Warrior General Games

So, I want to share a thing or two from my little experiment, Tokeneke Twilight in rook. The team did moderately well as largely a run team (19-7-1 as of date and #9 tier) even though it never had a HB on its roster. I wanted to see what it would be like if I used FBs in the HB position. [Bonus: you can get those elusive FB achieves!] If others have done this before, I would like to hear their opinions too.

Initially I had wanted to use 3 FB (1 traditional blocker, 1 power, 1 slippery), but because of the 2 FB roster limit I bagged the power FB. After 1-2 games I learned the trick to the depth chart to get the slippery FB (Larry Centers) in as the OOP starting HB. Over the season he did well (#2 Off MVP and of course #1 FB in tier). If you have a S*FB like Duck Beard, then I think your run game can be good throughout all the tiers. In his case, I would give up some of the Sprinting +/or blocking for more conditioning and Grip. I use Duck Beard as an example, because he has had great success -- hats off to you Mysterio.

I haven't seen much down side to not having a HB and FBs are a lot cheaper, so if your team design is up against the cap then you might want to consider this option. I think of BSB with their 20 S* on def. One of the keys is to have a lot of conditioning for the FB OOP, but that is the meta anyways. I used a lot of Singleback plays to give rest and I was able to keep my blocking FB under 10 snaps regularly by the last 1/4 of the season. My blocking FB did fair enough though too when given the rock. I prefer Pow HB/FB as PR/KR, but didn't want to tap into my FBs for that. My WR did fine though as KR/PR (#1 ST MVP).

My HB Chuck Munchies was #1 ST MVP/#1 in tier for ST last 2 & 1/2 seasons before owner went inactive and I don't see that a FB would be any worse really, but certainly cheaper. If anyone wants a FB as HB or KR/PR in S17 for rook or soph, reach out to me.

Tokeneke was a weird team for a few reasons and I am certainly not an elite coach, but hopefully this FB idea is something that some of you find helpful. If you go this route, I would like to learn how it works for you and what tips you might have.

Didn't read, but it looks flawwed

Bring that team to Vet and finish top 5 and then you can make this claim.

Rookie is more about playcalling than players... at higher levels builds are just as important as playcalling. I'd say the jury is still out until you can bring it up to the upper leagues and make it work. At rookie ST fumbles aren't as prevalent either, I think its absolutely necessary to have a power KR/PR to get carry grip above 85 and then B4I as well. WR at KR/PR will become a huge problem once you get into JMan and above just due to fumbles on returns.

I like the idea as a salary saving idea if there is some other gimmick the team is built around, but I still say the jury is out.

Originally posted by Galactic Empire
Bring that team to Vet and finish top 5 and then you can make this claim.

Looks more like a question to me than a claim

Originally posted by Galactic Empire
Bring that team to Vet and finish top 5 and then you can make this claim.

You said this????

You???

Originally posted by Xars
You said this????

You???


He was being facetious...turned out sounding fecaltious.

Milehigh said the same thing I did but you down voted mine and up voted his.

Originally posted by Galactic Empire
Milehigh said the same thing I did but you down voted mine and up voted his.

Is there a post of yours I missed...this post you speak of I don't see it?

Interesting, I considered Duckbeard a failed experiment.

Originally posted by Mysterio
Interesting, I considered Duckbeard a failed experiment.

Performing well from what I see

Originally posted by Mysterio
Interesting, I considered Duckbeard a failed experiment.

Tell me more. What have you learned about FB as ball carriers?

Originally posted by drewd21
Looks more like a question to me than a claim

Yes, my post was to share one aspect of the TT experiment because I still wonder if a team could utilize the no HB approach for their team construction in rare circumstances. The only "claims" were just trying to give context of the performance of the dot/team to aid the conversation. Generally there is no reason not to have a HB as your ball carrier, unless you are an achievement hog (like me), trying to squeeze the cap in an extreme way for another interesting team design or just wanna be crazy and have fun (like me again). So my main question is: if you are trying to squeeze the cap, is this no HB thing viable? So far in rook my sense is, yeah maybe. TT would have likely been better with HBs this year, but probably not by much and would that have even resulted in more wins? There wasn't a cap issue on the team (no S* at all) though I did have the luxury of carrying 2 very different QBs so I could alter game plan radically on an unsuspecting foe (probably the key to wins over BB and TFC). TT is folding because of lack of time, but it would have been fun to take further.

I appreciate MileHigh's comment because he is really the only one that has brought any meat to the conversation.

Also, if anyone else is trying something slightly different than the same cookie cutter teams, I would like to hear about it in the forum.

In terms of doing it to free up salary cap, it would have made a lot more sense when you could carry 2 Ks. Now it is tougher to fill in the minimum roster size with cheap players.

If you could take 13 OL and 3 K/P, that would basically allow you to run with bare minimum personal everywhere else, including a 3rd CB/WR and a 2nd TE.

It can also be tough to force the "right" FB into the HB slot if you are running single back a lot.

Originally posted by David146
Tell me more. What have you learned about FB as ball carriers?


I will have 2 power running FBs on my roster soon. Guess we will see how they turn out. They had to get their blocking skills up first. Starting to concentrate solely on power running now.

I think it will add another dimension to my offense as the defense will have to account for a running QB, fast HB, passing game and now a power running FB. Or if I run out of goalline, a power HB and FB. Next season I will start adding more FB running plays.