How can I take advantage of big receivers?

[GruffyMcGuiness]

My WR's are 5'10, 6' and 5'9 but I recently got a tall receiver late in the draft (Armani Romero) and I'm trying to figure out how to take advantage of his 6'4 height. When I try lob deep balls, the cb's run in front of him and pick it while he stands there. When I try fades at the endzone, the safeties and cb's get random speed bursts and break up the passes.

Suggestions?

[lilgame06]

Re: How can I take advantage of big receivers?

im curious to see some answers to this question as well. It was much easier to throw the ball high to tall receivers in Madden 12 then it is in Madden 13. The new total passing control seems to have taken away the ability to throw the ball high consistently, as it seems when you hold up on the stick when you throw, it leads the pass up the field more, rather than putting the ball higher in the air.

And as the OP said, lobs down the field seem to result in that WR just letting the CB get the position on him and making he play, rather than the WR using his height and strength to gain his own position. Funny enough, when its the otherway around, and cpu is lobbing to their tall WRs, their WRs seem to do a good job at getting position in front of user CBs/Safeties.

Same with fades in the endzone...cpu will easily get these great animations where their guys go up and snatch the ball down, while our defenders watch helplessly. But flip the scenario around, and the cpu defenders sprint like mad men to break up the fade, while our WR just lazily makes lame attempt at the catch.

[Dempseylicious23]

Re: How can I take advantage of big receivers?

When you make a throw, do you actively switch to the receiver you threw the ball to or do you just let the CPU try to make the catch?

I've found that if you swap to your receiver and try to manually high point the pass, you can position yourself in front of defensive backs and make the catch. It doesn't work 100% of the time of course, but I don't think I've ever really seen the CPU go up to make those types of grabs (maybe once out of the hundreds of games I've played).

[JagsFan58]

Re: How can I take advantage of big receivers?

Problem is that you cant really use any advantage. Only thing you need in this game really is speed, height or jumping doesnt really mean anything, especially with 1 on 1 or 1 on 2 cause the defender will always win usually

[Burnsy18]

Re: How can I take advantage of big receivers?

I always use my big Wrs In a few ways:

-on deep routes you actually want to hold DOWN on the controller so you "under throw" him this year. This makes sure the cb doesn't race ahead and pick it off and lets your we stop, pivot and leap for the catch.

-fades in the end zone: lean the stick to the outside of the route and make sure you're lobbing it so you get a jump ball.

-finally: almost every big wr will come with a high release rating to compensate for their usual lack of speed. These guys can kill on short routes if the CBs press.

But I always have more success with speed Wrs because madden doesn't quite emulate using your body effectively to make the catch, so it's a battle of your Wrs speed vs the CBs speed and coverage rating.

[lilgame06]

Re: How can I take advantage of big receivers?

yea, I know I can't expect Madden to emulate height and use of body positioning properly yet to this point. But hopefully someday we will get to that point. Tall guys need love too!!! lol

[Sheik]

Re: How can I take advantage of big receivers?

The fade route near the endzone takes a lot to get used to. You can throw it quickly as a one step drop pass after the receiver looks in as an almost back shoulder throw...which will on most occasions trigger the spec catch animation. Or you can wait for them to gain position and throw the jump ball.

throw the ball high for bigger, taller receivers..
and up their awareness and route running

route running makes it increasingly difficult for defensive backs to keep up with receivers as they get through their routes. this allows for those milliseconds of separation so you can deliver the ball. speed receivers get open due to speed and acceleration. bigger receivers use deceptive routes


high awareness almost assures that they know the ball is coming.
if you don't plan on user catching, you really need to get their awareness up so they'll make effort all the way through the catching process.
also, the curl is a great big receiver route because once they fend the defensive back off and catch the ball, they still have to be tackled.

[adamshpe]

Re: How can I take advantage of big receivers?

Find a receiver with a high jump rating and spectacular catch rating...perfect example Brandon Marshall. If you fade it to him in the endzone he typically will jump up to get it.

[vicaddict]

Re: How can I take advantage of big receivers?

Just out of curiosity, what would you consider good route running numbers? I am playing Gregg Little as my #2 WR and even though his CTH comes low at 65 /now 70) and his CIT being 80 by now, I find him to be quite good. I upped his RTE to 80, AWR is 70 and RLS 80. He still has the drop open passes trait, but does make some great catches on deep throws every now and then. He is useless in short or medium yards situations, but throw it deep and he makes the catch unless the QB overthrows him.

Even though his CTH and CIT are nowhere near what K. Walter (my #1) has (both 85) he does make the same amount of catches, TD's, etc. Walter even has two leves of consistency and drops balls like he had that trait. So is Little some kind of sleeper, or what is it?

[nekolas]

Re: How can I take advantage of big receivers?

It may just be me, but in my Chiefs franchise it seemed that big receivers like Bowe and Baldwin much more often was able to break tackles from dbs. Especially on blitz play with 1-on-1 coverage, no deep safeties - they could gain some nice extra yardage