When hitting the recruiting trail what features in a linebacker do you look for? I heard measuring them as CB's gives you better coverage LB's. Insights from everyone on how they rate their linebackers would help a lot. For me I assume Tackling, Strength, and Athleticism would be the most importance to stop RB's and TE's.

I search for spd and tkl first. After I find those that I like I go to looking at those with the most GI and tec. Lastly I look at str and ath for what I can live with. Lots of att's to look at for LB for sure.

Similar to a te. Pick your poison.

I actually look at two types. I want to have two or three that are stronger and better tacklers. If I keep 8 I usually have 3 of that type. The others are speed and tech with a lower focus on strength. Ath,gi, and elusiveness are benchmark attributes I try to keep at a common premium.

I also am very specific with their placement in my formations so it matters alot

Posted by darryljones2 on 10/30/2017 11:07:00 PM (view original):
I also am very specific with their placement in my formations so it matters alot

This, as speed goes with my coverage LB's and strength is nice for run stopping LB's. Next in line with GI, Ath, and Tec for me.

Isn't Speed overrated?

I'd say no. Consider how many teams pass to rb now. If a lb with 65 speed is covering a rb with 90 speed it's the definition of a mismatch

SPD is a critical factor (offense and defense) in the "open or not" portion of the passing tree. Please note that all defense is zone and the defenders in that zone are considered as a group, modified by the next closest group.

nitros (James)

Posted by nitros on 11/1/2017 2:24:00 PM (view original):
SPD is a critical factor (offense and defense) in the "open or not" portion of the passing tree. Please note that all defense is zone and the defenders in that zone are considered as a group, modified by the next closest group.

nitros (James)

Funny that in real football speed means squat for either offense or defense vs a zone defense.

Posted by realist9900 on 11/1/2017 2:45:00 PM (view original):

Posted by nitros on 11/1/2017 2:24:00 PM (view original):
SPD is a critical factor (offense and defense) in the "open or not" portion of the passing tree. Please note that all defense is zone and the defenders in that zone are considered as a group, modified by the next closest group.

nitros (James)

Funny that in real football speed means squat for either offense or defense vs a zone defense.

I'm pretty new to the game and understand that real football != gridiron engine all the time, but this was what I thought of too when I started browsing through the forums a month ago looking for linebacker advice. I'm not saying speed isn't important, especially in the scenario where I want to play only a 3-4. But if we're talking a zone defense, I'm thinking that GI and even ATH are arguable more important than raw speed (of course, I'm using real life logic here). I see speed mentioned as one of the top two most important attributes almost every time I see someone talking about linebackers...not only does that go against what I would consider intuitive, but if you go by the default role ranking for the position, speed is literally tied with TECH for the 5th most important attribute and is significantly under STR, GI, TKL, and ATH.

I value the experience of players that have been here way longer than me, but I'd like to hear a solid argument for prioritizing speed for your linebackers. For example, referring to "SPD is a critical factor (offense and defense) in the "open or not" portion of the passing tree"...does anyone have any good examples over a sample size of games where, say, a much faster running back or TE that was otherwise statistically comparable to the linebackers burning the defense for a ton more passes then they did normally against faster defenses? Is there an example where a RB much faster than the LBs burned them a lot on outside runs compared to how he usually does against other faster defenses?

I mean if your not going to trust the great coaches that are telling you that Speed matters then go look into it. They gave you an answer based on years of experience and experience from many championship runs. They already did the experimenting and the trial and error and gave you their conclusion (Speed matters).

Now if you want more proof go put in your own experimenting time. Recruit only high tackle and strength low speed LBs and run only 3-4. We will find out really fast if it matters or not and then you become the expert!

"SPD is a critical factor (offense and defense) in the "open or not" portion of the passing tree"...does anyone have any good examples over a sample size of games where, say, a much faster running back or TE that was otherwise statistically comparable to the linebackers burning the defense for a ton more passes then they did normally against faster defenses? Is there an example where a RB much faster than the LBs burned them a lot on outside runs compared to how he usually does against other faster defenses?"

FWIW, all of my answers (unless I indicate otherwise) come directly from a developer chat or an interview with a developer. The answer above came from the GDReports interview with J.Conte where he outlined the passing tree from the underlying code.

I encourage you to challenge opinions with your own experience and research. Most posting on the forums are opinions (some really good and some not so good).

Also, much of the interviews from which I draw my answers are really old. Personally, I do not think the code has changed...but it is possible.

Good luck.

nitros (James)

Posted by truedevil33 on 11/8/2017 9:32:00 AM (view original):
I mean if your not going to trust the great coaches that are telling you that Speed matters then go look into it. They gave you an answer based on years of experience and experience from many championship runs. They already did the experimenting and the trial and error and gave you their conclusion (Speed matters).

Now if you want more proof go put in your own experimenting time. Recruit only high tackle and strength low speed LBs and run only 3-4. We will find out really fast if it matters or not and then you become the expert!

I didn't say I don't trust coaches or value their years of experience. If anything, my answer emphasized that I valued them. My answer was geared towards asking if there were any notable examples and generally, WHY they felt the way they did. My goal isn't just to find the best strategy that's going to win me games...it's to learn more about the game engine and why popular strategies/approaches are so popular. I can't do that just from hearing a lot of people say they prioritize speed when recruiting a certain position...there was a good example mentioned that I directly quoted saying that speed is a critical component behind the open/not open formula for receivers vs coverage, which is fantastic, because that's something I wasn't aware of before. Stuff like this is what I was hoping to hear when I asked WHY people prioritized speed, especially as a new player who sees that the default role for linebackers values tackling and strength and GI far higher than speed. Maybe the default role ratings are garbage? Maybe having deficient speed in your LB core is an easily exploitable weakness against human players that will pick you apart with checkdowns and short passes to their RBs/TEs? I won't know until I ask! As far as just taking expert's opinions without trying to find out more, there's literally someone in this thread who's been here for a while who questions if speed is overrated. I can't imagine why you would interpret my post the way you did.

As far as experimenting, I am more than happy to do my own due diligence.

Default role ratings are garbage. Going to site mail you some collective thoughts a group of coaches have come up with or discussed.