Congratulations to all on an excellent first season and good luck to all in the upcoming season!
In this post I will lay out the rules and regulations that apply to the upcoming season so that all may have a common point of reference. Before I advance to open the regular season schedule, I will require that all owners post signing off that they have read and will abide by this list.
To make things easier, I have created the following tutorial video. It addresses juking, dropbacks, quick snap throws, nanos and defensive repositioning. The video is designed to show proper and improper ways of doing all those things. Text breaks are included to make it very clear what's acceptable and what's not.
A brief digest in text form:
1. All open field juking must be performed with the right stick or a face button. The left stick may be used to establish the runner's initial direction on kick returns (subsequent changes to direction will be executed using the right stick). The left stick may also be used to locate and hit the hole in the running game. Beyond that, it's the right stick and the face buttons.
2. QB dropbacks are not to exceed 10 yards from the line of scrimmage, whether the QB starts under center or from the shotgun. Under center, the 10 yard limit will allow you to take a step or so backward, but no more than that. From the shotgun, you will have almost no room to move backward. All QB movement is fine so long as the 10 yard limit is respected. The lone exception to the 10 yard rule is when you're setting up a screen, but don't overdo it and drop back 20 yards there. This may seem distasteful to some, but I absolutely expect that owners step up or out or take a sack rather than breaking this rule.
3. We require that the QB complete his drop in its entirety before the ball is thrown. Quick-snap throwing is when you interrupt the dropback before it finishes to fire it to a WR or TE. This occurs most often on flats plays to the TE or slot, or on quick streaks to the slot. We disallow this and insist that all programmed drops must be completed, regardless of the situation.
4. We disallow the setup of A gap nanos by placing two players on top of each other as shown in the video.
5. We allow manual repositioning of defenders in several cases. If you need to fix the alignment to ensure that a man coverage defender is properly aligned with his man, that's fine. If you want to correct the auto motion that places defenders in gaps or splits them out of their normal alignment, that's fine. However, if you move a player manually for reasons other than those (to shoot a gap, occupy a blocker), you must control that player for the duration of the play or until pursuit requires that you switch. You may not control the player then switch immediately to another right after the snap.
Here is the video for illustration. The audio is very bad, so mute it:
There are a few other rules that will be enforced this season that you will need to be mindful of.
1. 4th Downs: You may go for 4th and 1 or less anywhere beyond midfield at any point in the game. You may go for 4th and 5 or less between the 40-30, or the "gray area" as it is sometimes called. You may go for it on 4th at any distance at any point on the field when down two scores in the 4th quarter.
2. Balance: Owners will be expected to maintain a realistically balanced approach on both sides of the ball over the course of the season. The entire committee has agreed to make this a priority issue going forward.
Over the course of the season, I want to see owners at a 60/40 ratio or better for either the run or the pass. This means that you will not pass more than 60% of the time or run more than 60% of the time over the course of the season. There will be games where you will need to throw the ball 40 times, and there will be games where you need to run it 35 (just examples). There may be several such games in a row. By season's end, though, I want to see those numbers balanced according to the desired ratio. These numbers are admittedly arbitrary to a degree, though NFL Films has documented that Andy Reid's career pass percentage of 59% is the highest in league history, so that's our barometer. The logic here is simple: this is the best representation of real life football we can have, and it is the best set of guidelines for creating proper game pacing and statistics.
On defense, I want owners to avoid being very repetitive on a few fronts. It's fine to shift your DL to the strong side of the running formation, but it looks a little funny when you do it all the time. It's fine to pinch your line to protect your backers from time to time, but it's corny to do it all the time. It's fine to show blitz at times, but it's annoying when you do it all the time. It's fine to blitz the QB heavy certain games but it's annoying when you do it every play. The same holds for constant press coverage--it makes sense sometimes and sometimes it's good to lay off a bit. Just like offensive guidelines, these are season-long trends. You will face several QBs who can't handle the blitz or several WR corps who cannot beat the press, and so on down the line. Over the course of the season, though, I would like owners to take an appropriately balanced approach.
We must remember that the league environment is a sim one and that we are here not only to win, but to create a balanced, realistic and enjoyable experience for ourselves and our opponents. Owners who do not abide by these guidelines will receive warnings via PM from the committee and will be asked to leave if abiding by these guidelines is not something they want to do.
Grievances:
The guidelines here are as follows:
1. No grievance will be heard that is not accompanied by video evidence or clear statistical evidence when relevant. Owners who cannot provide such evidence, for whatever reason, are not entitled to bring grievances to any member of the committee.
2. The committee will not field general complaints; it will only accept and respond to formal grievances.
3. Formal grievances will be sent via PM to myself, dubbduces, and bigfnjoe. They will state clearly the objection, the rule or guideline it violates, and the owner whose play has generated the complaint.
4. Short of filing formal complaints, the committee encourages owners to resolve mild disputes in-game via the mandatory headsets.
5. All grievances will be reviewed quarterly (weeks 4, 8, 12, and 16), at which point disciplinary action deemed appropriate by the committee will be taken. No disputes will be addressed ad hoc; the formal process must be respected and allowed to run its course to ensure fairness.
6. Disciplinary action will follow this graduated scale: warning, suspension (2-4 games at the committee's discretion), removal from the league. Owners will be warned after 1 formal grievance. 4 formal grievances within a single season will constitute grounds for dismissal. 2-4 grievances will be dealt with by suspension or strong warning as the committee sees fit.
Open Door Policy:
The committee is here to create a competitive, classy and fun gaming experience. If you have ideas about how to add compelling features to our league play and story boards, please come to us. The same goes for suggestions about roster management, off-season activities, and anything else you can think of. You may also make suggestions about rules that may need to be added or revised, though no changes will be made during the course of a given season. We value the ideas and contributions of all of our owners; the league wouldn't be here and wouldn't be as good as it is without such a strong group of committed, intelligent, and helpful people.
I require, though, that communication with the committee be positive in tone. We do not have the time or the energy for vitriol, so please be mindful of this and only bring us your best ideas and attitudes (grievances excepted, of course).
Once again, I want to thank all owners for such a great first season and to wish all the best going forward!
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Read and understood. For the most part the complete drop seems acceptable, I can envision some circumstances that have under center flat routes from the slot/TE in 5 step drop plays which may be thrown out of bounds almost automatically if not thrown before 5 steps. Other than that, I think it's actually a good rule and will add to the league. Was that hopefully discussed a bit when designing the rule? Any comment on it?
Another thing to keep in mind with that rule is the fact that you can hot route 3 step drop plays and circumvent the rule, but it would require clear sacrifice to do so (as in giving up your play).
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12-07-2010, 08:05 PM
