Warrior General Games

Here is my FS build. He is level 30 and any advice is appreciated.
Attributes:
Strength = 29.59
Speed = 76.8
Agility = 55.59
Jumping = 33.59
Stamina = 45.8
Vision = 61.8
Confidence = 20.59
Catching = 23.8

SA's:
First step = +1
Super Vision = +3
Wrap up = +1
Diving Catch = +1
Growl = +1
Big Hit = +1
Closing Speed = +1

EQ:
Shirt = +3 speed, +1 Vision
Cleats = +3 speed, +1 vision
Head = Superior EQ - +4 speed, +3 superior vision
Custom EQ = +6 vision, +1 Hard Hitting tree
Gloves = Superior EQ - +3 speed, make tackle chance 8%

A LOT of what you "need" as a FS is dependant upon how your team uses you.

If they use you (like a lot of teams with "good" secondaries are doing) in man cover up close to the line, to bracket cover a WR right off the line, then you need more speed in your FS. For example, my Lv 23 SS has 78.7 speed/first capped agility/40+ tackling/first capped vision with +1 in all the coverage SA via custom EQ, and he is a viable "cover safety" at the lv 21 cap leagues; your FS would be hard pressed, even with your better agility/vision and SA mix, to match his ability to cover off the line (My SS isn't used close like the FS though, but the comparison is valid as an example).

Your speed/vision/agility mix IS quite good for a deep zone assignment though, but at lv 30 with "just" 76 speed, you MAY find some of your ultility waning in even this role soon...

So the first thing I'd do were this my player is take the speed to at LEAST the 4th cap. an adjusted 80/81 speed at FS will not necessarily allow you to play the man bracket covers, but it WILL allow you to continue the deep zone duties agaisnt the ever increasing speed of the WRs you'll be facing.

After getting the speed up just a touch, i'd want to work on closing speed to +5, super-vision to +5, wrap up to +5, and 1st step to +5.

What VA have you got by the way, and what is your tackling?

I haven't heard of the bracket cover safety. I'm only in a casual league and most of my duties are deep coverage or cover 2. I think I've matched up with a WR a few times, but 5WR haven't happened much. How common is the cover up safety in higher leagues because I should probably stop spending VA points on Zone SP? Can you elaborate more on the difference in builds of a bracket cover FS and a deep cover FS? I still plan to cap agility and vision at 68.

Attributes
Physical Attributes
Strength: 14.09
Speed: 79.6
Agility: 62.09
Jumping: 16.09
Stamina: 34.6
Vision: 56.6
Confidence: 14.09

Football Skills
Blocking: 14.09
Catching: 32.6
Tackling: 22.6
Throwing: 8
Carrying: 14.09
Kicking: 8
Punting: 8

Special Abilities
Coverage Abilities
First Step: 1
Change Direction: 1
Swat Ball: 1
Superior Vision: 1
Shutdown Coverage: 1

Hard Hitter Abilities
Wrap Up Tackle: 0
Diving Tackle: 0
Growl: 0
Big Hit: 0
Closing Speed: 0

Veteran Abilities
Zone Specialist: 3

are your attribute values natural or with equipment?

Originally posted by venomhonda
are your attribute values natural or with equipment?

all of my equipment is in stamina for the time being. He's a slowbuild, so I'm waiting to cap stamina after I take catching and tackling to 48.

Strictly speaking, you are not able to configure true "bracket covers" into the GLB engine., as you cannot assign a FS or CB to a specific duty in a double team. Quite often a FS playing Medium cover, with a CB playing close cover will result in a bracket configuration, and both on medium or close will wind up in another type of bracket. so I jsut use bracket cover as my personal "short hand" for these types of plays:

http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=586313&pbp_id=21104295
http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=586313&pbp_id=21106586

A TRUE Bracket cover is a man cover scheme that seeks to double a WR from the LOS throughout his entire route (or part of his route). There are 2 basic types of bracket calls; the in/out, and the over/under.

The in/out places a FS and a CB to either side of the WR in the double team. Obviously, this cuts down on the ability of the WR to run sharp and clean in or out cuts, as well denying the QB a clear passing lane to the WR on deep vertical sideline routes. It is set up like this:

^ ^ ^
^ ^ ^
FS WR CB

(^ indicates direction of play movement)

The over/under bracket cover is similar, but the FS/CB align over and under (of course). Like this:

FS

WR

CB

The over/under bracket is highly effective against slants, curls, and come back routes.

with all this said, the FS in a system that runs these types of double man cover schemes will require speed/agility much more in line with a CB, than with a SS. He still needs all the rest of the "normal" FS attributes of course, but he should be built more like a CB if he is going to play more like a CB...see?

yeah I wasn't asking about my build. Thats not Football is bringing up valuable information about how FS are used now in coverage situations. If you want to contribute, feel free to do so.

