Warrior General Games

My LB ended the season with 101 tackles to 25 missed, and that's with 50+ strength and 30+ tackling.

I'm guessing that it has to be a confidence issue?

I would say this is good advice by Rod in this thread.

I've followed the same path with my 2nd/3rd year guy and he is getting good results.

Agility is highly underrated compared to speed for blitzing LBs. There's this myth that "you need 80 speed to turn hurries into sacks!!!" but 80 speed doesn't get you anywhere without the agility to shed blocks. I see 80/60 LBs who just can't get to the QB nearly as well as 70/70 LBs. 3:2 just isn't as good as 4:3 or 1:1; you're not going to be covering deep passes. Agility really helps for the LOLB too to cover receiving tight ends that properly pump agility because it rules for getting open on short routes. In other words, be careful about selling out for speed alone.

Also, don't listen to these guys telling you not to train strength/tackling and to put points there instead. I think these should be trained early (after some stamina) and LBs should focus on capping and then double capping speed/agility/vision (maybe skip doubling vision for blitzers but it's essential to coverage.) Putting points in strength/tackling to raise them to 35 or so is a waste, you'll be training stats that have hit the 30s your third season or so. I've left strength/tackling/jumping/confidence/catching to training mostly and it's worked out great. Stamina was pretty essential to be useful after the first quarter, though. Also, jumping rules, don't neglect training it (I keep it about even with strength/tackling.) MLB builds I'm unfamiliar with but they seem just as dependent on speed/agility/vision as OLBs to be useful. Strength just doesn't seem to help much for tackles this season (it was much better for tackles last season), and collision speed seems to matter more for forced fumbles than strength.

Of course I must not know anything, level 27 roflz amirite?

Originally posted by snatch311
My LB ended the season with 101 tackles to 25 missed, and that's with 50+ strength and 30+ tackling.

I'm guessing that it has to be a confidence issue?

35 tackling is a big step up from 30, I'd work on training it. I don't think it's confidence, most LBs who don't miss many tackles seem to get away with neglecting it. This season it seems like tackling is THE stat for making tackles, and strength alone won't cut it. It just seems like the guys with 50 strength miss as many tackles as the guys with 30. It's a bit disappointing since linebackers are CLEARLY strong dudes in real football, for a reason.

Originally posted by CapnEnnui
Originally posted by snatch311

My LB ended the season with 101 tackles to 25 missed, and that's with 50+ strength and 30+ tackling.

I'm guessing that it has to be a confidence issue?

35 tackling is a big step up from 30, I'd work on training it. I don't think it's confidence, most LBs who don't miss many tackles seem to get away with neglecting it. This season it seems like tackling is THE stat for making tackles, and strength alone won't cut it. It just seems like the guys with 50 strength miss as many tackles as the guys with 30. It's a bit disappointing since linebackers are CLEARLY strong dudes in real football, for a reason.
I'm not so sure about that. My lvl 24 LB has 93 tackes, 4 missed, 46 sacks. He only has 28 tackling and he routinely faces O-line and RBs that are higher level.

Originally posted by Kayoh
So, Rod, I have a few questions that I'd like your opinion on.

1. What's more important: Agility or Vision?
2. What would a good Speed:Agility:Vision ratio be?
3. What do you think the 4th most important attribute for a LB is? Tackling? Jumping? Maybe Confidence or Stamina?
4. What would you say are the best SAs for this type of LB? Snarl?

1. Vision - This has been my personal take on season 6 changes and has benefitted the guys who I directed this way. LOLBs with 4 - 10 ints in 16 regular season games.

2. 4:3:3

3. Tackling just becasue it is my 4th highest.
4. Aura maybe but I've yet to quantify any results to justify throwing a significant skill point investment into it beyond level 5. I'm curious about Glare. . .

Originally posted by snatch311
My LB ended the season with 101 tackles to 25 missed, and that's with 50+ strength and 30+ tackling.

I'm guessing that it has to be a confidence issue?

30 strength and 50 tackling wouldn't give you those missed tackle numbers in multiple pro leagues. . . .

Originally posted by CapnEnnui
Agility is highly underrated compared to speed for blitzing LBs. There's this myth that "you need 80 speed to turn hurries into sacks!!!" but 80 speed doesn't get you anywhere without the agility to shed blocks. I see 80/60 LBs who just can't get to the QB nearly as well as 70/70 LBs. 3:2 just isn't as good as 4:3 or 1:1; you're not going to be covering deep passes. Agility really helps for the LOLB too to cover receiving tight ends that properly pump agility because it rules for getting open on short routes. In other words, be careful about selling out for speed alone.

