Game Play

[cdcox]

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.

[tophardtjr]

I use to be in a sim league very similar to this, all the player stats were individualized no matter if it was Tom Brady or Joe Blow off the street. The sim went off of the pervious years real NFL stats. The stats for a sim year would not be exact as the real NFL year but it would be fairly close. For example if you have Tom Brady at QB in real life he throws for 5,000 yards, in the sim the following year it would be close to that, but if you have nothing but lower level WR'S on your sim team he would not get close to that.

[UmmBerrto]

I use to be in a sim league very similar to this, all the player stats were individualized no matter if it was Tom Brady or Joe Blow off the street. The sim went off of the pervious years real NFL stats. The stats for a sim year would not be exact as the real NFL year but it would be fairly close. For example if you have Tom Brady at QB in real life he throws for 5,000 yards, in the sim the following year it would be close to that, but if you have nothing but lower level WR'S on your sim team he would not get close to that.

I believe the same thing is going on here and it takes into account each offensive lineman TE and HB in exactly the same way. If I understand correctly, the whole offensive line can take a hit if you play one really bad Guard, that the line has co compensate for, and that will cause issues with QB and RB production across the board.

I believe that is the case, or maybe I'm just reading to much into it.

[UmmBerrto]

I believe the same thing is going on here and it takes into account each offensive lineman TE and HB in exactly the same way. If I understand correctly, the whole offensive line can take a hit if you play one really bad Guard, that the line has co compensate for, and that will cause issues with QB and RB production across the board.

I believe that is the case, or maybe I'm just reading to much into it.

I wonder if we are going to see a different Pat, now that Hill is gone, I believe the cheetah ran down a lot of passes that no other WR would even come close to.

Not that they were all bad passes, just many passes were thrown to where Pat hoped only the cheetah could get to.

[pit1232]

when a player get injured for the season can we put him on injured reserve list and pick up a free agent in that postion like the NFL has and do we get to keep that player untill we need to drop player to make the 53 man roster

[tophardtjr]

According to the developer if a free agent scores 5 TDS in real life in the sim they just get bundled together with all your other WR's, in the sim i used to be in that didn't happen. If he caught 5 TD'S in real life HE would catch somewhere around that in the sim, not the whole WR core.

[Kingswood]

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.

[Kingswood]

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.

Just saw I was challenged and I was sacked 8 times, threw 3 ints, and fumbled 4 times... in one game? We had similar pressure percentages but I never got to him once. Explain to me how Jimmy G is better at evading a sack than Justin Fields. His receivers aren't better, his line isn't better, yet somehow I'm the only one struggling? This is what's infuriating. There is so little consistency that it makes everything a joke. If SFA are going to outperform NFL starters and my team play is going to be so hit or miss why should we even bother? What is the point of setting up a gameplan and lineup, or even drafting if players aren't going to perform realistically? You don't want to give ratings, which I'm all for, but then you don't want to make the players realistic. The only difference between SFA and starters at this point is that starters have a name. Everything else seems entirely randomized.

[UmmBerrto]

when a player get injured for the season can we put him on injured reserve list and pick up a free agent in that postion like the NFL has and do we get to keep that player untill we need to drop player to make the 53 man roster

Yeah that would be cool, maybe a ten man practice squad or something like that.

Plus, another good option would be a three, six, nine, twelve and full season Injury Reserve.

We know when a guy is going to be out. It would be nice to pick up a guy from the practice squad.

But, I guess that is the whole point of the SFA.

They are that guy that would come from your own practice squad or a pick up from off waivers.

So, the SFA make sense.

I believe the issue maybe we have so many abandoned teams with so many SFA playing at so many positions, it goes against our normal understanding of what we can accept.

[tophardtjr]

Just saw I was challenged and I was sacked 8 times, threw 3 ints, and fumbled 4 times... in one game? We had similar pressure percentages but I never got to him once. Explain to me how Jimmy G is better at evading a sack than Justin Fields. His receivers aren't better, his line isn't better, yet somehow I'm the only one struggling? This is what's infuriating. There is so little consistency that it makes everything a joke. If SFA are going to outperform NFL starters and my team play is going to be so hit or miss why should we even bother? What is the point of setting up a gameplan and lineup, or even drafting if players aren't going to perform realistically? You don't want to give ratings, which I'm all for, but then you don't want to make the players realistic. The only difference between SFA and starters at this point is that starters have a name. Everything else seems entirely randomized.

I have not played a game yet as my league is still in the initial free agent period. But that is something they need to fix, there is no reason for that to happen.