QB Development

[Andrew]

Just curious if I'm hurting Edgar Cote by playing him as a rookie. He has the best current rating among my QB's, but is struggling greatly. I'm trying to slant my offense towards my running game as much as possible but it doesn't seem to help at all.

Cote currently has the 2nd lowest QB rating among qualifiers. I just want to make sure I'm not ruining him by sticking him out there and letting him struggle.

[Guest]

Just curious if I'm hurting Edgar Cote by playing him as a rookie. He has the best current rating among my QB's, but is struggling greatly. I'm trying to slant my offense towards my running game as much as possible but it doesn't seem to help at all.

Cote currently has the 2nd lowest QB rating among qualifiers. I just want to make sure I'm not ruining him by sticking him out there and letting him struggle.

There's no evidence of "discouragement" code being in the game. All signed point to there being no downside to playing guys early and often if you can get them in the lineup.

[Heelfan71]

There's no evidence of "discouragement" code being in the game. All signed point to there being no downside to playing guys early and often if you can get them in the lineup.

what about an upside to getting early playing time ??

[Guest]

what about an upside to getting early playing time ??

Player development (ie green becoming red) is accelerated by playing time.

[Heelfan71]

Player development (ie green becoming red) is accelerated by playing time.

thanks. will have to throw my rookie in there if my season doesn't get better.

[Delandis]

Just curious if I'm hurting Edgar Cote by playing him as a rookie. He has the best current rating among my QB's, but is struggling greatly. I'm trying to slant my offense towards my running game as much as possible but it doesn't seem to help at all.

Cote currently has the 2nd lowest QB rating among qualifiers. I just want to make sure I'm not ruining him by sticking him out there and letting him struggle.

2nd worse behind who...non other than Mr. Allen.

[Andrew]

I have another QB question. My QB is rated fairly well in screens, medium, long and deep passes. He is rated poorly in Short passes. If I want to gameplan to his strengths, should I limit the percentages I give to short passing? Is he going to avoid throwing screens if I do so? Is this a tradeoff I should make?

[Guest]

I have another QB question. My QB is rated fairly well in screens, medium, long and deep passes. He is rated poorly in Short passes. If I want to gameplan to his strengths, should I limit the percentages I give to short passing? Is he going to avoid throwing screens if I do so? Is this a tradeoff I should make?

One thing to keep in mind here is that weakness is relative, especially in short passing. For example, I'm looking at the stats for WOOF, which is 2/3 of the way through its first season with 6.1. The *worst* completion percentage any team has for Short passes is 70.4. The best is 86.6. That's not a wide delta between the best and the worst. For medium passing, the delta is much more significant. It ranges from 42.5% to 67.2%. If you think about it, this makes sense from a football perspective. Nearly any QB who'd ever get into an NFL game can complete a 5-yard pass a great majority of the time. A poor rating in Short passes just means he'll do worst than most other QBs at it--not that he'll look like a bum.

I think I've said this before here, but I think a strength of FOF is that it uses the entire ratings scale. However, it means that if you're used to other ratings systems, you might need to adjust your thinking. The tendency for newer players is to think of a guy rated 5 out of 100 in a category as being your second cousin who played on the scout team for a Division III school. That's not the case at all. A 5 rating in a category just means that the guy is one of the worst NFL-quality players at that skill you'll see. So, in the case of Cote, with his rating in the mid-teens for short passing, that means he'll probably be on the low end of completion percentage for short passes. And, looking at where your team is, that's what's happening. You're completing 69.7% of your short passes, the second worst in the league. However, what's worth remembering is that that's still a much higher completion percentage than you're getting on medium and long. So, if it's third and 4, you're still better off throwing a short pass than saying "his rating is bad there." It just means that he won't do as well there as other QBs would. You still have to do it. Similarly you're still better off mixing in some short passing than simply abandoning it.

[Andrew]

Thanks SkyDog. Good info to have, as I was planning on completely abandoning short passing this week. I'll have to rethink my gameplan!