Warrior General Games

I often see posts about how much speed for a blocking FB and often the answer is either given in a number or a more vague response of enough to stay in front of the HB. The later answer has caused to wonder what the difference in speed between the FB and the HB is optimal for a successful lead block to occur. I understand that a SAs and VAs would come into play. I am curious as to what people's opinions are on the subject.

80% of Hb speed in a general guide

I noticed my FB being too fast at 120 speed. They will often bust through the line and head towards a safety sitting in zone, rather than taking out a LB, basically rendering them useless. So Im moving some equipment around to make mine slightly slower in the hopes that he'll be more effective at choosing appropriate blocks.

Has 70 vision btw.

Originally posted by L_R~Cult~
I noticed my FB being too fast at 120 speed. They will often bust through the line and head towards a safety sitting in zone, rather than taking out a LB, basically rendering them useless. So Im moving some equipment around to make mine slightly slower in the hopes that he'll be more effective at choosing appropriate blocks.

Has 70 vision btw.

please tell me how this works out since i have a similar problem from time to time with my 130 speed FB! and he's also got +11 in first step...

I'm pretty sure 120-130 is too much for blocking FB. I think 100-110 would be more appropriate

So after reading the comments and the watching my blocking full back I have some thoughts. My FB is at about 80 speed right now and one of the HB is at about 120 and the other about 140. My FB is able to stay in front of the 120 HB and pick up blocks just fine, even to the outside. With the 140 HB, my FB lagged in some of the outside runs. With the runs through the line my FB was ahead of the 140 HB but just by a little. So it seems that the ration for the FB to 120 HB is closer to 70% and was adequate while the ratio for FB to 140 HB was just under 60% which seemed too low.

Of course there is still the problem of getting to fast to be an effective blocker. I suppose that is a problem for OCs to utilize a blocking FB appropriately.

Originally posted by Bunk Bunk
Of course there is still the problem of getting to fast to be an effective blocker. I suppose that is a problem for OCs to utilize a blocking FB appropriately.


Kind of hard to change what a blocking FB does when blocking as all of the blocking routes are pre-scripted by the game code. The most an OC could do would be avoid plays the FB can't effectively block in. Which kind of sucks as an OC, because it usually means cutting out all outside rushing plays entirely. Which most OC's won't do just to make the FB perform better.

Or not having an outside rushing set with a full back in the play. I agree that cutting out all outside rushes would be foolish. However, if a FB can't effectively block on a play scheme it would be better to have another body over on the side the play is rushing to such as a TE or a WR.

I would be disappointed in an OC calling plays just to make a FB look better.

Originally posted by Bunk Bunk
Or not having an outside rushing set with a full back in the play. I agree that cutting out all outside rushes would be foolish. However, if a FB can't effectively block on a play scheme it would be better to have another body over on the side the play is rushing to such as a TE or a WR.

I would be disappointed in an OC calling plays just to make a FB look better.

Some teams defend the outside rush poorly in 2 WR sets and better in 3 WR sets, and vice versa. In my O, 60% of the plays called are tailored to be effective against the D of the team I'm playing, while ~40% of the play calls are just plays that the dots on the team run effectively. So if my FB sucks at blocking outside but the D has a gaping hole in all outside rushes from pro-set, I'm going to go outside anyway a few times and see if the HB can't break it open anyways, but having a FB who can block inside rushes is more important this season since outside rushes are almost completely shut down currently.