Also, don't listen to these guys telling you not to train strength/tackling and to put points there instead. I think these should be trained early (after some stamina) and LBs should focus on capping and then double capping speed/agility/vision (maybe skip doubling vision for blitzers but it's essential to coverage.) Putting points in strength/tackling to raise them to 35 or so is a waste, you'll be training stats that have hit the 30s your third season or so. I've left strength/tackling/jumping/confidence/catching to training mostly and it's worked out great. Stamina was pretty essential to be useful after the first quarter, though. Also, jumping rules, don't neglect training it (I keep it about even with strength/tackling.) MLB builds I'm unfamiliar with but they seem just as dependent on speed/agility/vision as OLBs to be useful. Strength just doesn't seem to help much for tackles this season (it was much better for tackles last season), and collision speed seems to matter more for forced fumbles than strength.

Of course I must not know anything, level 27 roflz amirite?

I'm sure everybody appreciates you summarizing 48 threads on the linebacker forum into an abortion of a post.

Its not your level we need to bag on, some of us just wonder about what trends you have picked up on 3. . .er. . season of experience with a single linebacker in canada A. Thats maybe what its aboot

You know this thread is a shame. It started out great but 220 posts later, its filled failed attempts of one-ups resulting in hurt egos and has made this thread difficult to get some useful insight. Rod started out making a great point simply saying why are ppl taking advise from other ppl with little or no more experiance then themselves. Why take the word of a person with one LB on there client list that started the season before you did, instead of the guy who has multiple LBs in different stages and has been in GLB since season 1. Simple trial and error.

We need to rename this thread to "how to screw up a perfectly good thread"

god you're an asshole Rod Long. you know what bad advice is? telling people to put points into strength until 25. telling people to put points into tackling until 35. that's bad advice, that should be done with training, but that's advice in your OP. and excuse my opinions, i forgot only you have reign to post things. and i have a god damn opinion on blitzing LBs needing agility equal to speed, it's not an uncommon one and it certainly isn't an unsubstantiated one by people all over the game.

this thread wouldn't suck as bad if Rod Long would actually critique the content of posts and add more insight instead of calling posts abortions and calling out people's playing times as some sort of assurance of his accurate analysis. i guess i got fetus and menstrual blood everywhere with my opinion. next time i won't try to summarize what i've come to think about linebackers because i don't have fifty and they're not all level forty, cause lord knows that's just abortive stance to take and i need at least another three months before i know anything about this game. please, keep pumping strength to 25 and tackling to 35 early, gotta get those d-league tackles and waste that good training return!

most of your advice is pretty damn spot on as far as i think but GUESS WHAT? you're not the damn authority and you can be wrong too! i'm no authority and i wasn't claiming to be definitive like you but excuse me for having success and pride in my first linebacker and sharing what i've come to know. it wasn't any sort of one-up but i disagee with you in ways and said so. it's funny because i mostly agree with what you said but you took it as some personal attack for some reason that i had disagreements and had to be a little bitch instead of responding to it with substantive arguments and reasoning as though you're not some butthurt insecure douchebag waiting ready to shout "NOOB!" if you weren't such a hostile dick maybe this thread would have less garbage like this post.

thread: screwed up

WoW and LoL +1. It's just a game step away from the computer. Go outside exercise your stresses away.

Guess I took out finals week and grad school app stress on him. Oh well I stand by it all!

Originally posted by CapnEnnui/Underdogs
shameless self validative BS


I made this thread for other people. Go make your own threads and see if you get a quarter of the response. I guarantee you any thread/manifesto you come up with will have a post count totaling 25% of the number of people that PM me asking me for specific help.

I didn't think so.

I am a hostile dick to those people like yourself that play themselves off as knowledgeable by simply regurgitating forum BS. Seriously, this is to help people. If you need the validation and attention that badly, then go make your own thread.

And I may not be the godsend of LBs, but between wallysmith, Darren McFadden, myself and a few others, then who has made more of a contribution both publicly and with recognition?

It must be nice to have the economy of our posted experience layed before you to blueprint an effective and fun player before ever having played a game. We have been winning since season 2 with dominant LBs. There is no substitute for experience through the everchanging climate of 6 seasons.

I'm sorry but you just won't make a name for yourself trying to take me on, bro. My supporters and the agents of hundred+ PMs a season I respond to will gladly flick you away. You guys don't get it. This isn't about me. Its about helping new agents. I don't know why people need to pimp themselves in this thread. Its nauseating.

Back on topic

Seems the vision experiment worked for OLBs like a charm this season and to a lesser extent the MLBs because of decreased coverage opportunities.

Rod, how high vision did you test? I agree that vision cuts down the fall-back distance in some plays a lot - pretty cool to see LOLB just standing still and wait for the HB to run to a trap.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think there's been some balancing in LB vs. TE coverage too... seems like it's easier now to keep up with TEs (or might just be that some of the better faster/agile TEs have gone up in leagues).


btw, has anyone seen any LB with zero points in SAs? Could that work (most likely better for OLB than ILB, since the def.general still sounds like good stuff)?

Originally posted by velhoo
Rod, how high vision did you test? I agree that vision cuts down the fall-back distance in some plays a lot - pretty cool to see LOLB just standing still and wait for the HB to run to a trap.
I

Wait, I've been plugging about that LB drop back for 2 seasons now..your saying higher vision will cut that down?