Warrior General Games

In looking for a replacement LB for Air Raid, I'm absolutely astounded at some of the builds I see. Guys with 80+ power tackling, and 25 sprinting that are a couple games away from being JOURNEYMEN. How exactly do you intend to land a power tackle on a HB with 70+ sprinting and/or quickness?

Here's some benchmarks for the would-be free agent LB/FS/SS/CB on your mobility skills. Consider that you should AT LEAST meet these values to potentially be considered a viable defender for the vast majority of defensive coordinators searching for talent.

By the start of (X) season, your footwork/quickness/sprinting skills should average, at minimum, these values. Personally I'd put every benchmark about 5 points higher, but with the state of some of the builds I see, folks need to start with something seemingly attainable.

Sophomore - 30
Seasoned - 45
Journeyman - 55
Professional - 60
Veteran - 60+

Now, please, go work on your physical skills so that defensive coordinators don't have to worry about halfbacks and wide receivers blowing by you while your super tackling or coverage player cannot seem to get their feet to move in any useful direction. Thank you.

http://glb2.warriorgeneral.com/game/player/28489

amidoinitright?

Originally posted by DeeVee8
http://glb2.warriorgeneral.com/game/player/28489

amidoinitright?

nope, joo are not doinitrite! Rerollz noobz

i agree the power tackling and such is too high.. but i think your minimum averages are a bit high

Originally posted by hansmacher
i agree the power tackling and such is too high.. but i think your minimum averages are a bit high

To each their own. I'm trying to replace an inactive agent that hasn't spent a SP this entire season. He had an average of 45 at the start of Seasoned. He was a two time league defensive MVP. I can barely even find level 14 players now that have better mobility than he does at his inactive level 10 investment. The state some of the builds on the marketplace are in is positively woeful. They don't have a prayer of even getting blocked on a pitch play. They'll never even make it that far in time for a lead blocker to consider them.

I think they are good guidelines..

I probably wouldn't include a middle linebacker in that but maybe that's just me (footwork)

Originally posted by TxSteve
I think they are good guidelines..

I probably wouldn't include a middle linebacker in that but maybe that's just me (footwork)

My opinion is they need to be able to scrape to the sideline just as well as anyone else to deal with pitch plays. But yeah, probably value their footwork/quickness more than the sprinting when doing the averaging.

i would just shift your numbers to be goals for the end of that career tier instead of the beginning i guess.

If you remove lb from this then it actually becomes decent

Originally posted by Jampy2.0
If you remove lb from this then it actually becomes decent

oh man.. im agreeing with jampy again.

Originally posted by hansmacher
i agree the power tackling and such is too high.. but i think your minimum averages are a bit high

Agreed. To me, there are four key LB builds (each with many sub-specialties):

Blitzer (Subs: Power Rush, Tech Rush, FF, Hurry/Intimidate).

Run Stuffer (Subs: FF, Combo rusher, Combo coverage, Combo Outside Stuffer).

Man Coverage (Subs: Interception specialist, KL factory, Run/Pass coverage, Super Deflector).

Zone Coverage (Combo Man Cover, Eyes on the Prize underneath build, FF power, Combo Run Breaker).

Obviously the physical investment on a tech rush blitzer is going to be very different from that of a FF run stuffer. Both have their uses and the correct use of the depth chart will permit you to put the right LB in for the right D-formation play calls.

I guess my biggest argument against LBs being allowed to be slower would be the receiving TEs I have on my own team. We're nearly to journeyman, and they're sitting at 60+ average on sprinting/quickness/route tech. Slow LBs get murdered. And that's not even accounting for the struggles of a slow LB in dealing with pitch plays or being an effective blitzer. Many of the top defenses I've seen have OLBs that are considerably faster than their safeties and CBs at this point.

For my CBs, I'd rather they spent a long time getting their pass coverage skills up before making a huge investment in physical skills. Your CB isn't going to be that useful keeping up with his man if he still allows the reception almost every time. It also depends on what SAs you are planning. If you are going to 3 star closing speed, you can get away with much lower physical skills and still cover the outside run.

If you focus too much on the physical skills, you get bots that can get to the spot to make the play, but might not have the skills to do anything about it when they get there.

Originally posted by Time Trial
For my CBs, I'd rather they spent a long time getting their pass coverage skills up before making a huge investment in physical skills. Your CB isn't going to be that useful keeping up with his man if he still allows the reception almost every time. It also depends on what SAs you are planning. If you are going to 3 star closing speed, you can get away with much lower physical skills and still cover the outside run.

If you focus too much on the physical skills, you get bots that can get to the spot to make the play, but might not have the skills to do anything about it when they get there.

I'd argue the logic opposite, and the ability to make a play is irrelevant until you can reliably get your bot to the spot where a play can be made. At the very least, you can force a nearby defense CiT roll by the receiver, even if you can't deflect/intercept worth anything, and a missed tackle or 10 yard drag is considerably better than never even getting the tackle attempt. At least you force a slight delay in the rushers path for other players to potentially get in on the play.

Originally posted by Galithor
I guess my biggest argument against LBs being allowed to be slower would be the receiving TEs I have on my own team. We're nearly to journeyman, and they're sitting at 60+ average on sprinting/quickness/route tech. Slow LBs get murdered. And that's not even accounting for the struggles of a slow LB in dealing with pitch plays or being an effective blitzer. Many of the top defenses I've seen have OLBs that are considerably faster than their safeties and CBs at this point.

Obviously if you are covering the TE with a slow LB, you are hoping that they aren't calling a passing play. You have a pretty good idea who should be covering who when you call a play.

For the first two seasons, I only called plays that had blitzes with the ROLB because I knew that I could then slot the blitzers in at ROLB in each formation. Now that I call a variety of plays, sometimes I have to move my blitzer into different places so that I'm not stuck watching my LB with no deflection skills trying to cover a receiver one-on-one.