Originally posted by mer
I haven't heard of the bracket cover safety. I'm only in a casual league and most of my duties are deep coverage or cover 2. I think I've matched up with a WR a few times, but 5WR haven't happened much. How common is the cover up safety in higher leagues because I should probably stop spending VA points on Zone SP? Can you elaborate more on the difference in builds of a bracket cover FS and a deep cover FS? I still plan to cap agility and vision at 68.

Attributes
Physical Attributes
Strength: 14.09
Speed: 79.6
Agility: 62.09
Jumping: 16.09
Stamina: 34.6
Vision: 56.6
Confidence: 14.09

Football Skills
Blocking: 14.09
Catching: 32.6
Tackling: 22.6
Throwing: 8
Carrying: 14.09
Kicking: 8
Punting: 8

Special Abilities
Coverage Abilities
First Step: 1
Change Direction: 1
Swat Ball: 1
Superior Vision: 1
Shutdown Coverage: 1

Hard Hitter Abilities
Wrap Up Tackle: 0
Diving Tackle: 0
Growl: 0
Big Hit: 0
Closing Speed: 0

Veteran Abilities
Zone Specialist: 3

You are FINE for playing a cover 1 shell FS (the traditional "deep zone" cover FS role) at lv 26 with this build, assuming you have just finished play in a lv 21 cap league. I would not even hesitate to try you in that bracket plan against a WR2/3 with your 79 speed. The only drawback to you playing the double cover role with a CB is your confidence (in my opinion). Since you've worked up your catching in lieu of your confidence, you COULD find a severe drop off in your ability to recover from a single long completion to a WR you are covering. This is NOT such a worry for you in the cover 1 FS role though...

Let me stress...it is MY preference/opinion only to have confidence > catching in a safety . The reason I have for this opinion is that I feel a Safety can be AS effective for his team by making 3 or 4 PDs, as he can making 1 INT. This is especially true at the lower middle levels (lv 21 cap leagues), where a safety CANNOT have "adequate" numbers in their tertiary attributes, and "good" numbers in their secondary ones (Speed/Agility = primary, vision/tackling = secondary, catching/confidence/jumping = tertiary, by MY definition). Between lv 20-35 or so, it is about "choices", and a "good" DC should know the effect of his players' choices on their game performance. So it is up to a DC to use YOU to your greatest potential...

Were I your DC, I would use you as a cover 1 safety, and not use you in many underneath man cover situations, just because of your confidence.

Overall though, that is a very nice Lv 26 FS in my opinion.

Thanks a lot, that's a lot of good information. I appreciate the help with my build, but I was really just putting that in there to show I have a pretty good idea what I'm doing. I had no idea confidence was that important for a FS. I was really working up my catching because of the natural level gains being so much more for catching instead of jumping/confidence. I thought I could make up for lower tackling by choosing the 'wrap up' setting and putting all of my equipment in stamina plus a bonus to making tackles.

On that note, I think I have enough info here to take to my DC so we can try out underneath man cover situations late in the season next season in some scrimmages. I completely agree about PDs being just as important as INTs, but I didn't know confidence would have more of an influence than catching might. Some of these attributes really contribute to odd things sometime, but it does make sense.

Thanks a lot for your help because this will give me something to shoot for!

Originally posted by Thats_not_football
A LOT of what you "need" as a FS is dependant upon how your team uses you.

If they use you (like a lot of teams with "good" secondaries are doing) in man cover up close to the line, to bracket cover a WR right off the line, then you need more speed in your FS. For example, my Lv 23 SS has 78.7 speed/first capped agility/40+ tackling/first capped vision with +1 in all the coverage SA via custom EQ, and he is a viable "cover safety" at the lv 21 cap leagues; your FS would be hard pressed, even with your better agility/vision and SA mix, to match his ability to cover off the line (My SS isn't used close like the FS though, but the comparison is valid as an example).

Your speed/vision/agility mix IS quite good for a deep zone assignment though, but at lv 30 with "just" 76 speed, you MAY find some of your ultility waning in even this role soon...

So the first thing I'd do were this my player is take the speed to at LEAST the 4th cap. an adjusted 80/81 speed at FS will not necessarily allow you to play the man bracket covers, but it WILL allow you to continue the deep zone duties agaisnt the ever increasing speed of the WRs you'll be facing.

After getting the speed up just a touch, i'd want to work on closing speed to +5, super-vision to +5, wrap up to +5, and 1st step to +5.

What VA have you got by the way, and what is your tackling?






Hey this is great stuff, thanks. My VA's are Long Reach = +4, Motivational Speaker = +1, Red Zone Freak = +2 and my attributes are with equipment and my tackling = 48.9