Warrior General Games

I am not sure where to go w/ my VAs, equipment upgrades, and my AEQ. I built my DE to stuff runs b/c I was so tired of LDEs get manhandled. Problem is, the team he played for the last 2 seasons had him as the 3rd string LDE behind slightly below avg pass rusher builds -- he basically just played special teams, so I never really got a chance to see what he could do well, if anything. I have 2-3 lvl 48 EQ upgrades to add and have the ability to revamp his whole build if needed.

Below is his build and my questions for anyone willing to throw out their opinion.

Strength:100.87 (+20) Blocking:17.07
Speed:78.87 (+3) Tackling:55.87
Agility:86.87 (+9) Throwing:9
Jumping:22.07 Catching:9
Stamina:44.07 Carrying:9
Vision:61.07 Kicking:8
Confidence:33.07 Punting:8

1 1 1 1 1
0 0 0 0 0
4 - Blitz (this peice has 3 spd and 3 agility in it)

VA - 15 heavyweight, 10 bull rusher, 3 pocket crusher

http://goallineblitz.com/game/player.pl?player_id=1248387

QUESTIONS

(1) Should I take strength above 100 or should I bring agility or speed up and why, or should I lower strength to 86 or 94 and bring agility or speed up and why?

(2) Is the Blitz EQ helpful for this build? (I can do math and realize that it would be more helpful is he was not strength based, but I originally thought it might offset the lower speed/agility). If Blitz is not recommended, what should I shoot for getting?

(3) What VAs do you recomend (I can reset 15)?

(4) What should be my build goals for his future?

I really do appreciate everyone's input.

/s/ jcrewlaw

I'll try the best I can here lol

1) More strength IMO, Speed is fine and strength will help the most in the run game.
2)No, going by what Blitz says it should be awesome, but I've heard too many people who have 8-10 in blitz who's builds have done nothing. Break Block % FTW even if you get no attributes with it, it's still great. Break Thru and Shed block are two others that are very good. But Break Block is #1 imo.
3) 15 bull rusher, not sure on the other 13. My DE looks alot like yours and I run him on evasive still. So I use Technique man. But my agility is slightly higher than yours.
4) Probably just pump strength and agility for awhile. Long term tackling should be 68, vision should probably be fine forever almost. Some people say take it to 68 but if you're getting off the snap fast it doesn't matter much.

Thanks for your opinion HateMobster. Anybody else?

If anything... ANYTHING 105 STR would be primo. Youre going to get a body on the guy and slow him down if not get drug a lil and then the Tk. Next Agi to 90, Spd. to 80 then Vis. to 66-68. Can Blitz and go FS. You can get decent results from 4-5 FS if you start with good speed and itll be independent of SP use. 105-90-85-68-68

I'd start working on Containment tree SAs Wall and Diving Tackle. Also push tackling to 3rd cap, train jumping and ditch the blitz AEQ.

I'll give the contrary opinion here

It is hard to evaluate a DE's performance just by looking at stats, but let me give a go anyway. Basically, what DEs do is make tackles and sacks. So to put it simpy, if a DE is making lots of tackles and sacks, he's effective. Now, one intangible is that if we have a containment DE who doesn't get pancaked and doesn't allow gaps to open up, that's a real benefit. There's value to that, but that's hard to measure. But, a DE who can get around blockers using agility and speed has a better chance at catching the RB in the backfield and get a TFL, so that might be wash.

Still, it is hard to over rate sacks from the D-line. A D-line that can bring pressure by itself (without additional blitzers) is huge. A sack is a guaranteed loss of yards. Plus there is a chance of a forced fumble and possible change of possession. Sacks are a very good thing.

Now, as it turns out, I have a couple DE's that are about the same level as your guy. Let's look at Screwball, a high agility/speed DE (only 68 STR), and compare him to your guy:

http://goallineblitz.com/game/full_player_stats.pl?player_id=985124&playoffs=0

Looks like your guy had a pretty good S11, but other than that he doesn't get a ton of tackles. TFLs are usually in the low single digits. And except for S11, single digits for sacks. Screwball however gets reliably 30-60 tackles a season. His sacks in a single season are sometimes more than The Man's career stats. Plus lots of forced fumbles, hurries, and TFLs as well. A downside is that he might be getting pancaked out of the play more often, but he makes up for that by getting lots of TFLs.

You'd be a lot better at 90/90/90 instead of 100/80/90.

And First Step + Shed Block are still better SA's than anything in the Containment DE tree.

Not convinced Blitz SA does enough, either.