I've been away from GD for a while ad, of course, there have been some changes. How important is depth now? Example: If I only carry 6 OL and they have to play tired, how much will it effect their play? What positions are effected the most? Thanks in advance for your help!

I think this is a question that has a lot of variables.

My philosophy and approach is this. With a rebuild...I don't care about stamina/depth. The best guys I've got are gonna play and play tired. As I get better recruits then I start caring more and start to rotate in/out.

To me its very hard to isolate the impact of tiredness on most players, but it is nice to have a fresh RB on 3rd and short. It can be a drive killer however if you end up subbing out all your starters on 3rd and long at the opponent's 13 yard line.

In summary: stamina/tiredness definitely has an impact. It will mostly come into play when you are playing equivalent talent....just like every other factor becomes more important under that circumstance.

In my opinion, depth is huge in this game and a lot of coaches continue to fall short because they have never emphasized proper depth on their roster. On defense, almost every good game planning coach can take advantage of any depth deficiencies that you might have. A weakness at depth on offense, especially on the line, will lead to short drives and more errors and turnovers. Formation IQ also comes into play more now in version 3.1, so having to play young players with low formation IQ will also lead to lower overall performance.

There are going to be a wide range of opinions on this. I try to follow petes example so depth is pretty important to me :)

Good question. Some people think it is very important. Some people think it doesn't matter at all.

Formation IQ also comes into play more now in version 3.1, so having to play young players with low formation IQ will also lead to lower overall performance.

Pete_61 was kind enough to spend some time with me on the basics of building a roster when I returned to the game and FIQ was a point of emphasis. Although the logic of the above statement is self-evident when you think about it, I did not place very much emphasis on FIQ (except for QB) until after my discussion. Since I started paying attention, my penalties have gone way down and I have been able to sustain longer drives. Penalties are drive killers (at least for me).

So...good depth means that you have more experienced players in your rotation which means you do not have a severe drop in FIQ at any given time. For me, this is the main reason to have depth especially on the lines.

Big thank you to everyone that answered/helped!

Depth is Very Important if you own a pool.

Posted by mojolad on 2/11/2017 10:52:00 AM (view original):
Depth is Very Important if you own a pool.

Especially one with a diving board.

Posted by gators06 on 2/11/2017 11:03:00 AM (view original):

Posted by mojolad on 2/11/2017 10:52:00 AM (view original):
Depth is Very Important if you own a pool.

Especially one with a diving board.

!

Posted by nitros on 2/10/2017 11:08:00 PM (view original):

Formation IQ also comes into play more now in version 3.1, so having to play young players with low formation IQ will also lead to lower overall performance.

Pete_61 was kind enough to spend some time with me on the basics of building a roster when I returned to the game and FIQ was a point of emphasis. Although the logic of the above statement is self-evident when you think about it, I did not place very much emphasis on FIQ (except for QB) until after my discussion. Since I started paying attention, my penalties have gone way down and I have been able to sustain longer drives. Penalties are drive killers (at least for me).

So...good depth means that you have more experienced players in your rotation which means you do not have a severe drop in FIQ at any given time. For me, this is the main reason to have depth especially on the lines.

Some really good insight in here. Thanks nitros.

I believe depth is very important. But hard to quantify.
It becomes most important if you are planning on sticking with that team. Because that depth will eventually be your starters.

It seems there is another consideration. Don't players play at decreasing effectiveness as they fatigue?