catch passes, Stewart is the guy for you.

That's not to say he can't block at all. He's actually a decent run blocker, more than decent for zone-scheme teams. But really - using a guy this talented as a blocker more than occasionally is a waste of his talents. Were I going to pick a playbook for him, I'd probably pick a couple that already feature awesome tight-ends - namely the Chargers and Chiefs schemes. With their flex-TE plays, Stewart in the slot could be dominant for years.

I'm sure he could also be used in the Colts scheme a la Dallas Clark as well as many others, but again - he's a thoroughbred receiver. Get other guys to play in-line - Stewart in the slot would be murder. And with the Anchor personality, he should prove a cinch to re-sign when his rookie contract expires.

Other than having a QB with an arm too weak to keep up with him, there's no reason not to have him - unless you want something more or different from a #1 tight end than pure playmaker ability...

YMMV Overall Grade: A-

Sample Stats: As a part-time TE behind Karron Cousins, he's put up 650-750 yards annually, at 13-15 yards per catch. Were he playing full-time in a system and with a QB taking full advantage of his talents, I have no doubt he can pull in double that.

[ebongreen]

Position: TE
Draft Class: 2010
OVR Potential (Balanced): 94
Personality: Captain

Best Attributes:
Size (6'5", 266lbs: 99)
Awareness (max 99)
Receiver Skills: Catching, Spectacular Catch, Route Running, Catch in Traffic, Release (all max 92-97)
YAC Skills: Trucking, Spin Move, Stiff-Arm (all max 92+)
Durability: Injury 95, Toughness 96
Learning (max 95)
Stamina (max 95)
Speed, Acceleration, Agility, Jumping (all max 88+)
Overall Athleticism (86)
Carry (max 85)

Worst Attributes:
Run and Pass Blocking (max 62)
Pass Blocking Strength (max 67)
Elusiveness & Juke Move (max 76)

Summary:
When the HC designers dreamed up "the perfect TE" for modern NFL offenses, they came up with Cousins. He can do it all, more or less: run-block, pass-block, or - most emphatically - catch and run. He's not the speed merchant that Stewart is, but he's no slow-poke (Speed 88). That's good enough to challenge most linebackers and safeties. At 6'5", he's a really big target for your QB, and won't test him downfield like Stewart would. On the theory that having receivers of different speeds is good for you, Cousins is at the high-end of TE athleticism without being directly competitive with most wideouts.

Of course, getting him the ball is only the first part of the fun - what he does afterwards is also cool. Stewart will run by and around you; Cousins will simply run over you or shove you out of his way. With a Carry rating of 85, he'll rarely fumble as he does so, which means plenty of YAC.

Again, like Stewart, blocking isn't what he's best for. He can do it - like Stewart, better in a zone-blocking scheme than power/iso. His ratings are mostly slightly better than Storm's in the blocking category. But he too is best suited for schemes that use the TE well and frequently for ballin': Chiefs/Chargers, Colts, my Packers.

Last and not least, his personality means he'll develop quickly (Captains are Driven), and you'll need to pay him when it comes time to re-sign him. He won't settle for a bottom-dollar contract. I don't see that as much of a problem, particularly if you pair him with other TEs to ****** his production some during his early years.

Personally, I see him as slightly more versatile than Stewart: in-line or flex, it really doesn't matter much. Because he is ... the Prototype. Really, there's virtually no way drafting him can go badly for you. Like Jamelle Lucas, he carries a Satisfaction Guarantee: if he doesn't produce for you, you're using him wrong - and you know better than to do that, don't you?

YMMV Overall Grade: A

Sample Stats: In Cousins' rookie year, he put up 800 yards. In his second year while sharing time with Stewart, he put up over 900 and scored 17 TDs. In the right scheme, 1500 yards is easily within reach. He's another TE that can be dominant as a receiver, while remaining a capable blocker.

[ebongreen]

Position: TE
Draft Class: 2013
OVR Potential (Balanced): 85
Personality: Ally

Best Attributes:
Size (6'6", 307lbs: 62)
Impact Blocking (max 96)
Run Blocking Skills (all max 86-89)
Durability: Injury 96, Toughness 95
Some YAC Skills: Trucking (max 96) and Stiff-Arm (max 91)
Some Receiving Skills: Catch, Route Running, Release, and Catch in Traffic (all max 84-90)
Jumping (max 92)
Awareness (max 88)
Learning (max 85)
Overall Athleticism (84)

Worst Attributes:
Stamina (max 58)
Some YAC Skills: Spin Move (56) and Juke Move (71)
Carry (max 71)
Pass Blocking Skills (max 65-77)

Summary:
Unlike other tight ends I've reviewed, Will Kirby is a throwback to the pre-modern NFL, where the only thing that mattered about a TE was whether he could run-block. That, gentlemen, is something Kirby can do and do well - in fact, he can do it better than pretty much any tight end in the first five years of the English path. His run blocking ratings, when fully developed, would look good on a starting offensive tackle. Now he's not as strong as one in the weight room (STR 72), but he can make it happen through technique when it counts on the field. If you want a guy who is essentially a second strong-side tackle to improve your running game (like the Packers used Kevin Barry in their U-71 package, once upon a time), Kirby is your man.

That's not to say he can't catch - he can. His athleticism is on par with Drew Goldman (who I haven't reviewed yet), and he presents a massive target - good in the short and intermediate passing game. But he's not going to outrun good linebackers or safeties (or good defensive ends, for that matter): Kirby is no deep threat, and he's pretty easy to find after the catch.

He's not easy to, you know, actually tackle (TRK 96), but he's not a YAC machine. Sooner or later, someone will bring him down - purely by dint of the number of possible tacklers and attempts. And once he's done running, he'll probably want to sit out a few plays to catch his breath (STA 58). If your trainer has conditioning special skills, that will help tremendously.

Kirby is perfect for teams that love to run the ball, and/or want a second TE to help with running the ball. The Steelers, obviously, come to mind, but any team that loves heavy-I sets can benefit from Kirby's talents. In my current career, II have a lot of 2TE-2RB plays. So I traded Storm Stewart this year (!) to give Kirby more playing time behind Karron Cousins and make KC my lead dog as TEs go. Last year, I spent a lot of time shuffling players around in substitutions. With Kirby as my go-to #2, there will be much less of that, and a #2 TE is a role to which Kirby is perfectly suited. As a bonus, with his Ally personality and #2 position, he'll be both simple and cheap to re-sign when his rookie contract expires.

If you run an offense that loves to run the rock, loves multiple TEs to do so, and you've already got one that's awesome, Kirby is your beta-dog on the depth chart. Make your halfback a happy man - get a Kirby for him today!

YMMV Overall Grade: B+

Sample Stats: Having only used him for one year, and sparingly at that, stats for Kirby are difficult to come by. If/when I get a full year or two out of him as a #2 guy, I'll update.

[Byron Yatch]

ebongreen, these are awesome man. This Will Kirby is the te of my wet football dreams(yes, I dream about the option play and tosses in the tight wishbone formation and goaline)....

I dont know man, it must be so long since I got that far into this path. I seriously dont even remember him. I might have to switch back to my bears career just to get this guy!

I'd Start him at te3 at first and move him up the depth chart as people get too expensive to resign. Thats pretty much any te other than Karron cousins in that draft path imo, cause that dudes a monster and a keeper!

Damn YOU ebongreen! Im so close to getting the final trainer special skill for my all injury redskins but you're really tempting me to switch to my old career! ehhh whatever, Ima check this guy out when I get to 2013 for sure though, whether thats sooner or later! Keep up the good work man.