Warrior General Games

So I've purposely been neglecting speed for catching ability, and really, at this stage, the results are still going to be mixed. I know for certain that so far, he's not a TD machine. Not yet, as he's still lvl 20. I'm going to hit catching 3rd cap before hitting agility 2nd cap, and then maybe get speed up there as well. Training a mix of vision, confidence and jumping, going to overhaul jumping, though, cause I seriously neglected that.

So far, though, he's gotten 37 receptions in 8 games (just fyi, the next person on the list has 29), but averaged less than 10 yards per catch. I'm not worried, though; a lot of his catches have come on 3rd and short for the 1st down. He's reliable so far.

The true meaning comes when I get VAs and REALLY start cranking my receiving abilities. I'm going for Sure Hands and Soft Hands as my primaries. My mission is catching the ball most of the time, not going 70 yards for the score. Being a big target. The fall back option for the QB when none of the speed freaks are open. So far, it's worked some games, hasn't for others.

And just an idea as to how much speed I've neglected: our main speedster has 77 speed, 43 agility and 52 catching. I have 49 speed, 51 agility, 61 catching and equipment gives me a +14% chance to catch. He's got less catches, but more yards and TDs; I have more catches, but less yards and TDs.

Originally posted by Kryzantine
He's got less catches, but more yards and TDs; I have more catches, but less yards and TDs.

i think at this stage in both your careers he is better for the team. perhaps in a little while this will change though

Maybe it will change. I have an idea...

Despite being defeated utterly, 44-3, a game in which our speedsters never got around into, my possession receiver decides to make 7 catches for about 80 yards (leading everyone else in the game, opposition included however relevant that is), have only one pass deflected away from him and there were 2 misses (one just thrown out of bounds). He was also up against a corner 5 levels higher than him. Basically, nearly anything thrown at him will be caught for a decent gain. I'm not looking to be the #1 receiver on the team, I'm looking to be the #2 receiver. If the speedsters aren't open, I intend for my guy to be the one that's the fallback option. Decent gain for a few yards.

The one thing that I could've worked better on him is carrying. He still suffers from having to stay still a moment while securing the ball and catching in stride would make him an even deadlier target. He's starting to pull double teams, and he's not even a speedster. Pretty incredible.

There's an important intangible in this whole discussion about speedsters over possession, and that's the # of first downs picked up. Taking both speedsters and possession receivers with good builds, the # of first downs picked up should be much larger in the possession than in the speedster. Efficiency is key to good offenses, so yeah, the speedsters will get a few TDs just running to the end zone, but when it comes to the clockwork of an offense, possession is preferred. Keeps defenses on their toes.

How are his drops and PD's. I'm curious how that compares to other WR's on your team.

Originally posted by Dynames
Originally posted by McGruffHawk

How are his drops and PD's. I'm curious how that compares to other WR's on your team.



Well, I went ahead a looked:

Troy "Sticky Hands" Deacon (his guy) - 33% of targets deflected/dropped
Zoomin Onby - 44%
Ted GinnJr - 51%
James "Slice" Dyson - 50%
anão alado - 23%

Without knowing builds, its hard to draw conclusions, but his guy is targeted nearly twice as much as the next guy, and considering the state of passing right now, a 33% drop/PD rate is very good, and is significantly better than most the others on his team.

Thanks for getting this thread going. It's just what I was looking for. I'm very tempted to create a wr with catching and vision capped first. I've done this with my level 9 te and he's seeing similar results.

My Possession WR: http://goallineblitz.com/game/player.pl?player_id=51740

Struggling this season to find targets but he's eclipsed 100 receptions in 3 seasons (158 in season 6 and 140 in season 8). He isn't flashy, doesn't get a ton of yards but he moves the chains and is pretty reliable. Until the whole "knocked loose" fiasco this season he hadn't dropped a pass in 231 receptions (2 seasons).

