Warrior General Games

Some will argue that speed kills. Some will argue that as a DLineman, that agility and strength are your two largest weapons. I tend to agree with the latter thought on this issue.

Speed arguments: You need speed to get off the line, and get to the QB quickly. Without it, you won't be able to get around the offensive linemen.

Agility Arguments: Speed will not get you around the linemen and to the QB, agility will. Firing off the ball? Agility. Turning the corner and taking out the QB? Agility. Sucking the OT outside, only to duck inside and plan the QB on his ass? Agility. Agility supporters will admit that speed does lend a helping hand, for if you ran a 7.2 40, there would be no way in hell you're going to get to the QB on a regular basis, but that the acceleration/agility phase of the "speed" is the highest of importance. Running the RB down from behind, or chasing that scrambling QB does require speed, but the majority of the time, the play can be stopped with agility off the line.


What's your take? As you can tell, I support high agility opposed to high speed.

Simple you need both. Without agility you won't get around that tackle. Without speed you won't get to the QB fast enough to hit the sack, and will only cause hurries.

Agility will actually mean "acceleration" next season. So obviously having high speed won't matter next season if you don't have the agility to reach the speed. So I'd say agility will matter the most now.

I lean towards agility. its a fine line. I have seen plenty of builds where speed is much higher than agility, but not by much. Agility is important when shed blocking as well as turning the corner. You cant slouch on speed though, because no matter how sweetly you can get around the edge, or shed a block, if you arent fast enough, you wont close the gap quick enough to register a sack. Remember, QB's move away from pressure, so you have to get a line, and be able to close.

So the answer is going to be a healthy dose of both

Originally posted by smallbugger
Agility will actually mean "acceleration" next season. So obviously having high speed won't matter next season if you don't have the agility to reach the speed. So I'd say agility will matter the most now.

Yeah, but if you have high acceleration and not high top speed... whats the point?

To me, this means there's more importance to balance.

Originally posted by Riggs_Inator
Originally posted by smallbugger

Agility will actually mean "acceleration" next season. So obviously having high speed won't matter next season if you don't have the agility to reach the speed. So I'd say agility will matter the most now.

Yeah, but if you have high acceleration and not high top speed... whats the point?

To me, this means there's more importance to balance.

I would agree.

Originally posted by Riggs_Inator
Originally posted by smallbugger

Agility will actually mean "acceleration" next season. So obviously having high speed won't matter next season if you don't have the agility to reach the speed. So I'd say agility will matter the most now.

Yeah, but if you have high acceleration and not high top speed... whats the point?

To me, this means there's more importance to balance.

Thats why they are changing speed, so you need a balance to do good.

Originally posted by Riggs_Inator
Originally posted by smallbugger

Agility will actually mean "acceleration" next season. So obviously having high speed won't matter next season if you don't have the agility to reach the speed. So I'd say agility will matter the most now.

Yeah, but if you have high acceleration and not high top speed... whats the point?

To me, this means there's more importance to balance.

keep in mind you arent running a 40 yard dash to get to the qb. imo acceleration would be more important to have than flat out top end speed. that being said i think the best is a mixture of both.

I used to get a lot of hurries compared to sacks before upping my speed to 40+.

My hurry to sack ratio has gone from 7:1 last season to 2.6:1 this season, more because of my agility though I'm sure (now 60+).

Definitely think agility is the bigger factor in getting sacks, and getting 75% of the teams sacks for the season proves it.

Originally posted by Tothehouse
I have seen plenty of builds where speed is much higher than agility, but not by much.


???

I feel that agility will outweigh speed. Sure, you need a solid amount of speed, because that raises the "ceiling" to your acceleration, but that the Agility:Speed ratio should be at least 1.25:1. I'm going to attempt to soft cap my agility ASAP, and go from there. Also I'm trying to max out the First Step SA, and hopefully that'll make me a beast off the line.

This shouldnt even be a discussion.

The question should be between STRENGTH or SPEED...

Agility is the most important attribute for a DE period. Then you have to figure out if your going to let that high agility be paired with super speed to try to go around defenders, or use that agility with strength to create a freight train with the agility of a ballerina to go through OLmen.

Hmm...we've seen successful builds in here recently with either Strength, Agility, or Speed as the primary attribute. It seems there isn't necessarily a "best" way to build a DE.

Originally posted by Nowbie
Hmm...we've seen successful builds in here recently with either Strength, Agility, or Speed as the primary attribute. It seems there isn't necessarily a "best" way to build a DE.

I agree. I have seen successful DEs with strength being their highest. I've seen some with speed being the highest. And I've seen some with agility being the highest. I've even seen successful DEs with all three stats being even.

Any of them can work if you build the rest of your stats to complement them accordingly.

I'm thinking about an agility/speed DE with first step.

I have a 70 speed 50 agility DE, and a 70 agility 50 speed DE. Neither one does much of anything. I am thinking of dropping all of that equipment into stregnth and turning them both into strength based DE's, at least I have seen those guys do something. But I will probably just start going heavy into the SA's and see if I can make either one work that way.