Quote Originally Posted by cdcox View Post
I will make a few comments about free agents in Sandbox.
  • The stats for free agents mimic low attempt players in the NFL, on the theory that hundreds of players every year in the NFL start the season as free agents but end up playing. Many NFL teams start a player some time during the season that was sitting on their couch opening weekend.

  • Free agents will occasionally make some big plays or have good games. Umberto listed some good NFL examples.

  • If you look in any Sandbox league, most FA with significant snaps aren’t doing great. QB ratings in the 60s or below. WR dropping 10% of their passes. Etc.

  • Kevin mentions a great point that all FA at a given position on a given team are lumped together.

  • But looking at the big picture, FA are performing a little better than they should. Over the next couple weeks I will likely tone down their average performance by another notch.
I get that SFA can produce. I get that anything and everything can and has happened. The issue I have is the frequency. In Browns1 there's a team whose SFA has 10 sacks and 6ints. Even if you're combining their defensive SFA stats on the year, those sack and int numbers are better than some other teams as a whole. There's also a SFA doing outperforming Baker Mayfield at QB, not that Baker is Joe Montana, but still.
My main concern lies outside of SFA, however. I can have a pressure rate of 50% and get 2 sacks and my opponent will have a pressure rate of 20% and get 4 or 5 sacks. The turnover rate seems to be tremendous as well. It becomes too difficult to gameplan when you can't determine why you're getting sacked without being pressured, or you throw a pick every time you get in the redzone, or you're fumbling 3+ times a game. Safeties have been high. Special teams impacts have been over the top since we can't gameplan one way or the other for it. Defensively we can only gameplan against the pass.
The penatlies seem inconsistent too. I've had more penalties called on Eric Stokes in one game than he's had called on him his entire NFL career. There have been a large amount of personal foul calls, too, which is significant since they are tacked on at the end of a play. I regularly have DE's getting called for defensive holding and corners called for neutral zone infractions.
CAN these things happen? Absolutely. Should they be the norm? Absolutely not. Don't get me wrong, I love playing, especially in my Dolphins1 league since it's so active. These are just some things that need tweaking imo.