I'm wondering if the new slider bar on QBs isn't detrimental to possession guys. Think about it: if most people are setting the QB bar to anywhere in the negatives (open man), it would stand to reason possession guys (who don't get open that often anyway) wouldn't see many targets. Where they shine is that they catch balls even while covered. But if the QB throws to the first "open man," I think they would see their targets drop rather significantly. While I'm on a different team this season this seems to be true. He only has 21 receptions after 8 games this year. After 8 games last season he was already at 88. I dunno. Anybody else think this is possible?

Originally posted by dead_poet
My Possession WR: http://goallineblitz.com/game/player.pl?player_id=51740

Struggling this season to find targets but he's eclipsed 100 receptions in 3 seasons (158 in season 6 and 140 in season 8). He isn't flashy, doesn't get a ton of yards but he moves the chains and is pretty reliable. Until the whole "knocked loose" fiasco this season he hadn't dropped a pass in 231 receptions (2 seasons).

I'm wondering if the new slider bar on QBs isn't detrimental to possession guys. Think about it: if most people are setting the QB bar to anywhere in the negatives (open man), it would stand to reason possession guys (who don't get open that often anyway) wouldn't see many targets. Where they shine is that they catch balls even while covered. But if the QB throws to the first "open man," I think they would see their targets drop rather significantly. While I'm on a different team this season this seems to be true. He only has 21 receptions after 8 games this year. After 8 games last season he was already at 88. I dunno. Anybody else think this is possible?

yeh i think its quite possible

Now this is not me saying what you're doing is wrong... far from it, I think that what you're doing is great as at least you are airing your experiments.

Now I am also building a "possession" receiver, but I would still say a possession receiver has to be fast, otherwise really you're building a possession TE.

Here's my thought on this. What you should have done first is get speed/agility to 68... then share all of your equipment for eternity between these two. Then you train catching/jumping, vision/carrying, confidence/stamina in that order. Because I would personally then aim to get catching, jumping and vision to 68 in each, and then concentrate on the possession SAs from then on for the rest of his career. You would have an agile possession receiver who would probably get good yards after catch.

I'll folllow this though as long as you update it and see how this works out for you.

Originally posted by magicalmrrich
Now this is not me saying what you're doing is wrong... far from it, I think that what you're doing is great as at least you are airing your experiments.

Now I am also building a "possession" receiver, but I would still say a possession receiver has to be fast, otherwise really you're building a possession TE.

Here's my thought on this. What you should have done first is get speed/agility to 68... then share all of your equipment for eternity between these two. Then you train catching/jumping, vision/carrying, confidence/stamina in that order. Because I would personally then aim to get catching, jumping and vision to 68 in each, and then concentrate on the possession SAs from then on for the rest of his career. You would have an agile possession receiver who would probably get good yards after catch.

I'll folllow this though as long as you update it and see how this works out for you.

I'd do this as well but not put any focus on confidence or carrying. I'd raise strength close or to the first cap and leave jumping fairly low also.

Spending that much on speed leaves my actual possession skills in question. I actually want my catching higher than my speed. By mere logic, a receiver's primary stat should be catching; maybe that's why I hate speed.

I have enough to compete at the level I'm at. That's all I want.

I simply want enough carrying so I can stop bobbling balls. Confidence actually helps my guy out pretty large, a possession receiver needs patience. If he gets beat, he can't let it get over him. The problem with magical's idea is that it's basically built like a speedster early on. It's not a speedster.

Had the first interception of a ball thrown at me last game. I'm slightly saddened, but this was not a failure of my possession ability.

http://goallineblitz.com/game/replay.pl?game_id=539095&pbp_id=12232410

My future possession player is currently a speedster for all intensive purposes.
In my opinion, that's how it's supposed to be done.

Most people probably build out their speed in the beginning anyway. I started my guy out pure possession. Didn't get speed softcapped until a few levels ago.

His stats early on weren't too bad either.

But this thread has degenerated into a "how to build a receiver" issue. I'd like to keep this so I can have updates on my experiment (which, I think is actually progressing pretty well, and it is not only informative, but helpful).

Keeping an eye on this one. I'm also building a possession focused WR.