In order to prevent play spamming and position exploits, and to create more of a level playing field, there will be new rules next season. Now is the time to submit any rule that you would like to have in the league, I will be doing the same in my other two leagues that I admin.

The 43 Normal OLB Flat Zone will be banned along with the FB Dive. There will be mandatory roster requirements, no more WR at RB or TE/FB period, no more changing LB to DE, and DB at LB position in GL defense, plus any other position or play exploit that arises. Its time to have players at their actual positions whether or not it is done in the NFL. Unfortunately, MFN cannot duplicate that without it being a speed exploit and advantage versus teams/owners who do so.
Play use will be limited to a ceiling number for offense and defense, 7 -8 times max, time to get some variability back in the game. You will get a warning for excessive use, if it continues you willl be kicked. Same for roster requirements. If you have an issue with these rules, nows to the time to give your opinion, pro, con, or indifferent.

I do feel that the OLB Flat Zone play should not be banned, but simply put under the rule of the 7-8 times per game ceiling. And I am not sure which FB Dive play is the one under question, but I would probably feel the same about that one.

Thanks for posting on this andrew. The OLB Flat Zone defense has a couple of unfair advantages and is the reason that it will usually put up an average of 3 yards or less.

One of the advantages you will notice when scouting a team that has it active. Even if you have clicked on it during scouting several times before, it will show a 0 familiarity.

Another advantage is that there is no overuse penalty on it, you can use it for every defensive play in a game and you will not get an overuse penalty.

Dont know how that happened in current game version and coding, JDB is aware of it but I have not noticed a fix of any kind as yet.

The Goaline offense, FB Dive gains 2 yds over 90% of the time, making it almost a sure thing on 4th and 1, which is not the case in RL NFL. The only chance you have to stop it is by modifying your GL defense with two overides, and use the Attack 2 (which Ive found the best so far) by rule.

Another "exploit" that will be eliminated is on KO return, where you must use a RB, WR, or DB for KO returns. That will counter using a heavy TE with 100 break tackle and ball carry, and a "non-simulation" part of the game.

I use the olb a lot so I’m okay with it being banned . Time for me to learn some new plays and see how I get on . Good luck everyone

Re: the flat zone. tbh I use it a fair bit but I haven't gone to check game logs to see how often of what percentage. This is a piece of leftover Def play selection from 4.5 and all the work Setherick had done wrt def plays that would be viable against the OP'd Hitch. Since the change to 4.6 I have been so busy w RL that I really haven't changed much as I've become a casual player, log in set depth chart for injuries and a tweak here or there. So the flat zone was set from then not because of some zone selection which causes neg familiarity in 4.6. I have made rules to use the FB Dive on short yardage as it does have high percentage of success. I have been stuffed but it works more often than not so it was used so I get what you are saying. I don't have a problem with the rules that you are suggesting it will only require me spending some time to adjust the play selection. WRT to players playing OOP if I understand you are suggesting thru overrides and not taking a LB and converting him to a DL or safety where the player would gain weight and actually stay in that position. So this would prevent me from using overrides to "stack the line" with override using a heavy DT into a DE spot or same with a faster high tackle LB into the same DE spot if I wanted to try that?

Primarily, the overide situation is to prevent WR at TE, which is why you may have gotten burned by the Hard Slants play, out of the Twin WR formation, and the other teams best WR at the TE spot. There are also a couple of other plays that primarily target the TE and you can get burned by a WR in that spot.

Nothing wrong with using the overide to move OL, DL, LB/DB, etc. Personally, at this point, I'd rather see overides done away with completely as they have led to more abuse than not.

The main thought behind the new rules is to get more play selection and use for variety and interest, as opposed to the same plays getting used 10 or more times a game, which is not a RL simulation. In order to compete with that, you have to do the same, and variety will be completely done away with. If you want a game that is more of a simulation, we need to spread out the play selection. And yeah, the Seahawks used one defense primarily, but... they had a lot of variations within that defensive set. And they are they only ones I can think of that are even close, for sure not on offense.

Roster Requirements

This will be somewhat flexible but its not hard to figure out. 4 RBs, no WRs at RB1,2,or 3 in the depth chart. If I notice use of WR providing an advantage with 6 yd per carry and more than a few carries per game, will notify the owner and hopefully we dont have to put further control on it.
Anybody who understands the game knows about the speed advantage at RB and the primary reason for putting a WR there, same as at the TE spot.

You will need 3 TEs on the roster. Why? because there is a 3 TE formation, that's why. No WR or RB at the TE1, 2 or 3 spots.

For defense you will need 5 LBs, and at least 3 DTs. 2 SS and 2 FS. No CB at SS1 or 2 and FS1 or 2. Ive noticed that it may be an advantage to have more weight on the LBs by converting them to DE, so will also nix that if I see it being done. If you think that should be ok to do, now is the time to voice your opinion. One of the reasons for all this is to get our rosters looking more like the RL NFL rosters we are simulating. When your roster has a problem or infraction, I will let you know with a PM. Anything that Im missing on the roster requirement, please post or pm me.

OK just make it clear what your looking for min/max. Will mean a few roster adjustments should be an interesting season

Basically, use the same roster format as the NFL does, and put players at their primary positions. Ive seen rosters with only 2 LBs! and no safeties. That is the main goal of the roster requirements, to avoid position exploits to gain speed and/or weight. A CB at safety is faster than if the same player was a safety, a LB listed as a DE has more weight to ward off blocks, a DE listed as a LB has more speed, etc. You will get a notice from me if there are any obvious infractions, its not cut and dry and the main thing is that we are on our honor here, like golf, lol.

Guess I was a little ahead of the curve...........

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