This is a quick update to two positions - WR and CB. In MFN-1 and Beta-87, we have been testing some updates to QB decision making. This means that I have been looking more closely at coverage, and I noticed something that I had been overlooking all this time with B&R coverage.
I noticed that CBs were getting burned badly on plays when they were supposed to be in tight man coverage. As someone who runs a lot of Cover 5 on early downs and while run blitzing, this bothered me a lot. This was happening more frequently in the beta leagues because the QB would throw the ball as soon as the WR broke free of the CBs cover. On closer inspection, this mostly happened when the CB came up to jam the WR at the line.
This observation led me to tracking down this post by JDB:
jdavidbakr wrote:
Rotor wrote:
Does this rating matter, do bump & run influence the outcome of pass plays (how, slowing the route progression?) I never saw a corner "press his receiver on the line" and they invariably start several yards from him but maybe I don't interpret correctly what I see. Thanks in advance for your input!
There is a decision that your CBs make to decide whether to play off the WR or play close and bump and run. Usually this decreases with faster WR's so the CB doesn't get beat; you'll know if the CB is playing bump and run because he'll be right on the LOS when the play starts.
B&R will slow the pattern down (depending on the WR's B&R avoidance) because the WR's velocity is interrupted. This potentially could give the DL a bit of extra time before the WR completes his route. So it doesn't have a huge impact, but may tilt the scales slightly on some plays.
So with all of that, I have added B&R back to my CB and WR weights. In fact, I've started looking at B&R as being more important than M2M because the effects of bad B&R are disastrous in the code being tested. I still consider these weights in a testing phase, but they seem to be working in that I give up fewer long passes because the CB missed the jam at the line.
WR100 - Speed
70 - Catching
35 -
B&R Avoid, Route
25 - Courage, Intelligence, Acceleration
15 - Ball Carry
1 - Discipline, Avoid Fumble, Run Blocking, Strength
CB100 - Speed
70 -
B&R Cover35 - Tackle, M2M Cover
25 - Acceleration
15 - Intelligence, Punish, Zone
1 - Strength, Pass Rush, Run Defense