What makes a zone blocking OL?

[Conanbryan]

I've been trying to figure out what makes a good zone blocking offensive lineman, I know that certain attributes help, but which ones and what are the comparisons that would be well suited for that style.

[Kurt l o l]

Re: What makes a zone blocking OL?

awareness maybe? not sure

[proud2bawesome]

Re: What makes a zone blocking OL?

Madden games don't account for blocking schemes very well, but I can at least help try to answer-

IRL, the Gibbs-style ZBS depends on a few factors: The biggest of all is technique. You can sacrifice having larger linemen for smaller ones as long as they are athletic and have outstanding footwork. It is really important to have linemen that are athletic enough to break to the second level to further assist blocking. So apply that to Madden, and the RBF and PBF are the most crucial ZBS ratings. In the ZBS it is also crucial for the C to have a very strong awareness in order to call the proper line calls and pickups. In fact it's almost MORE on the C than the QB to identify blitzers. You can have taller tackles, but Alex Gibbs wrote a piece stating that you want shorter Cs and Gs, around 6'3". But again I stress that footwork is key. LT and RT have to be extremely talented at pulling and there is also a very strong dependance on cut blocking. Arian Foster has the NFL rushing title right now because the OL that Alex Gibbs trained finally pieced it all together and now a practice squad player is in the pro bowl. Screw that. That entire Houston line should be first string All-Pro.

[Mike3207]

Re: What makes a zone blocking OL?

I think in Head Coach you would look for players who have good ratings in Impact Blocking. I would also set your offensive linemen philosophies to Zone Blocking.

[ebongreen]

Re: What makes a zone blocking OL?

The two different styles of run-blocking are generally called power and zone. My suspicion is that in HC, RBF is for zone-blocking, RBS is for power.

I imagine zone-blocking philosophy has nothing at all to do with pass protection abilities and either downplays it or ignores it entirely. For that stats matchup, I would guess it's finesse moves vs. pass-blocking footwork, and power moves vs. pass blocking strength.

[kcarr]

Re: What makes a zone blocking OL?

In a zone blocking scheme you tend to value technique and athleticism over size and strength. Therefor I would look for players with good footwork ratings and better than average acceleration and agility and maybe speed for offensive linemen.