Which Skill to value first

[globespanner]

When i am checking out the skills of free agents and rookies I try to figure which of the skills is most important. Some positions are easier than others. WR in my mind is 1) Hands, 2) Route Running. For RB it is 1) Trucking not speed or elusiveness seems to effect how well my guys run. Also notice guys with a great straight arm score seem to gain more yards. Love that Leron James straight arm.


What are your primary 2 skills for each position??
What is the hidden or underrated skill or attribute you look at when judging player A at a position vs Player B.

[Dolph10]

I really look at learning and durability, but thats just me.

[DMason084]

I am taking the following ideology from the original Head Coach game: you can teach a player how to tackle or catch, but you can’t teach their speed or strength. In Head Coach ’09 terms, always value physical abilities (speed, strength, etc…) over intangible abilities (ball carrier vision, throwing accuracy, etc…). Physical abilities don’t improve much over a players career, but intangibles do improve greatly. Why? Take my personal favorite QB, Hall of Famer John Elway, for example. Obviously he has excellent arm strength, but in one of his first games with the Broncos in ‘83 he actually lined up under one of the guards rather than the center. That and some of his passes weren’t on target (what’d you expect from a rookie QB?). With some great coaching, 16 seasons and more than 50,000 passing yards later, he’s hailed as one of the best to play the position.

In other words, if you pick up a QB in the draft or free agency with a cannon for an arm but come to find he’s having trouble putting the ball where he needs to, don’t fret. With the right coaching he’ll make things hard for your opponents any given week. On the other hand, if you value a QB’s accuracy over his arm strength you’re going to pay. Again why? Two words or rather another NFL QB: Chad Pennington. He had great precision and control, but he couldn’t hurl the ball downfield, which is why the Jets got rid of him. They couldn’t stand dinking and dunking short yardage passes; opposing defenses had no worries getting beat deep by Pennington.

Which brings me to another point I wanted to make. This is in regards to what I described earlier and applying it to the game’s specific playbooks and philosophies. Now let’s say you’re playing with a West Coast style offense and it’s draft day (OK let’s say it’s the ’08 draft since that seems to be the most discussed draft class). You’re in the first round and have managed to put yourself in a position to draft either Matt Ryan or Joe Flacco. Ryan has better accuracy while Flacco has a stronger arm. The West Coast offense calls for more precision due to the quick timing routes the receivers run, so Ryan is the obvious call here. Why not Flacco? I’m not saying don’t take the guy with the stronger arm as he can fit the ball in tighter spaces (just ask Jay Cutler about his days with the Broncos); I’d say take Ryan over Flacco if you’re looking for immediate success. Second round comes up and now you need a receiver to team up with Ryan, and Limas Sweed and Donnie Avery are available. Now this is where it can get tricky. A lot of good West Coast receivers are at least 6’4”, which suggest height (Sweed – 6’5” = good; Avery - 5’11” = not so much) over speed (Sweed – 91; Avery – 100). The rule of thumb I’ve noticed IRL with the West Coast is to utilize both since it’s difficult to defend against one receiver that can make aggressive plays on the ball in the air and the other can get deep fast. Besides no CB in Head Coach ’09 stands over 6’3” if I recall correctly, although the Cowboys have an FS that’s 6’5”. So first priority is to take the taller receiver, but if you already have one (Brandon Marshall or Vincent Jackson to name a couple) then the speedy receiver is your best bet. Alternatively, you can pair up two tall receivers and really wreak havoc on opposing defenses like I often choose to do with my Broncos when I play (Marshall and either Sweed or James Hardy).

Now for the flip side of the coin. Let’s turn this around to the Vertical offense that relies on speedy receivers and a strong-armed QB. Yep, drafting Flacco and Avery would be the way to go here. What about the mobile QB’s like Josh Johnson and Vince Young? Take a lesson from current Ohio State football coach Urban Meyers’ playbook and you have the Spread. For those that don’t know Urban Meyers coached Tim Tebow in Florida, who is widely considered as one of the best QB’s to use in that style of offense. Although like Tebow and Alex Smith (Meyers coached him at Utah FYI), with this kind of QB you’re going to have to spend some time working on his accuracy. I’ve never drafted Josh Johnson so I don’t personally know if he himself has this sort of problem. Oh and receivers here tend to be a pretty wide variety since the QB is usually scrambling around trying to find the open man, but good hands never hurt.


