Football Simming Thoughts

I've played around 7 seasons of football simming so I'm no expert but I'm going to share some of the things I've learned that seem helpful

Defense beats Offense. The sim has more possessions than a standard game and becomes a field position battle often times for those 6 pt swings with a FG. An Elite defense will help you win that battle more often than not as compared to an elite offense

As in IRL - having a competent QB is mandatory to success. Look for high TD rate (6%+), a low INT rate (2%), a low fumble rate, a decent passer rating (95+), decent YPC and at least low 200's pass yards per game... running stats are a luxury but can definitely help as long as the fumble rate is low - AV is usually high anyway so not much of a worry

DE's usually have the best stats of any DT or LB and can be used in all 3 positions - stock up on them. The formula I use is TFL+Sacks+QB Hits - if this number is above 20 the player is solid, above 30 and they are bordering on elite regardless of AV. FF are also taken into consideration (just looking for at least 1)

DE/LB positioning is better for the players with higher tfl/sacks/qb hits while a high AV lineman without good stats there can do well at DT to stop the run. TFL = stopping the run. QB HIts = making the pass harder to complete

LB's with high TFL and INT's can do very well in the sim - look for 6+ AV

OL seems like the least important position - just make sure everyone is 6 or above so you don't get negative yards - doesnt feel like a big difference between 8 AV and even 12 AV

RB's look for 8AV+ and high yards per rush with enough yards per game to use them a solid amount. TD's seem important in their real stats. All purpose back is better but you can usually find 3DRB's for cheap

High AV CB/SS seems important to increase incompletions and have a stout secondary rather than the INT type stats. You want both but I'd rather start an 8 AV 1 INT corner than a 5 AV 4 INT corner

Field goal kicking is extremely important. Make sure to be aggressive with FG kicking as defense beats offense in the sim so always take your points. Look for FG kickers with perfect XP, 90+ plus for 30-40 and somewhere decent for 40+ like 60-70%+. The "long" is probably the most important overlooked stat in the whole sim. 60+ can create tons of points

Punter is self explanatory just look for a longer average

WR/TE - as with RB's the TD number seems very important more so than the AV. Id rather have a 900 yard 10 TD receiver than a 1400 yard 2 TD receiver. TE's won't do very well unless you have an elite one - a position of luxury

If you click "defense" below your team icon it will show you your INT/Sack/Fumble rate. An elite defense is usually over 20% - you can scroll through teams and learn what a good defense looks like

Punt Return TD's and Kick Return TD's from returners in real stats will create an inordinate amount of TD's

Hope some of this helps! What have you learned within the sim?

These are good tips! The biggest thing I've learned is how much fun it is to try the football sim. It is a lot of fun if you go in knowing the stats will be very defense heavy.

My first season I was surprised with how bad the QB stats looked. A lot of QBs with 50-60% completions and even the best QBs were like 20 TDs and 15 INT. The RBs are even worse. It was shocking to see guys like Derrick Henry average 3 yards per carry.

When I thought harder, I figured it makes sense when they are going up against the best year of hall of fame defensive players at virtually every position. (Although I still think that maybe O-lines should get a little bit of a buff to make the run game a more viable gameplan)

For those of you that love the PC baseball (I do too!) and enjoy the NFL, give it a shot! It might take a few seasons of tweaking and looking at the best rosters in the standings to figure out how to make a good team but it can be a lot of fun when you do. Lately I've been trying to challenge myself and get some of the teams that have never won a Superbowl close to a championship. They usually make the playoffs but from there it's a crapshoot just like real football since it's single game elimination.

Which games are you guys playing? Salary cap or certain seasons? Thanks!

For the auto-leagues I pretty much exclusively play the favorite teams ones. It is more fun to me to construct a roster from scratch and have full control of how I make my team.

The only downside with the auto-leagues is they can take a long time to fill. I usually just make my team and forget about it until the season actually starts. Maybe having even a few more regular players would make it fill up faster. (Or deleting some of the inactive auto-leagues might help too. There are 7 favorite team leagues right now with 7 or more teams available)

Progression with C or U etc with created players or real stat progression like you’re saying

Not auto leagues

@tjmoss86 this is really great stuff, do you mind if I share this on the Tips page?

Of course no worries

These are very helpful, thanks! Anyone have similar recommendations for BASKETBALL?!!! Because I'm a complete failure there.

Basketball is a turnover battle

DWS beats OWS by a lot

In the same sense as football I look at steals blocks and DWS (which creates DS) paired against their turnovers per 36 and to a much lesser extent foul rate. Find players that have like 3 steals and blocks per 36 and only 1.5 TO's.

Assists mean actually nothing in the sim - fun to see the stat but does not impact the engine at all

When looking at rebound rates look at offensive rebounds - someone with 10 rebounds per 36 will do better with 4 offensive rebounds than 2 offensive in terms of overall rebound rate

High FG% and high FT rate is important - you want efficient players that create pressure on the defense. Over 40% on 3PM can be very useful

Minutes are very important - playing players over their minutes or when injured is rarely ever worth it even if they are a superstar - the penalties are severe i've seen 1 for 22 games from players like kareem

Set tempo based on your team's skill set - if you have a very deep roster that shoots a lot and gets to the line a lot then uptempo may be better while if you have a defensive minded roster you may want to limit possessions and go slow

Per 36 is all that matters for the sim engine - so if it's the end part of a draft and you see a guy with only 12 minutes played and low WS with great per 36 stats then that can be very valuable

@gbacci am I right in thinking OL has been buffed since I made this post? 😃

Other thing I’d say is long term runs or catches don’t seem very possible - 50-60 yards feels like the max ever where as the punt return TD’s are very common

Nothing has been buffed since this post.

Yes I did notice the lack of long plays. I tried fixing it a while back but maybe didn’t have as much an impact as desired.