I'm at the half with my team in Leahy and my offense stalled 5 times between the 34-38 yard lines. I am most frustrated about my offenses inability to get another 1st down, but started to question why I haven't extended my Max FG Distance beyond the 50 yard default. I have a JR kicker who is 4/4 with a long of 49 (Won't attempt 50+).

How do you determine the max FG distance among all 4 divisions and based upon your kicker's stats?

I also have my 4th down approach set to aggressive and still only went for it on 4th down 1/5 times.

I normally will not put the FG distance longer than the strength of the kicker (if less than 50) and never put it past 49. I hate missing long field goals.

Yeah, kicking long field goals is really not the way to go IMHO. Maybe bump it up to very aggressive on fourth down? If you have confidence in your offense and your gameplanning, that can really give you maximum value per possession. Who wants to punt from the 34 on 4th and 3 only to net 14 yards of field position the majority of the time. That's a for sure negative EV play.

Last season my sr kicker was pretty good so I bumped the max distance up to 55. He was pretty consistently hitting from long range although he never attempted one from 55. This season I forgot to change it back and in one of my first games my kicker nailed a 55 yarder. He's attempted 3 55 yard field goals on the season and is 2/3. Of course the one he missed would have been a game winner but I've come to realize that I don't know a good way to gauge maximum field goal distance.

Depends on the kicker. But at least 50.

Always set at 53 --- has worked well for me

On a related note, what do you think the most important attribute for a kicker is regarding accurately kicking FGs? Would you say technique or special teams formation IQ?

Depends on the kicker. Currently set at 52 for my true frosh. Gridiron Dynasty - Football Sim Games - Player Profile: William Clark. Just made one in the CC game (and went 5/5). Given his F.IQ is like low teens, I wouldn't think it matters a lot (but does matter some).

This season, my approach on kicking and several other things is a bit contrarian: I go for the TD and not the FG. My max distance is set to 19.

Let's say my FG% is 90%. That means over the course of the season, every FGA is worth 2.7 points. That works out based on 3FG a game to 8.1 points.

Instead, I'm going for it on fourth down. My 4th down conversion percentage is 58.3% (14 out of 24). Going for 3 with a 90% success rate would have given me 59.4 points over 9 games or 6.6PPG. However I am happy to be doing it different. Just by converting, I am keeping the ball out of my opponents hands for another four downs (which pays off in a number of ways). Even the 12 fourth down attempts I failed to convert, not one turned into points for my opponent. And I still have a shot at 7 instead of 3. By turning just 45% of those 4th downs into 7, I come away with a total of 69.3 points -- or a total of 7.7PPG.

Will I face a situation at some point where a 21 yard FG would have given me the game winner? Yep. It is going to happen at some point. I'm fine with that too. The math tells me (and how I have seen it play out in terms of results), this approach is giving me more wins I would not have gotten by kicking.

I set mine to 54 each season.

Usually around 55/56. However, I've rolled seasons with the max of 62 with low 50's strength and technique. Granted I'm about 75% on the year, but my kicker miss under 40 too. I figure if you're leading the pack by 20+ FG a year and still advancing deep into the playoffs, why not.

https://www.whatifsports.com/gd/PlayerRecordProfile/Ratings.aspx?pid=9911128&tid=51159&rid=13&season=117

Posted by CCHypno on 5/22/2016 6:45:00 PM (view original):
This season, my approach on kicking and several other things is a bit contrarian: I go for the TD and not the FG. My max distance is set to 19.

Let's say my FG% is 90%. That means over the course of the season, every FGA is worth 2.7 points. That works out based on 3FG a game to 8.1 points.

Instead, I'm going for it on fourth down. My 4th down conversion percentage is 58.3% (14 out of 24). Going for 3 with a 90% success rate would have given me 59.4 points over 9 games or 6.6PPG. However I am happy to be doing it different. Just by converting, I am keeping the ball out of my opponents hands for another four downs (which pays off in a number of ways). Even the 12 fourth down attempts I failed to convert, not one turned into points for my opponent. And I still have a shot at 7 instead of 3. By turning just 45% of those 4th downs into 7, I come away with a total of 69.3 points -- or a total of 7.7PPG.

Will I face a situation at some point where a 21 yard FG would have given me the game winner? Yep. It is going to happen at some point. I'm fine with that too. The math tells me (and how I have seen it play out in terms of results), this approach is giving me more wins I would not have gotten by kicking.

Couldn't agree with this guy more. I missed 2 field goals in one game this year from 30 and from 35. Lost 6-3 against the guy who will most likely be conf champ. My max was set at 40 cause I thought it was near a sure thing. Now I have set my max to 30 and am very agressive on 4th down

In a big game, I'll set to 55 in the 2nd half. Nothing worse than the clock winding down and your team not trying a GW FG inside of 55. All other times, I'll set at 50.

So for you people who say you set you max field goal distance to 40 or less...then I hope you don't even bother signing a kicker. And I think you are all nuts.

Posted by bjschumacher on 5/25/2016 11:41:00 PM (view original):
So for you people who say you set you max field goal distance to 40 or less...then I hope you don't even bother signing a kicker. And I think you are all nuts.

While I may or may not in fact be nuts, the math says setting max distance to 19 is the right expected value (EV) play. My feeling is that I backed that up in my last post. And you are correct, next season I will be carrying only a punter.