Undersized Offensive Lineman

[d_rohr]

In all the teams I have built, I have never once had any concern about a lineman's size. I have gone by blocking ability, footwork, etc. Now, I am looking to sign Jake Scott to a nice contract but noticed that one of his grades states he is severely undersized. Has anyone ran into any issues where undersized lineman are man handled in the game? If so, is something I should worry about in the future and should I just pass on Jake Scott?

[RougeRogue]

Quote: Originally Posted by d_rohr

In all the teams I have built, I have never once had any concern about a lineman's size. I have gone by blocking ability, footwork, etc. Now, I am looking to sign Jake Scott to a nice contract but noticed that one of his grades states he is severely undersized. Has anyone ran into any issues where undersized lineman are man handled in the game? If so, is something I should worry about in the future and should I just pass on Jake Scott?

My initial suspicion was that Jake Scott might not accumulate as many 'pancakes' as his heavier, fellow right guards, which might hinder the speed of his progression, but after examining the career stats for the various right guards around the league, the 6'5", 281lb Scott seems to be at the upper end of that stat, even surpassing MUCH larger competitors, such as the 6'6", 366lb Leonard Davis, who, with 99 STR, I'd assumed would far surpass Scott. And, after four years in my league, Davis is a balanced OVR 89, while Scott is 87. Further, it looks like Scott's RSUC%, RYDS, and PSUC% are all in the upper tiers for those 4 years, amongst his competitors, despite having somewhat mediocre QBs and HBs behind him. Now, I'm not sure what effect, if any, having strong OLs on either side of Scott might alter about his performance (He's had the pass-protect OVR-94 Jordan Gross to his right for four years running, and balanced OVR-92 Jeff Saturday to his left for the past three), or even how one might measure such an effect accurately.

So, I'm not sure what disadvantage, if any, having such an undersized OL would pose.

[d_rohr]

Thanks, RougeRogue. I was thinking the same thing but its good to see stats that back it up. I guess I could have done the same but I wasn't sure if there was a noticeable difference if the games were coached through. I don't know if having his games simmed by a CPU gives an accurate depiction because, as we all know, SuperSimming and playing a game out give EXTREMELY different results. Either way, this is reassuring that I didn't make a bad decision.

[MachinaObscura]

Sadly, size makes absolutely no difference in OL. Strength does, but size is a non-issue.