When considering a trade or free agent pickup, I look at the player attributes and stats, then my weight rating vs the default rating. Thought it would be interesting to look at last 2 seasons stats to see if there were any unusual, outstanding, and noteworthy results. That kind of information can be very usefull for both your roster management and gameplanning decisions.

One that popped out at me were the receiving stats.for TDs. The leader with 14 TDs (8/6) in last 2 seasons and 1/2 of the top ten were TE's! I remember a few years ago when we used to complain that the TE was not important enough in the offense. That is def not the case now. In addition, for most of the teams, the TE gets the most passes thrown to. I also remember when the WRs would rack up a lot of TDs, 14 or more, which has also changed dramatically. The next thing I do when looking at the leaders is to check their cards, to see how the stat result matches up to their rating and key attributes. I also like to look at the players transaction history if they have more than 3 or 4 seasons.

TE Antoine Fowler, Colts, 8 & 6 TDs last 2 seasons. 9 yr vet. Was a 1.1 draft choice by the Cards, acquired by the Colts in FA1/2035, 11 teams made offers on him. Colts won with a $410 M/6 yr contract, beating out the Chargers who offered 414M/6yrs.

Atts : 79 speed, 77 catch, 87 B&R Avoid, 69 route, 72 courage. default rating:63 trade meter: 156

Only two teams bid more than 60 million a year for him, what was it that caused such a high bid amount? The other 9 bids were 1/4 or less, there are always low bids hoping to get a bargain, but was surprised there were not more higher ones and how only two knew to bid basically all-out on him.

Next 3 TEs scoring most TDs last 2 seasons........

Herman Vanwyk, Ravens 12 TDs 6/6. 70 speed, 100 catch & bump, 86 courage, 73 route, 90 default rating. 1.31 pick/ 2036 (great pick in bottom of the round loan!)

William Ward, Steelers, also 12 TDs, 6/6, 82 speed, 100 catch, 83 bump, 98 courage, 83 route, 87 def rating. 1.23 pick/2037 draft (great pick Tom!)

Michael Alonzo, Vikings (now with Dolphins), 11 TDs, 6/5, 80 speed, 100 pass catch, 100 route, 60 bump, 64 courage (am surprised at both those sub 70 ratings). 71 default rating.

The one common trait among the 3 TEs above was 100 pass catch. Another common factor is that all 4 TEs mentioned were on teams that are division winners and league championship contenders. To contend for the championship, its a good idea to have a very good TE.

Vanwyk/Ravens Ward, Steelers
Alonzo/Vikings Alonzo was not resigned for 9th season, most receivers with high amount contracts are let go when they hit the 9 yr mark. Was picked up by the Dolphins on a 2 year $30 M contract. Will be interesting to see how he performs with new team.

Stats depends on team you are passing or rushing plus how you rotate your players.

Plus ability to gameplan coverage.

There are quite a few things that affect the stats and performance in an individual game. But, a season is a different animal, and includes various gameplanning, level of competition, play selection/use, coverages, QB ability, etc. I would say that TEs on PO level teams most likely will perform better than TEs with higher ratings/attributes on sub .500 teams. Now that it is mentioned, I also take into consideration the team ranking when evaluating a trade, and its potential effect on player performance. appreciate the input on this, thought it would be fun and enlightening for all who pay any attention to it. One thing for sure, the TE position has become much more of a factor than it used to be.

I'd say it's more a consequence of other factors surrounding the passing game, along with knowledgeable people passing that info on.

EDIT: And to expand on that...

We've all seen other leagues allowing GMs to do whatever to exploit the game engine, see WRs as TEs. That being stopped here means managers have had to use their knowledge of the game engine and passing game to get TE production as a higher priority than elsewhere... whilst there's new blood in the league, there are plenty of very experienced owners in this league.

Add in Seth's fantastic analysis of things, helpful posts which give back to the community knowledge base, I just see it as people using TEs better here, not skills being the driver per se.

Am going to test the key atts noted on the TEs, picking up a FA TE this sim using special set of weights.

Now, lets have a look at WR for last season. Offense has not been as productive in the most recent game version vs the "old days". QBRs are down, rare to see a starter with 100 rating or more. WR production has been significantly affected. Top 3 WRs last season, combined yards, catches, ypc, and TDs....

1, John Russell, Packers, rookie/1.4 pick, 88 default/90 my weights, 94c-1088 yds, only receiver to crack the 1000 yd mark. 98 catch, 90 ba, 86 courage, and 84 route. 91 speed. 11.6 avg per catch, 7 TDs.

2. David Regalado, Browns/Jags, 2 yr vet/3.20 pick, 81 def/76. 41c-438 yds, 10.7 ypc, 7 TDs, 2 drops(tied for 1st), 74 catch, 83/94 BA, 87/100 route, and 74 courage. 80 speed. traded to Jags at game 8 deadline last season.

3. Robert Brigham, Steelers, 6 yr vet/4.15 pick, 76def/67. 41c-661 yds, 16/1 ypc (1st among WRs with more than 30 catches), 6 TDs.


Russell Regalado Brigham

In addition to the top 3 last season, is Viking WR Hector Danos, a 1.1 pick now entering his 5th season. Scored 10 TDs in 2037 with a 19 ypc and 6 TDs in 2038. 85 def/90. 94 speed, 98 BA, 91 catch. Meeting the expectations of a 1.1 pick.



Harry Wise, Bills, 1.2 pick in 2038 draft, had an outstanding rookie season. 18 ypc/5 TDs, 92 speed (common key attribute among top WRs), 88 def/83.



Gary Goins, Ravens, 5yr vet, very consistent over past 3 seasons with 16 TDs total and 55 catches with 12 ypc avg. 2.25 pick/+8 progress.

As with TEs, context is everything.

Look at Packers pass completion %. Seth clearly understands the passing game with the game engine. He knows how to get the favourable matchups for formations, plays.

TEs are really difficult to rate. Here's a quick breakdown why.

TE have a default physical weight of 257 compared to 237 for a WLB and 207 for a SS that will cover them usually.

This limits the top speed of the TE to 85 compared to 89 or 94 respectively.

But it's not the speed that matters here even though that is what most people assume. It's the acceleration.

In a forum post, jdb described acceleration as the force that allows players to get their body weight to full speed. (I'm paraphrasing.) If he consider force as mass x acceleration and assume a constant acceleration between players we get this:

F(2) = (F(1) / m(1)) * m(2)

To compare the functional acceleration of players with different masses.

As we would logically expect, a TE will never match the functional acceleration of the lighter players. But more importantly so few of them will have acceleration that will match the average acceleration of the defender covering them. (I put this into a table I may post later.)

That means the defender will almost always reach top speed faster than a TE and thanks to the speed parabola will always be as fast or faster (all LBs can reach the 86 break point - TEs can't).

That means a TE needs to have high B&R Avoid to get to full speed and get open and high Courage because defenders will contest most catches.

Ideally then your TE needs to have these MINIMUMS to be a good TE:

Speed: 68 (the first break point on the speed parabola)
Acceleration: 75 (yes, 75 is needed to match the average acceleration force of a WLB - you'll never match the average for a safety)
Courage: 90
B&R Avoid: 90

Functional TEs that don't meet the minimum acceleration need to have 80+ speed and the courage and b&r requirements.

FWIW all players unless it was changed have a base chance of 60% to catch the ball before the catch skill, so catching becomes less important in this case than Courage.