I could go on and on discussing all the other positions I neglected to mention, but this has gone on long enough so I think I’m going to cut it here and leave it open for questions/comments/concerns/complaints/etc… etc… etc…

[AnchiKai2]

For me it is entirely based on the philosophies I have placed on my positions. For example, for my WR (in my current dynasty) I listed "Tall/Redzone". So I do look for size, but at the same token I look for their learning to be at least mid-70s. I figure if they already have the physical attributes (size/catch), then at least if they have the ability to pick up the playbook (due to their learning score) then it all (in theory) should work out well. I currently picked up Chris Henry as a free agent because of his physical attributes, but his learning is not that high (I believe at 70?) but good enough to be considered around average in regards to learning new plays. So now in my draft (currently in transition between day one and day two) I will now look for a receiver who has the size I'm looking for, while rocking a high learning score.

We'll see how this works out later on.

[Mike3207]

QB-Throwing Accuracy. It's getting real tiring watching Josh Johnson throw INT after INT. He's only at 80 after 2 years.

HB-Ball Carrier Vision-see the hole, go through the hole.

WR-Catch rating. He can have all the physical skills, but if he drops the ball he isn't much good.

O-Line-Run Block , Pass Block, Impact Block. I'll take a lineman with good physical skills, but I want him to block first.

LB-cover skills. I ask my linebackers to do a little bit of everything.

DB-Cover skills again. Man Cover, Zone cover, and Press. I also keep a eye out for Spectacular Catch and Catch, since those rarely are above 10.

Kicker-Kicking Accuracy.

[cutter73]

You can coach some players up in certain areas, but keep in mind that each rating has a cap. So you can't always draft a strong armed QB with low accuracy depending on increasing that skill. The player may just not have a high enough ceiling there to make it worth the effort. Same with speed in recievers. I've seen plenty of recievers with 99 speed who could only develop to 60's or 70's in catching.

My own tendancies are:

QB- Awareness and learning, followed by accuracy and then arm strength.

RB- Vision and power skills like Trucking. After that, speed is a nice bonus if I can get it.

FB- blocking, since that's basically all I use FB's for. Catching is a good bonus for both RB's

TE- Speed and catching. Mostly LB's will be covering these guys, and speed can kill here.

WR- Catch and route running, followed by speed and agility.

OL- Run block, pass block, and, if possible, some speed and agility for positions where the players pulls for counter and screen plays.

DE- Speed and power for rush. I don't generall blitz a lot.

DT- Steangth and tackle- basic run stuffer stats.

OLB- Coverage skills, speed and agility. I seldom blitz, and play a lot of man coverage, so they have to be able to cover or my deense falls apart.

MLB- Tackle, power and speed. I like him to be a sideline to sideline run stopper.

CB- Man coverage, then zone coverage, followed by speed and agility.

S's - same as CB's mostly, but preerence on zone coverage over man because I run mostly two deep man coverage.

K- Accruacy and leg strength.

[Qharisma]

I usually like to employ a ground and pound strategy ..... That being said ..... that of course will make my choices different others ..... All in All here goes:

Values:

QB: Learning and Accuracy

RB: Vision and Break Tackle

WR: Learning and Catch

TE: Run Block Footwork and Catch

OT: Learing, Run Block, Run Block Footwork, Awareness

OG: Run Block Strength, Run Block, Awareness

C: Run Block Footwork, Run Block Strength

Defensively I'm usually a blitz-heavy 3-4, and Man to Man on the outside ....

DE: Block Shedding and Power Move

DT: Block Shedding

OLB: Speed and Block Shedding

ILB: Speed and Coverage

CB: Man Coverage, Zone Coverage, Press

FS: Zone Coverage, Man Coverage

SS: Man Coverage, Zone Coverage, Tackling, Block Shedding

K: Accuracy

P: Strength

[Ueauvan]

all positions:

learning, above 60 at least. injury above 70 but prefer above 85, same with tgh, sta varies with position and role

qb tha/awr assuming thp is 70+
hb car/bcv/btk, bonus is cat
fb rbf/rbs/cat/imb
te cat/cit/rr/jmp bonus spd
wr cat/rr/spd/jmp (cit as well for slot over spd)
ot pbs/pbf/awr/imb bonus str/rbs/rbf
og rbs/rbf/imb/str bonus pbf/pbs/awr
c awr/pbf/pbs/rbs/rbf bonus str/imb

de str/acc/bsh/pwrmove
dt str/bsh/pwrmove
olb bsh/acc/spd
mlb awr/tkl/zcv
cb mcv/awr/spd
s awr/zcv/tkl

p kpwr
k kacc