kursetheday wrote:
ArmoredGiraffe wrote:
Offensive lineman should have greater than 80 pass blocking otherwise they are glorified turnstiles who shouldn't be rostered. Run blocking doesn't matter nearly as much in 4.6.
Is there any data to back this up, or is this anecdotal?
Sorry, I was away for a year, and I would typically run sets that were run only with heavy blockers to great success, and then sets that were pass only with great pass blockers to minimal success. I regularly won rushing titles and never missed the playoffs. Now, granted, I never played all WRs at every skill position, to my own detriment.
However, I'm not discounting your thoughts at all; I'm more or less asking if Run Blocking matters at all (like < 50 RB if Pass Block is 80+), or would you still prefer a 50+ Run Block? Additionally, where does Acceleration and Str factor into this?
I appreciate the work you put into this.
Anecdotal testing with my own teams. From my own experience and what I have noticed, once you have 5 guys with 80 pass blocking, sacks become more of a product of play calling and offense talent vs defense talent. OL with less than 80 pass blocking get beat(at least visually) much more quickly than guys who have it. That's also where I got the idea for the 40 speed/acceleration minimums for OL as in a league where a guy with high strength and blockings(all 90+) but 30s for those two skills got beat for 19 sacks in 8 games in Big Data when that league was around. I think strength does matter, but I'm still not sure how much. I've had 90 strength guys get worked over more than 50 strength guys in the same offense. Again, all this is currently anecdotal from me watching my own games and looking at my own stats. I like to think I have a good handle on it but without data backing it up it is just my opinion :)
All WR skill players helps the offense a little bit but defense is stronger than offense. People complain about WR at TE but CB at LB kills offensive production more than the WR at TE improves it. And skilled, fast LBs can hold their own against WRs if you have the right skills. You can still win with RBs/FBs/TEs, there are just certain plays that are less effective since TEs don't run routes as quickly as WRs since acceleration is still tied to weight.
As far as rushing goes, assuming your ball carrier has adequate speed then your OL doesn't need to block for very long and in 4.6 run blocking got put on steroids due to the code changes for the punt block fix. Rushing is good, but to stop the rampant rushing attacks that came out with 4.6 people started blitzing more to adapt and I released the scourge of MFN, the 4.6 method with this post where you blitz often. A good running game is mostly built upon being able to run into the blitz without losing yards and your opponent not blitzing that often.
Now, I think run blocking does matter and you definitely want it as high as you can get it, but I wouldn't sacrifice pass blocking to get it. I will start guys with 20 run blocking if I can't find guys with more run blocking and at least 80 pass blocking. Provided you're calling good rushes and have fast ball carriers, you should still be successful running the ball. I think acceleration and strength matter and do impact blocking skills success but I'm not sure to the extent other than more is better.
Last edited at 6/07/2023 11:52 am
